Sharing Perspectives Foundation
'Not-for-profit
Amsterdam, Netherlands
www.sharingperspectivesfoundation.com
- Graduate students
- Undergraduate students
- Young people outside education
- Adults
All regions
2012
- A unique, facilitated VE program
- Professional development for instructors
- Support for Research
- General consulting
- Conferences, workshops and webinars
- English
- Dutch
- Arabic
The Sharing Perspectives Foundation is a not-for-profit offering contemporary online learning experiences for people to interact across divides, whether national, cultural, social, or political. We offer contemporary online learning experiences allowing people to interact constructively across differences and divides. We use Virtual Exchange as an inclusive pedagogical approach offering people a meaningful international and cross-cultural experience. We believe that all people should have equal opportunities to develop the 21st Century skills students and employees need to thrive in today’s diverse, connected, and online world.
The virtual exchanges and trainings are the core of what we do. Through these activities young people learn and develop the skills they need to be successful in today’s digitalised and globalised environment. We consult other businesses, NGOs or educational institutions in the online engagement they offer or use online. Through this, we do research, develop trainings or provide facilitators for online engagement processes. We drive praxis and build community in the field of online international and intercultural learning and engagement. We are curious; we develop research and publish or present best practice and innovative ways for online engagement.
These are the services we provide to the field:
- We provide 'ready made' virtual exchange programmes to Higher Education Institutions. To date, we integrated our programmes in over 80 different institutions around the world. .
- We train educators in designing their own Virtual Exchange programmes. Among current / past clients are universities and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
- We offer consultation to organisations and businesses interested in deploying interactive online activities. Among past clients is the UNDP.
Unique VE programs our organization has developed
Over the years, we have refined our model for virtual exchange. The model is based on three pillars:
Facilitate effective & constructive online dialogue
“The best part was to talk with people who disagreed with me. It was also very interesting to be open to other perspectives.”
Offer engaging & accessible expert content online
“The video lectures helps a lot in facilitating discussion as it guides the discourse throughout the session.”
Design interactive & collaborative online assignments
“In the end, some of the participants expressed that it felt motivating to be able to work together as a group to face problems in society.”
Current initiatives
Climate Movements: In this Virtual Exchange participants from different countries and cultural backgrounds come together weekly in their groups to learn with, and from, each other. Stimulated by curated audio-visual materials, participants discuss the themes of the course and engage in interactive assignments. The conversation about climate is about movement. Activists demand movement from policymakers. Unprecedented global youth movements emerge and shift public discourse. More extreme climatic events displace people from their livelihoods. Still, beliefs and behaviours about climate are unmoving. Explore the key debates around climate through a curated audio-visual lecture series, providing materials from experts, journalists and practitioners.