Edutopia Webinar: "The Power of One"Greg Mortenson's Mission to Promote Peace through Project Learning
Editor's Note, 4/18/11: According to numerous press reports, including CBS's "60 Minutes" broadcast on Sunday April 17th, there are many inaccuracies in Greg Mortenson's books "Three Cups of Tea" and "Stones Into Schools." Edutopia is following these reports closely and will provide clarifications for our audience as soon as we know more.
Meanwhile, we suggest that readers proceed with caution before involving students in the Pennies for Peace program described in the webinar. Pennies for Peace is a project of the nonprofit Central Asia Institute, founded by Mortenson. "60 Minutes" has raised questions about CAI's financial accountability.
Presenter: Greg Mortenson, best-selling author of Three Cups of Tea
Time: April 15, 2010, at 1:30 p.m. EDT/10:30 a.m. PDT
Host: Suzie Boss, journalist and Edutopia.org blogger
Target audience: Ideal for K-12 educators and students interested in building global awareness through service learning. Excellent for school assemblies and classroom participation.
Can one person really make a difference in the world? Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, describes his own unlikely path from mountaineer to humanitarian. His best-selling story has inspired thousands of students to contribute to school-building efforts in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan through a service-learning program called Pennies for Peace. Supported by a multimedia, standards-based curriculum for grades K-12, Pennies for Peace culminates with student-driven projects that develop leadership skills and build cross-cultural understanding. Mortenson explains how the program works, how teachers can get involved, and why students benefit from authentic opportunities to make their own difference in the world.
Webinar Resources
- View the archive: You can now view the complete archive of the webinar. You can also download it to your iPod/iPhone through iTunesU.
- Download the PowerPoint presentation: Print the webinar PowerPoint presentation out for reference after the event.
- Join the discussion: Ask a question you'd like us to address during the webinar, make a comment, or network with like-minded educators on this subject. Webinar host Suzie Boss and other Edutopia staff will check back often, too, so please continue the lively discussion at our new Project Learning group.
- Watch a playlist on YouTube: We've handpicked the best videos we've produced on service learning for you to peruse.
- Find links to more information about the webinar topic below.
About the Presenter
Greg Mortenson
Greg Mortenson is the co-founder of nonprofit Central Asia Institute, founder of Pennies For Peace, co-author of the #1 New York Times best-seller Three Cups of Tea, and author of best-seller Stones into Schools.
In 2009, Mortenson received Pakistan’s highest civil award, Sitara-e-Pakistan (“Star of Pakistan”) for his dedicated and humanitarian effort to promote education and literacy in rural areas for fifteen years. Several bi-partisan U.S. Congressional representatives nominated Mortenson for the Nobel Peace Prize in both 2008 and 2009. The award recipient is chosen by a secret process and announced in October the following year. Read more.
About the Host
Suzie Boss
Suzie Boss writes about the power of teaching and learning to improve lives and transform communities. Coauthor of Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age, she is on the National Faculty of the Buck Institute for Education. A PBL advocate and consultant, she has presented at national conferences and other events for educators. She has also helped nonprofit organizations design programs that teach both youth and adults how to improve their communities with innovative, sustainable solutions.
Support for this Edutopia webinar is provided, in part, by Viking and Penguin Books, Members of Penguin Group (USA).
Comments (14)
Comment RSSSign in or register to post comments
Learning about charges questioning Greg's credibility
Edutopia published the following comment on the archive page for the webinar "The power of one".
_____
"Editor's Note, 4/18/11: According to numerous press reports, including CBS's "60 Minutes" broadcast on Sunday April 17th, there are many inaccuracies in Greg Mortenson's books "Three Cups of Tea" and "Stones Into Schools." Edutopia is following these reports closely and will provide clarifications for our audience as soon as we know more."
"Meanwhile, we suggest that readers proceed with caution before involving students in the Pennies for Peace program described on this page. Pennies for Peace is a project of the nonprofit Central Asia Institute, founded by Mortenson. "60 Minutes" has raised questions about CAI's financial accountability."
_____
Me again.
You can read the charges and bases of the concerns expressed about Greg Mortenson's credibility. The quick version is the 60 Minutes report, which you can view on their website. The longer and more dispassionate expose is written by Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air and other investigations and contributor to the Central Asia Institute. Titled "Three Cups of Deceit", you can download it at www dot byliner dot com.
I just finished reading it and I feel deeply troubled by the charges - which seem to me to be irrefutable. It would appear that, in spite of all that Greg has done for thousands of children in Pakistan and Afghanistan, he has betrayed many of his friends and colleagues, enriched himself at the expense of the thousands of children and adults who have donated to the Central Asia Institute, and broken just about every rule of ethics, integrity, transparency and accountability that we (and the law) expect from nonprofit tax exempt organizations and their officers, possibly staining the credibility of other humanitarian efforts. Worst of all, he appears to have betrayed many of his beneficiaries. From my perspective as a lifelong participant in and leader of nonprofit efforts that is the one unforgivable crime.
For a person dedicated to humanitarian work it is difficult to deal with betrayal by the charismatic leaders who often inspire that work. But the work must go on. The Central Asia Institute needs to rescue the good work it has done. To do that it must shed the questionable practices that have brought it to this pass. I hope it is successful in doing this, so the children who worked so hard for Pennies for Peace and other programs can overcome any feelings of personal betrayal they may have, and grow up to continue their support for critical humanitarian enterprises.
Kids loved it!
My 6th grade students watched their first webinar today. They were in awe of Greg Mortenson. Can't wait to show the rest of my students.
Kids loved it!
The webinar was great. My 6th grade students were in awe of Greg Mortenson. Plan to show the rest of my students the webinar when it is archived.
Webinar re-broadcast for those that could not get in
Hi Everyone,
We do apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused you. As you can tell, there was a HUGE interest in this webinar and as time approached 10:30 am PT/1:30 pm PT, it quickly reached capacity.
We did try not to market it once registration reached capacity but it went very viral.
We are, however, planning on re-broadcasting the event and will reach out to all registrants with details and soon as we finalize them. We will also send out the video archive of the webinar early next week to all attendees so you can view it at your leisure.
We're currently searching for a system that can handle more attendees and really do appreciate your patience.
Thanks for your support,
Elana
PS: I just posted the PowerPoint presentation on our webinar resource page: http://www.edutopia.org/webinar-april.
Could not get in
I could not get in to the Webinar even though I registered.
Frustrating
I am glad to know that I am not the only person who registered but could not get into the session. I am very frustrated that more people were able to register than available space. I had over 100 students sitting and waiting. They were very disappointed.
Just found out from tech
Just found out from tech support that their webinar software can only manage 1,000 log ins, and well more than that were allowed to register. Oh well. At least we'll have the archived version.
I pre-registered for the webinar, but can't get in now because it's "full"? Very disappointing. I'm glad that it will be archived.
I'm very disappointed that I could not get into the 'full' webinar. So I'm glad it's being recorded.
Thanks for archiving-
So disappointed that webinar is full. I'll be looking for the email when the archive is available.! Thank you.