American Democracy Project (ADP)
Civic Engagement in Action Series
Educating Globally Competent Citizens: 7 Revolutions
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) created a program entitled the Seven Revolutions, a strategic look at planet earth out to the year 2030. The program identified seven areas of revolutionary change:
Population demographics
Natural resource management
Technology innovation and diffusion
Development and dissemination of information and knowledge
Economic integration
The nature and mode of conflict
The challenge of governance
The program was created to identify and analyze the key policy challenges that policymakers, business figures, and citizens will face out to the year 2030. CSIS wants to promote strategic thinking on the long-term trends that too few leaders take the time to consider.
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Overview of Educating Globally Competent Citizens: A Toolkit for Teaching Seven Revolutions
View full 7 Revolutions Tool Kit here. ( The Tool Kit contains the following resources:
Seven Revolutions content (direct links and Student Guide)
Case studies of AASCU partner institutions
Teaching materials (e.g., syllabi, activities, assignments)
Teaching resources (e.g., print, video, audio, Internet)
Sample teaching materials
Futurist perspective
Systems perspective: The Story of Stuff
Global Village activity
Taking Action assignment
CSIS Material
CSIS 7 Revolutions videolibrary
This links you to Martin Shapiro’s home page that contains a folder of the PowerPoint lectures used in his class: Opening, Futurist Perspective, Population, Biodiversity, Water, Food, Biofuels, Biotech, Neuroscience, Information, Economics, Microlending, Governance, PTSD and Brain Injury in soldiers.
TED Talks are 10-20 minute videotaped talks by some of the world's best thinkers on some of the world's most pressing issues. The talks are organized by topic. The global issues and technology talks are especially useful in teaching Seven Revolutions.
Hans Rosling (boxes talk on population)
First Year Seminar/Freshmen
Capstone Courses
Honors (Fresno, Martin Shapiro)
Kennesaw (Keisha Hoerrner)
KSU Common Reader Global Village.pdf
Diigo is a cloud-based personal information management system that allows users to collect and access information, including articles, images, and web sites. We have created a "Seven Revolutions" group on Diigo that includes articles from journals and newspapers such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, National Geographic, Scientific America, and The New York Times, as well as reports and videos from CSIS. Items in our group library are tagged with words and phrases, connected to the Seven Revolutions, such as "population," "economic integration," and "natural resources." There are over 350 items in the Seven Revolutions group library.
Information Communications Technology (ICT) is a key enabler of a more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable world in the aftermath of one of the most serious economic crises in decades. The Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011 highlights the key role of ICT as an enabler of a more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable world.
In 2020, areas of particular importance for technology trends will include biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials technology, and information technology. The authors of this report assessed a sample of 29 countries across the spectrum of scientific advancement (low to high) with respect to their ability to acquire and implement 16 key technology applications (e.g., cheap solar energy, rural wireless communications, genetically modified crops). The study’s major conclusions are that scientifically advanced countries such as the United States, Germany, and Japan will be able to implement all key technology applications evaluated; countries that are not scientifically advanced will have to develop significant capacity and motivation before barriers to technology implementation can be overcome; and public policy issues in certain areas will engender public debate and strongly influence technology implementation.
NOVA produced a excellent video on population issues around the world. The website is a companion to the video including activities, quizzes and articles.
Miniature Earth: Short video of statistics of the people on earth.
Slideshare.com: website for sharing PowerPoint lectures.
Fareed Zakaria's Global Public Square: CNN's Fareed Zakaria along with other leading journalists at TIME and CNN help make sense out of global issues.
Globaia: Educational materials for global citizenship.
iTunesU: Audio and video materials from Oxford, MIT, Stanford, Yale, etc.
Foreign news sources are, of course, useful for different national or cultural perspectives on global issues.
Arutz Shiva (Israel)
Le Monde (France)
Spiegel (Germany)
Text books for students:
1. Annual Edition: Global Issues by Robert Jackson
2. Taking Sides: Clashing views on Global Issues by James Harf
Teacher Preparation and/or Student Book Reports:
7-Revolutions Institute: Fresno, Oct. 28th and 29th, 2011
Denny Falk: Introduction PowerPoint
Ken Hill: FYE, Resources and Teaching activities