The

IDEAVillage
Project
International Distance
Educators Association Village
Ugur Demiray
Professor
Anadolu University

ISBN-13: 978-1541306134
ISBN-10: 1541306139
Copyright 2016 by Ugur Demiray

The IDEAVillage was conceived by Ugur Demiray.

Images in this book are used to highlight the
opportunities for cooperation.
Copyrights to the images are retained by their creators. The
use of these images are solely for educational purposes. This
is a non-profit effort to promote cooperation between
distance educators.

You are invited to share this ebook, which can be

found at TINYURL.com/IDEAVillage
(with color photos)

Cross the bridge and lets

start brainstorming together

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IDEAVillage Project
International Distance Educators Association
Village
IDEAVillage is an ambitious and unique creative
and educational project that aims to bring together
face-to-face distance educators who are at any
level from all corners of the world.
Informal Interactions
These educators, who teach locally, regionally and
internationally, will create an intellectual village,
allowing them to better understand each other
through close, informal interactions.
Members of the Village
These DE experts will gather to celebrate holidays,
to spend a few days or weeks interacting with the
local flora and fauna
and to share their
experiences.
As
members
of
the
village,
these
educators
will
develop friendships,
foster international
cooperation
with
similar projects, and
exchange and compare their varied experiences as
lecturers, tutors and administrators.
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Cooperate on Projects
The informal space for living and working together
will help the educators cooperate to create and
participate in workshops, round table forums, and
conferences. A congress can be conducted in the
village, inviting influential international investors
and graduate students to attend. The villages
relative isolation will help educators plan national
and international exhibitions, conferences and
fairs.

A cafe at Kozlu Bahe, an ecotourism center near

Eskisehir with wifi service

Face-to-face discussions
Communication via Skype, social media and email
can take place before educators arrive in the
Village. Online discussion groups can lay the
groundwork for educational partnerships. "The
international village is intended to bring people
together, says Ugur Demiray, founder of
IDEAVillage, face-to-face in a welcoming and
comfortable environment that is conducive to
making connections.
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Support by local staff

The village will offer an information desk staffed
24 hours a day by Conferences and Institutes staff
members, meeting rooms, music and other
entertainment, dining halls and a snack bar,
computer lab, Bookstore, travel services, shopping
information, banking services and message
centers.

An ecotourism center near Eskisehir called Kozlu

Bahe offers spaces for brainstorming

Online Villagers
The convenience of Google Hangouts makes it
possible for Village members to invite additional
educators via Internet to participate in projects.
The IDEAVillage project will be an innovative way
to develop robust programs using distance
education. We invite institutes and universities to
consider hosting an IDEAVillage on their
campuses.
This will spread the concept of
IDEAVillage branches around Turkey, throughout
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Eastern Europe, West Asia and North Africa, and

eventually world wide.
The project will be realized by the Eskisehir City
Hall

An IDEAVillage retreat is possible in a place like

Kozlu Bahe where the outside world can be put
on hold and where participants can stay in touch
via wifi. instagram.com/kozlubahce

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Located 15 km from Eskisehir, Kozlu Bahe has

facilities to keep families busy while conference
participants can focus on moving beyond
brainstorming. Books like this one can be produced
with colleagues in one session.

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Who are Village Members?

Village Members are participants who make time
to attend sessions and live in the IDEAVillage.
Absent Village Members is a title given to anyone
who cannot be present in the village. The purpose
of the Village is to promote discussion. By inviting
others to attend via Internet, the Village remains
connected to the wider society. Asynchronous
participation can happen through email and posts
on social media. Real-time participation is
possible by Skype calls and Google Hangouts,
thanks to robust wifi in the IDEAVillage. Laptops,
tablets and smartphones brought by Village
Members can contribute to the connectivity of
Absent Village Members.

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The Inhale - Exhale Cycle of Creativity

Often creators work days and weeks on projects in
isolation. An idea comes to an innovator, who
then shapes the idea and connects the idea to the
chain of work
This process of inhaling and exhaling can be
accelerated by using the IDEAVillage in the
creation or the analysis of a book or paper.
Collaborators can come together to exchange
face-to-face observations, often speeding up the
process of organizing evidence to support the

A pond of fish at the ecotourism center near Eskisehir

INHALE
Create a list of chapters at IDEAVillage
Write the book later
A group of educators can begin a work at the
IDEAVillage. Publishing a joint paper is perhaps
the primary goal for many Village members.
When collaborators are together for a weekend or
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a week, they can exchange ideas and analyze

differences without being interrupted by the
responsibilities of work or family. While still
connected to the outside world, participants can
focus on the topics associated with their common
project. The intimate setting of the IDEAVillage is
like a cauldron for melting together and creating
an amalgam of metals.

EXHALE
Write the chapters and
assemble the book before
arriving
Record video summaries
at IDEAVillage
In this method, the
creating takes place before
the partners meet at
IDEAVillage.
The
marketing and analysis of
the work takes place in the
conference atmosphere of the village. Participants
can display the finished work to other Village
members, perhaps by sharing ebooks with
colleagues before arriving at the IDEAVillage.
After receiving feedback from other Village
members, the partners can refine their marketing
approach for the project. Video recordings of
discussions can be posted on the Internet to allow

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absent Village members to contribute to the

discussion.

Turkey is centrally located in the region of EE WA NA

(Eastern Europe, Western Asia and Northern Africa)

We are concerned about the fate of thousands of

refugees from Syria.
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Kozlu Bahe

An Example of a Site for the IDEAVillage

Facilities for families

Areas for face-to-face casual interactions

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Fountains and open areas for exploring

Sports fields and recreation areas.

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Tours of Eskisehir on YouTube

Drone view of park
http://tinyurl.com/esdronepark

Tour of the city

http://tinyurl.com/esvideotour

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A local school for teaching handicrafts

Illustrators are available from the University and

the school of to help Distance Educators design
diagrams and graphics for their books.

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Typical Timelines
For IDEAVillage Members who have never used a
print-on-demand method of publishing, the
following information might be helpful.
A
frequent question concerns how long does it take
for a book to be produced using Createspace?
4. Jul 27, 2013 10:27 AM

in response to: jay3454

Re: How long does it take to publish?

You can receive your book in the timeframe of the shipping you
decide to choose. So after submitting the PDF by Internet, you can
receive your book as early as 2 to 3 days later. The eBook is a
different process (Createspace doesn't do it, Kindle Direct
Publishing does) but can be often achieved in 24 hours.
-- Eric V. Van Der Hope
https://forums.createspace.com/en/community/message/230836

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References
The following images are taken from websites that
describe similar villages created for academic,
cultural and intellectual purposes. These images
will encourage you to see how informal gatherings
will enhance your creativity and production of
books and articles.
Nesin Math Village
nesinkoyleri.org/eng/

facebook.com/matematik.koyu

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Science Village: villagescience.org

Village Science originates and supports projects
that create enduring collaborations. We're helping
build the businesses and skills needed to ensure
that our efforts are sustainable both financially
and culturally.

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asiansciencevillage.com/
The Village provides a platform for sharing
scientific and technological knowledge among
scientists and scholars for the advancement of
humanity. The Plan will emphasize the straight
compliance with the contractual obligations and
duties related to such sharing and exchanges.
Issue will include profit sharing and commercial
applications for the shared knowledge. Mostly, the
Plan must address the protection of intellectual
property in such sharing and exchanges. The Plan
aims for exchanges and sharing that are
multi-levels and cooperative in spirit, so the
countries of lower living standards will be elevated.
engineeringvillage.com/
Save time and access relevant information in a
convenient, fast, and reliable way using the leading
engineering
information
discovery
platform.
Engineering Village is a powerful search platform that
is essential for researchers, students, and faculty.
Using a wide range of resources, including journals,
conference proceedings, trade publications, patents,
government reports and more, researchers can
improve productivity and facilitate important discoveries
with Engineering Village (an electronic village).

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fairchildgarden.org/science-conservation-/dimare
-science-village
The Paul and Swanee
DiMare Science Village at
Fairchild ushered in an
exhilarating new era of
scientific exploration and
discovery for all ages. With a larger focus on
preserving the biological diversity of the tropical world,
this magnificent arena also serves to inspire future
generations of scientists and nature lovers alike by
developing an educational pipeline that will span from
pre-school all the way to graduate school and beyond.
The crowning jewel of this one-of-a-kind village is a
collection of over 3,000 butterflies, exotic orchids, and
tropical plants. This collection serves as a feast for the
imagination and base for a complete scientific outreach
program including genetic research, climate modeling
and plant propagation.

The Science Village will showcase the talent and

accomplishments of Fairchilds conservation team by
directly connecting scientists and their activities with
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the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Garden.

Fairchilds five-year vision is to support the science
education initiatives with 10 Ph.D. scientists, 20 Ph.D.
students and 40 undergraduate research students.
Fairchilds team of scientists will be working on-site
with the opportunity to interact with students, visitors
and the community.

asteamvillage.org/

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science-village.com/
Science Village is located in north-east Lund and forms
part of the new city district of Brunnshg. The plan is to
build businesses, research and educational facilities in
the field of materials research and innovation.
University and university college campuses, guest
accommodation, research institutes, services, gyms,
restaurants and cafs will be built on the plot.
A green corridor will run through the area, connecting
Vindarnas Park with Kunskapsparken park. This will be
an asset both in terms of recreation and biological
diversity. An important link in this green corridor will be
Mllegrdens gardens.

Science
Village
will
develop into a dynamic,
creative and sustainable
city district that not only
stimulates
world-class
research
but
also
provides a forum for
interaction with society (from sciencevillage.com)

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Artist Village
warp-art.be/kunstenaarsdorp-2015/?lang=en

-- From the Warp-Art website

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eco-luxury-village.com/
Villages offer solutions to
other challenges. In
Costa Rica, this eco
village offers expatriots
a place to create a social
structure with locals.
Currently, we are forming a large membership of
villagers who can kick
start
the
village
micro-economy.
This
project began in 2004,
and has evolved over the
years into an amazing
opportunity to create a
great future for those
who will form the
commercial core of the
village, including living
rent free and more a
win / win deal.
Our village members see our
villages as their access to a great life in paradise,
and the landowners see the villagers providing the
heart and soul of their development, plus the
necessities and conveniences that homeowners
need in a thriving town.
Note the collaboration with local Costa
Ricans: create a great future for those who will

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form the commercial core of the village, including

living rent free.
The current future village locations are:
(A) 120 acres in the Muskoka lake district area of
Ontario, Canada
(B) 316 acres near the lake at Kelowna B.C. in the
Okanagan Valley in Canada
(C) 1,600 acres in the beautiful rolling hills near
the Napa Valley of California
(D) a ranch on the Colorado Plateau near the
Grand Tetons in Wyoming
(E) a large farm beside a river near the Lot Valley
in the south of France
The IDEA Village (Louisiana)
facebook.com/ideavillage/
Founded in 2000, The
Idea Village formalized in
2002 as an independent
501-c-(3)
nonprofit
dedicated to engaging our
community to embrace
innovation,
entrepreneurship,
and
new thinking. The Idea
Village has established
itself
as
a
globally-recognized
leader
in
developing
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place-based entrepreneurial ecosystems. As a

result, New Orleans is now in the top 10% of best
cities to start a business in the country
(WalletHub), with startup activity 64% above the
national average (The Data Center).

The Idea Village is committed to sustaining the

local entrepreneurial movement by providing
direct services to entrepreneurs, engaging the
community, and supporting initiatives that
leverage entrepreneurship to catalyze change.

Videos were found on YouTube to show some of

the features of Eskisehir.
youtube.com/watch?v=yu5QYu5q76Y a tour of the
city
youtube.com/watch?v=xOkbFsbLkOc a Drone
view near a park

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The concerns of our

workforce are social
This is why an IDEAVillage is primarily a social
structure
to
encourage
face-to-face
interactions.
Universities today, based on neo-liberal ideology,
are turned into institutions producing a labor force
with specific professional skills and equipped with
the necessary flexibility skills to be able to adapt to
the changing needs of the business world. The
concerns of this new work force are
economical rather
than
social. The
connection between universities and society is
being replaced by the connection between
universities and businesses. However, there has
been some work concerning the individual, social,
attitudinal and cognitive results of online
instruction serving neo-liberal aims
From a paper by Ugur Demiray delivered at the First
International Distance Education Conference in Palestine,
March 2017

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Please share this ebook with your colleagues.

http://tinyurl.com/ideavillage
See the YouTube channel created for IDEAVillage
at TinyURL.com/IDEAVillageVideos
Facebook: fb.com/IDEAVillage

IDEAVillage is a project supported by

UdeEEWANA
United Distance Education for Eastern
Europe, Western Asia and Northern
Africa udeeewana.org

EEWANA is the region of Eastern Europe, Western

Asia and Northern Africa

Build crosscultural connections for distance educaion

in EEWANA by visiting Eskisehir and participating in
a workshop, seminar, conference or retreat organized
by UDEEEWANA.org at Kozlu Bahe.

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