This class is based on a computer-mediated simulation that engages middle school and high school students in exploring the Arab-Israeli Conflict through participating in it themselves. Students in high schools in Michigan, elsewhere in the US, and even outside the U.S. could be interacting with one another, and with you, over the course of the term. University student "mentors" (that's you) facilitate this diplomatic simulation (in which we create a scenario that becomes the "reality" of our world) and serve as gatekeepers, pushing the students to act in ways that are in keeping with the beliefs/constraints that the person they are portraying would hold and operate under. There is a complex structure in place for them to communicate with others, to issue press releases and otherwise express their interests and trade influence, and finally to introduce possible new actions into the simulated world. All of this is done with the support and with the assistance of the mentors. Fundamentally, the exercise is an attempt to give students a tangible window into the diplomatic process, with it's slow, thorny inner-workings. This course, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (AIC) simulation itself, are based on the idea that the most meaningful learning often happens when one is actively engaged in a purposeful activity. By participating in AIC as a mentor, we hope that you will get a chance to think deeply about (among other things) how people learn to take diverse perspectives, what it takes to foster thoughtful discourse, and the nature of diplomacy itself.

AIC is also a project in the School of Education, and part of its purpose is to develop new ways that technology can support meaningful learning experiences with high school students. Within the context of the seminar, then, we start with a basic grounding in the history of the conflict, and then move on to figuring out how to let that grounding inform your ongoing efforts to both support and challenge the student participants.