| This web site has been created as a
"digital learning object" for both learning leaders as well as
independent learners. The focus is diversity and religion in
the area of North Africa known alternately as the Maghreb. It
uses materials developed in the course of participation in a
professional development seminar for post-secondary academic leaders
during the summer of 2011; the time period of the "Arab Spring" and
"Jasmine Revolution" when the citizens of predominantly Islamic
countries around the perimeter of the Mediterranean Sea are calling
upon their respective leaders for fundamental governmental and
social change that is perhaps more democratic in nature than current or
previous leadership of those countries. At the same time a
resurgence of conservative Islamist leaders want to participate
fully in the process of change.
It should also be noted that this is a
period of great economic and ideological instability across the
globe. It is the author's wish that productive
diversity-oriented
dialogue can be generated through the use of
this web site in the face of the post 9-11 era, especially here in
the New York City and across the United States.
Our own national "Occupy Wall Street" debate is dangerously
sprouting concomitant themes that have begun to challenge the
national sense of a "full diversity" idealistically, economically
and socially.
This digital learning object should be
thought of a "point of departure," that can assist learners from
across disciplines to explore the diversity of three particular
concepts: culture as influenced by religion, various
religions within the prescribed region, and the array of
forms that Islam is expressed by Muslims of the region and
around the world.
The three concepts listed above provide the
organization of this web site. For each area, quotes
from the author's travel diary and notes are included. A short
overview of the seminar experiences and current events
underscore why the topic was developed. Listings of
resources are also presented and can be used by learners for further exploration.
Concepts in all three areas should be
exploited in the learning endeavors readers will pursue!
The key concepts word lists in all three
sections should be exploited in combinations in search engines for
library collections, (i.e. online catalogs) and in the advanced
modes of search engines such as Google or Bing. Further, when
a title from the bibliography is pulled up in an online library
catalog, a look at the full record will display its Library of Congress subject headings.
Those subject headings (usually hyper-linked in online catalogs),
can lead to other related materials that can be useful to the
learner and learning leader.
In the "Materials" section of the web
site a comprehensive resource list, a table of personal notes from
the seminar, an informational presentation about the seminar and some
images/multimedia are provided as additional tools that can be
exploited when exploring diversity and religion in the Maghreb.*
Learning leaders can have the learner
explore this site and the tools in it and have them develop "scaffolded"
projects on one of the many focused topics found here-in.
Learners can develop evidence of their new knowledge similar to the
objects presented. PowerPoint presentations, annotated
bibliographies, web pages, blogs, word clouds, as well as essays can
all be great ways to express the new ideas that the learner has
developed and incorporated into her/his own knowledge base.
The author is sincerely grateful to the
Chief Librarian, Dr. Shaddy and Provost Stellar at Queens College,
CUNY for supporting this professional development opportunity.
Thanks also go the administrators of the Fulbright-Hays Seminars
Abroad program and to the leaders/originators of the Maghreb 2011
seminar, James Miller from Fulbright Morocco and Paul Love, from the
University of Michigan.
Prof. Michael J. Miller, Associate Librarian
for Public Services
Rosenthal Library at Queens College, CUNY New York, NY
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/~mmiller/
*This is the official
disclaimer. All of the materials or citations that
were selected for inclusion in this digital case study were
discovered during the course of participation in the seminar and/or
during the development of this site. Their inclusion does
not constitute an endorsement from any of the Fulbright entities,
Queens College, CUNY, or Prof. Miller. Rather Prof. Miller
thought they would be interesting resources to which any learner
could respond critically during the course of study.
November 2011
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