UC Educators Part of Conference Examining Globalization and the Field of Education Date: July 6, 2000 By: Dawn Fuller Phone: (513) 556-1823 Archive: General News Three University of Cincinnati faculty from UC's College of Education will be traveling the world this month to present their research and to explore the worldwide direction of education. Estela Matriano, professor of teacher education and coordinator of multicultural and international education, and Joyce Pittman, assistant professor of educational technology, will present at an international conference in Bangkok, Thailand July 10-13. The conference, Reforming Teacher Education for the New Millennium: Searching for the New Dimensions, was organized by the faculty of education at Chulalongkorn University and will explore the global impact on education as it relates to changing social, economical, political and technological issues. Matriano, who has spent more than 30 years researching and teaching about globalized education, will represent UC at a panel discussion on reforming teacher education on the global scale. "We think of globalization as an economic concept in terms of business and such," says Matriano, "But actually, it should be embedded first into education, because if we do not educate ourselves in terms of globalization, the world becomes more unequal and unjust because we do not ascribe to make ourselves educated. Globalization has an impact on everything we do. If we are not educated globally, then we can be easily strangled by those who are controlling the economy." Pittman will present her research at a panel discussion titled, "New Education for the Changing World." A national expert on educational technology, Pittman was a key member of a writing team that developed national standards to incorporate technology in the classrooms, provide adequate technology training for teachers and ensure learning success for students. The revised guidelines, endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education, were recently released by the International Society in Technology for Teacher Education (ISTE), of which Pittman is a member. Pitman will address global concerns including access to technology, quality of teachers, instruction, and assessment, and will present the ISTE guidelines as a model for building global learning communities. After Bangkok, Matriano, international executive director of the World Council for Curriculum and Instruction (WCCI), will be one of two keynote speakers at the annual convention of the WCCI, Philippines chapter, July 21-22 in Manila. Matriano will speak on the international perspective of the theme, "The Global Teacher: Making a Difference in a Culture of Peace." Piyush Swami, UC professor of science education and international president of WCCI, will focus on the role of the organization in promoting the culture of peace. The WCCI is a nongovernmental educational organization of the United Nations that is committed to the advancement and promotion of a peaceful global community through human rights and social education.