ISP Also Means "Internet Service Provider"

International Studies and Programs has been energetically expanding its Internet efforts during recent years. A visit to the home page at http://www.isp.msu.edu (http://www.isp.msu.edu) provides general information about international programs as well as links to the various offices and centers affiliated with ISP. Visitors will find a calendar of MSU international events, a virtual gallery showcasing photos from MSU Global Focus, and online versions of publications, including this news magazine.

On February 13, 2001, two exciting Web-based products were launched. Their public release was timed to coincide with President Peter McPherson's annual State of the University address, in which they were featured. One Web site is a curricular product primarily designed to help middle school teachers integrate content about Africa into their classes. The other is a general Web site intended to bring a broad range of international resources to the people of Michigan and beyond.

Exploring Africa

Exploring Africa is a new interactive Web-based curriculum resource designed to provide educators, students, and the general public with high quality comprehensive learning materials from and about Africa. The core component of the site is a curriculum package containing stand-alone lesson modules oriented to middle school (grades six through eight) students and educators. Developed with national and state curriculum standards in mind, the lessons are tailored for the social studies classroom but contain extensive humanities content as well. Versions for other grade levels are being planned for the future.

In addition to actual lesson plans and related background information on Africa for teachers and students, Exploring Africa includes features such as an image bank of downloadable photos, maps, and artworks of Africa; general overview information on ten representative African countries; African current events presentations with links to African news sources; a framework for U.S. classrooms to link electronically with African counterparts; and a forum for educators to discuss best practices for teaching Africa in the K-12 classroom.

Exploring Africa is being developed by the MSU African Studies Center in collaboration with the College of Education and the Office of International Studies and Programs. Technical support is provided by matrix: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online, housed in the College of Arts and Letters. It is affiliated with both the MSU Global Access initiative and the collaborative MSU/University of Michigan World Reach project.

Exploring Africa can be accessed through the ISP home page or directly at http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu (http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu).

MSU Global Access

Wondering about Michigan sister city relationships around the world? Need to know about health conditions or currency exchange rates before traveling abroad? Researching a current event in another country? The MSU Global Access Web site is a Web portal to the global community for the citizens of Michigan designed to enable them to live, work, cooperate, and compete successfully in the 21st century. It offers a rich range of resources from Michigan's many government, private, and university communities, and from the wider world. The launching of MSU Global Access followed more than a year of intensive development.

Refinement and expansion of the MSU Global Access Web site will be ongoing, but its release marks the end of the first phase, which has involved participants from across the MSU campus. Central to the success of the Web site are the international expertise and activities of MSU's faculty, area study centers, and international thematic institutes. In addition to offering an increasingly comprehensive guide to the international activities and involvements around the state of Michigan and an expanding set of links to information about the world we live in, the site will also guide the user to internationally oriented resources at MSU.

The design of the Web site allows for exploration of MSU Global Access's content and links in four basic ways: Geopolitical Regions is designed for users exploring a particular region, country, or territory of the world; Thematic Area is for users interested in a particular topic, such as the environment, health, or human rights; Constituency Group is primarily for users in a particular occupation, such as business or education; and Resource Type is for users seeking a specific type of product, such as news sources, maps, or courses. The thousands of annotated links in the site database can be searched through the above parameters, or combinations thereof, as well as through a keyword search process.

The MSU Global Access Web site is being developed under the auspices of the Office of International Studies and Programs (ISP), with initial technical support provided by matrix. The URL for MSU Global Access is http://www.msuglobalaccess.net (http://www.msuglobalaccess.net).