The Office of Extended Education and International Programs of California State University Monterey Bay and China Education Resources have signed a three-year memorandum of intent for educational exchange.

"This is an incredible opportunity for students and instructors of both the United States and China to immerse themselves in a culture through new and alternative methods," said Dr. Chris Hasegawa, dean of Extended Education and International Programs at CSUMB. "We are excited that CSUMB is among the first higher education institutions to join CER in this outreach effort."

This new partnership offers CSUMB and CER an opportunity to provide teachers in the United States and China, with the ability to interact with one another through CER's website at cersp.com. By connecting classrooms in China to classrooms in the U.S., American and Chinese teachers and their students will have the opportunity to help each other learn a second language, study a new culture using authentic artifacts and personal interaction, and share best teaching practices in a variety of subject areas.

CER's portal offers a gateway to the entire K-12 teaching and learning community in China which is composed of 600,000 schools, 12 million teachers, and 230 million students. The California State University system is the largest four year college system in the world. It is comprised of more than 417,000 students enrolled in its 23 campuses throughout California.

This new partnership will include a number of projects, all of which will be facilitated through the CER portal. The projects include virtual and physical exchanges in the fields of language, cultural studies and mathematics. In addition, in-country tailored language and cultural programs for both students and faculty will be developed. One of the most exciting dimensions of the partnership, according to Hasegawa, is the potential to greatly increase and enhance opportunities for American schools to offer Mandarin language programs from Kindergarten through University, utilizing the very best instructional materials and teaching expertise from China, brought into local classrooms in California and beyond through the CER portal.

"CER and CSUMB envision the portal being used to create a new means of collaboration, resource sharing, and the development of new teaching and learning strategies to benefit not just teachers and students in both countries, but also to promote better understanding and development of constructive, positive relationships between the people of China and the United States," says Chengfeng Zhou, chairman and CEO of CER.

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