OpenGrounds programs, places and people are catalysts for forward-looking research and curricular initiatives that will redefine the public research university for the new millennium. The fundamental changes that are taking place globally reflect an unprecedented speed of technological and social transformation. They are coupled with the explosive impact of new models of thought and tools for understanding that suggest parallels with the Renaissance in Europe and the rise of global industrialization. (continue)

The Centre for Public Involvement was proposed in 2009 as a unique partnership between the City of Edmonton and University of Alberta. It was proposed in response to a demonstrated and recognized need for decision-makers and the public to actively seek, consider and apply the most effective means for public involvement. The collaboration is designed to advance research and learning in the area of public involvement, with the objective of enhanced decision-making at all levels. The organization and governance framework established by the partnering organizations ... (continue)

The National Issues Forums Institute provides many resources for teachers.  Along with an entire section of their website dedicated to educators (including classroom material, issue guides and course descriptions), NIF has created an online forum space where educators can share experiences using NIF material. Are you looking for new ways to engage students in productive, deliberative conversations in your classroom? Are you interested in connecting with other teachers who are thinking about ways to instruct a new generation of citizens? Have you used National Issues ... (continue)

This is a video of a presentation summarizing the work of and the theory behind the Colorado State University Center for Public Deliberation. It makes the case for changing the way we talk to each other about difficult issues, and summarizes the key aspects of the deliberative democracy movement. Recorded at the Poudre River Public Library District as part of a presentation of a series of democratic conversations, this “kick-off talk” was given by Martin Carcasson, a CSU Communications Professor and Director of the Center ... (continue)

On October 12, 2012, the newly launched Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center (DDNRC) issued the National Difficult Dialogues Movement Declaration. The mission of the Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center (DDNRC) is to advance innovative practices in higher education that promote respectful, transformative dialogue on controversial topics and complex social issues, thereby reflecting a commitment to pluralism and academic freedom and strengthening a democratically engaged society. (continue)

The American Democracy Project’s Global Engagement Scholars have produced the 2nd edition of their Educating Globally Competent Citizens: A Toolkit. Edited by Steven Elliott-Gower (Georgia College), Dennis Falk (University of Minnesota Duluth) and Martin Shapiro (California State University, Fresno), this toolkit is a guide for faculty and staff who want to educate globally competent citizens using CSIS’s 7 Revolutions Framework. The toolkit is a companion guide to AASCU’s Global Challenges: Promise and Peril in the 21st Century national blended-learning course. (continue)

The term “Civil Dialogue,” as used by colleagues at Arizona State University, refers to a structured format for public dialogue. On their website, at www.civil-dialogue.com, they describe their work as “Using structured, public dialogue to build a bridge across the chasm of polarized viewpoints on hot topics, and to restore civility in public discourse.” The format was created at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University and continues to be developed by John Genette, Jennifer Linde, Clark Olson, and other scholars. (continue)

The mission of the William D. Ruckelshaus Center is to act as a neutral resource for collaborative problem solving in the State of Washington and Pacific Northwest. The Center provides expertise to improve the quality and availability of voluntary collaborative approaches for policy development and multi-party dispute resolution. The Center is a joint effort of Washington’s two research universities and was developed in response to requests from community leaders. Building on the unique strengths of the two institutions, the Center is dedicated to assisting public, private, ... (continue)

One of the National Issues Forums Institute‘s issue guides, Shaping Our Future: How Should Higher Education Help Us Create the Society We Want?, outlines this public issue and several choices or approaches to addressing the issue. National Issues Forums do not advocate a specific solution or point of view, but provide citizens the opportunity to consider a broad range of choices, weigh the pros and cons of those options, and meet with each other in a public dialogue to identify the concerns they hold in common. ... (continue)

The Civil Debate Wall—popularly known as ‘The Wall’—is a unique, innovative social media tool created by Local Projects for The Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida and funded by a grant from the Knight Foundation. The Wall creates constructive dialogue by providing a physical social media tool that connects large touch screens, a texting system, and a website. These three synchronized components create a single, seamless interactive experience for the broader University of Florida community to actively engage in local, ... (continue)