News

October 22, 2014

On the trail of the Danube monarchy – Conference and simulation game in Vienna and Budapest

A rather fitting travel route: Following the Danube from Vienna to Budapest to facilitate the simulation game “Re-negotiating peace” about the peace negotiations at the end of the First World War. In Vienna, we presented the simulation game as part of the conference “1914-2014: Lessons from History? Citizenship Education and Conflict Management”, organised by the network “Networking European Citizenship Education” (NECE). The following two days, this simulation game was then played by students at the Central European University in Budapest in Budapest . Here is a link to a documentary about the first time the game was played in spring 2014.

October 16, 2014

We are Erasmus+!

On the 15^th of October, the wait was finally over: after a number of formalities, we can officially take part in an EU-funded Strategic Partnership in school education (formerly COMENIUS). Under the title “Improving Teaching Methods for Europe“ (ImTeaM4EU) we will be working with eleven partner organisations from five countries for the next three years. During this time, teaching modules on European topics will be developed, tested and adapted for teacher training. The first project meeting will take place in Maribor, Slovenia – the 33^rd country in the history of planpolitik.

October 15, 2014

That certain something: amazing illustrations for our website

n the last couple of weeks and months we learnt that it is not so easy to design a website that looks professional and still has its certain unique touch. One day we had the idea to get illustrations for parts of the website. And that is when Sebastian Lörscher came into the picture: after a briefing session he came up with the perfect illustrations for our formats, topics and modes. We think: great work and amazing illustrations, and we hope that you like them as well!

October 12, 2014

The classic – Seminar at the American University of Paris

Like every year in mid-October, we taught the module „Conflict Management and Negotiation“ at the American University of Paris. However, due to too many trips during this busy autumn, only one of us was teaching there this year. This made it somewhat more demanding, and somehow something was missing…Next year, we’ll both be back!

October 1, 2014

A second visit to Vietnam for a training seminar on interactive methods

For the second time this year, we travelled to Vietnam at the invitation of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung at the end of September – this time to beautiful Sapa in the North of the country. Just like back in February, the goal was to afford the participants an insight into the use of interactive methods when addressing the topic of climate change as well as its causes and effects. Experiments on the greenhouse effect were part of the seminar, as were simulation game exercises on the question of who is responsible for climate change, and short introductory games such as determining each participant’s carbon footprint. The language posed a particular challenge – while all participants were able to understand English, not all dared speak it. This meant a lot of exercises took place in Vietnamese, a beautifully sounding, melodious language. The first events to use the methods are already in planning. We look forward to the participants’ reactions.