Weblog Journal Assignment 4 - Living Jerusalem Project Overview

At least in my opinion, the Project succeeds in establishing, among (potentially previously uninformed students), a strong objective and historically/culturally orientated understanding of Jerusalem and the region's problems. This method erases the black/white boundaries that this subject is often constrained by. This success makes the Project quite valuable. Thus, I feel that the Project's greatest challenge is increasing visibility, both on campus and in sheer numbers/availability, as well. The Project is still in a relative "infant" phase; however, it would be extremely beneficial if the scale was increased. The Project is very "personalized", so understandably finding additional instructor(s) may be difficult. However, I believe that the Project is most restrained by its relative lack of visibility. Even within an institution's campus, there are numerous student organizations that would be related in aspects of the Project's mission. I may/probably am wrong, but I just do not see any sort of expansion outside of the classroom. The move to IU represents an expansion; however, it is, to a degree, more of the same with regards to operations. Of course, there are behind the scenes factors that we are not privy to, so practically probably is a large factor in the Project's current iteration.

A potential solution is to further the Project's virtual presence potential. Due to negligible differences in timezones, multiple locations within the United States could simultaneously participate in a single class. Of course, there are a myriad of issues associated with a "virtual professor"; however, I feel that the class' format would allow for a multi-location single class, compared to "traditional" classes. On a related note, the class experience (and thus the project) would benefit greatly from more integration with peers from different institutions. The Project is already structured around the strong and forward looking notion of virtual engagement; I do not see why this ideal should not be furthered. Instantaneous digital cooperation represents the future for academic work; this Project already represents a substantial movement towards that direction.

Update: I was very impressed by the Project's recent workshop at IU. The discussions were enlightening and stimulating, as expected. The workshop's true success is connected to the increased visibility that the workshop provided the Project. This public forum allows a wide array of individuals, representing multiple disciplines and interests to benefit from the Project's collective knowledge. The workshop provides an excellent template for future expansion. Perhaps in the future, notions of a "virtual workshop" or decentralized workshop can come to fruition, thus further increasing visibility and availability.