AII/Myer Foundation/AusAID BRIDGE Program
AII/Myer Foundation/AusAID BRIDGE Program (Building Relations through Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement) is currently the AII’s largest program. This three-year program from 2008 is funded with the Myer Foundation & AusAID, and managed by the AII in conjunction with the Asia Education Foundation. It is an innovative education program which funds visits by Indonesian teachers to Australian schools and supports development of school e-twinning and an online collaborative curriculum strategy between Australian and Indonesian schools.
Australia-Indonesia BRIDGE (Building Relationships through Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement) Project
Project Overview
The BRIDGE project is an initiative of the Australia-Indonesia Institute (AII) and the Asia Education Foundation. The project will occur over three years (from 2008-2010) and involve 92 Australian and 92 Indonesian educators (184 in total) from 41 Australian and 41 Indonesian schools (82 in total). The AII has received funds from The Myer Foundation and AusAID to support the BRIDGE Project.
Program aims
- Increase Indonesian teachers’ and students’ knowledge and understanding of contemporary Australia.
- Increase Australian teachers’ and students’ knowledge and understanding of Indonesia, particularly the role of Islam in contemporary Indonesian society.
- Support linkages between school communities in Australia and Indonesia.
- Support foreign language acquisition in Indonesian and Australian schools.
- Support a small cohort of BEP (Basic Education Program) schools to acquire Internet technologies and undertake basic training related to their usage.
Major activities
- A [3-week] visiting Indonesian teachers program: providing opportunities for teachers from Indonesia to spend time in Australian schools, to build their capacity and skills as teachers and to foster school-to-school and personal relationships.
- Development and provision of online resources and training to support sustainable school partnerships: to support Australian and Indonesian teachers to participate in longer term engagement.
- Grants to support the implementation of school partnerships: for fostering ongoing links between Australian and Indonesian school communities.
- Mentoring relationships established between participating non-BEP Indonesian schools and their BEP counterparts: assist BEP schools to use technologies in schools and forge relationships with Australian schools.
- Support for participating Indonesian BEP schools: to join the program in Australia.
- Provision of computer hardware (where appropriate) and related support for participating Indonesian BEP schools.
- Monitoring, evaluation and reporting of project outcomes.
More information
For further information, visit http://www.bridge.edu.au or email the Project Manager, Australia-Indonesia BRIDGE Project at the Asia Education Foundation on bridge@asialink.unimelb.edu.au