| International Linkages and Knowledge Sharing: telehealth, microfinance, and the environment |
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The Nepal Study Center is in an exploratory contact with academic institutions in Nepal to initiate links to promote ideas such as: 1) starting a high quality graduate program in Economics and Public Policy, 2) undertaking educational/research ideas such as the Bagmati River Ecological Monitoring Project (joint collaboration with Nepal Study Center/UNM and the Bosque River Monitoring project), 3) class-room collaboration (
Designing Liberal Democracy), 4) promoting
microfinance, and 5) promoting telehealth and community health. A well-endowed NSC can be very effective in promoting knowledge transfer, research, and educational training.
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| Bagmati Ecosystem Monitoring Project |
River Monitoring Project:
Audio Discussion on "Community of Learners of Science Teachers" project, October, 2007, College of Education, University of New Mexico
A group
audio discussion of the project: Community of learners of science teachers and Bosque River Monitoring Project.
http://nmce.unm.edu/nepal.html (Important note: After various background discussion by Professor Alok K. Bohara, Professor Lani Gunawardena, Professor Linda C Schaffer, Dr. Carol Richmond, and other participants, somewhere halfway through, you will hear an important presentation by Christin L. LeJeune about the Bosque Monitoring Project, science of it, and various monitoring parameters.
Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Project (BEMP, UNM) site visit Video, November 19, 2007:
Prepared by Nepal Study Center, UNM
A team of scholars affiliated with the NSC visited the Bosque monitoring site on November 19, 2007 to learn about the New Mexico's ecological monitoring program (UNM/BEMP:
Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Project). At its initial phase, a collaborative attempt is being made to implement it on the Bagmati River, Nepal as a part of the long-term project. Eventually, we hope to bring on board other river systesm and schools. (Please send your inquiries about this Bagmati Ecosystem Monitoring Project (BEMP-Nepal) to nsc@unm.edu and/or bohara@unm.edu)
The Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (BEMP) is a collaborative project between the University of New Mexico (UNM), Bosque School, and some public schools in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was initiated by Professor Clifford Crawford ten years ago under the initial funding from the National Science Foundation. Students from several participating schools regularly collect the Bosque riparian related data from various monitoring sites along the 40-50 miles stretch of the Rio Grande River as a part of their school’s environmental curriculum. The UNM's BEMP research scientists collect, analyze, and publish these data in a bulletin form on a regular basis. Many agencies use the long-term ecological data for various environmental policy analysis purposes. For details please visit the BEMP site: BEMP/UNM.
Bagmati River Stretch, Kathmandu
Preliminary discussion stage
Using information technologies such as the Web and videoconferencing, we propose to link the communities of Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA with Kathmandu, Nepal and Quito, Ecuador where there is mutual interest in collaboration related to the rivers in their area; the Rio Grande in New Mexico, the River Bagmati (for example) in Nepal, and the Rio Napo in Ecuador. The linkages would include the public and independent schools in each area, along with interested universities. This would represent an expanded model of the UNM BEMP program between UNM, Bosque School and Albuquerque Public Schools. Students (primarily middle school, high school, along with some undergraduate and graduate) would develop projects along with teachers and faculty to address specific environment and health issues affecting their regions and associated rivers (or forest, streams, and ecological surrounding) and use the information technologies to share experiences and develop projects. The UNM BEMP program will share its experience, program outlines, methods and curriculum with the Nepali partners through a MOU. As a part of their curriculum, students of the private and public schools in Nepal collect environmental data using various monitoring devices. Such data are monitored by a local university partner for storage, analysis, and publication. These data will then be mutually shared with the UNM partners for comparative tracking, analysis and joint publication. This project could also be conceived within an integrative scheme known as Smart Villages.
For expanded version of the proposal, please download the following pdf file: Creating a Virtual International Environmental Research Institute: Developing Communities of Learners to Sustain Healthy Rivers
Project team
Dr. Dale Alverson
Director, Center for Telehealth
Medical School
University of New Mexico
Dr. Alok K. Bohara
Professor
Nepal Study Center
Department of Economics
UNM
Dan Shaw
Bosque Preparatory School
Professor Paul Nathanson
Law School
UNM
Mr. Randall Biggers
US Government (ret.)
Dr. Gonzalo Cartagenova
Quito, Ecuador.
Dr. Ricardo Hidalgo
Quito, Ecuador
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Designing Liberal Democracy:
An Internet-based Classroom Exercise Involving US and Nepali Students |
An Overview
With recent U.S. involvement in non-democratic nations around the world and the apparent U.S. foreign policy doctrine of “spreading democracy,” the general concept of “liberal democracy” has become a timely topic in the discourse of today’s foreign policymaking and the social science disciplines that seek to understand and explain it. Accordingly, this cross-country collaborative exercise involving classrooms from US and Nepal will explore the central ideas and issues of the overarching concept that social scientists and policymakers now generally term liberal democracy.
(To reade more: Desiging Liberal Democracy)
If you have any question, please contact the Center.
Jeff Drope, PhD., U. of Miami, Florida
Alok K. Bohara, PhD., U. of New Mexico
Mark Peceny, PhD, U. of New Mexico
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| Nangi Village Cluster Collaboration |
(Discussion Phase) Nangi school and its mentor Mr. Mahabir Pun in the western Nepal near Pokhara, a tourist hub popular for Annapurna trekking circuit, have created a network of several villages using the wireless Wi-Fi technology. Surrounded by beautiful forests, valleys, and mountains, these clusters of villages have provided us with an opportunity to initiate collborative programs like:
• telehealth,
• environmental data collection and research,
• telemicrofinancing, and
• internships and field research
Please check back with us for further developments and opportunities. (Preliminary discussion stage and link.)
