(re-posted from my blog post in "Guide2Digital Learning")
It’s a big world out there! Here are four organizations who can help your students be ready...
Secondary students are graduating into a flat, global, competitive, and rapidly changing world. In a previous blog I’ve described “4 Reasons Why Global Fluency Matters”, an open letter to 6th graders. In that article I explained my top four reasons:
What I describe below are four examples of organizations that help make these connections happen for students. Each organization has its unique approach, and all of them represent what should be part of a thoughtful strategy to help our students develop global fluency.
Reach the World www.reachtheworld.org is a charitable organization that connects students with “travelers” who are typically college-aged “study abroad” students. It’s a fantastic model, as “travelers” and the students whose classroom is connected with their journey all benefit from the interaction. As described in their website, “Reach the World (RTW) cultivates relationships between young students and volunteer world travelers through an innovative program of online journalism and face-to-face interactions…”
To help Reach the World expand this model, HP provided them support through the Catalyst Initiative. I recently had the pleasure of conducting an “in-person” (live webinar-style) interview with Reach the World, educators from a school in Brooklyn, a “traveler” named Lillian with whom the school is connected with, the traveler’s friend, Keerthi, in India, and two young students. The interview underscores how special these kind of interactions can be for students who would otherwise only learn about the world through textbooks.
The interview was recorded and is available online, if you’d like to see the discussion for yourself (it’s a fun example of how you can bring a live panel discussion with remote participants into your classroom, too!)
ePals www.epals.com offers free and fee-based cloud services that enable student-to-student connections. From their website, “ePals LearningSpace® is an award-winning, safe social learning platform for K12 communication and collaboration…”
They not only provide the platform but they also provide projects and structure for meaningful collaboration. Forums for parents and students take this way beyond the old days of “pen pals”.
Taking IT Global www.tigweb.org is another charitable organization that connects students with a shared purpose. In their own words, “TakingITGlobal's mission is to empower youth to understand and act on the world's greatest challenges. We use the power of online community to facilitate global education, social entrepreneurship, and civic engagement for millions of youth worldwide…”
This organization would be a great complement to a classroom, a club, an after school program, or a group of motivated youth who want to make a difference “beyond school”.
eTwinning.net www.etwinning.net is an organization in Europe with similar aspirations, connecting classrooms across Europe. “eTwinning is the Community for schools in Europe. Teachers from all participating countries can register and use the eTwinning online tools (the Portal and the Desktop) to find each other, meet virtually, exchange ideas and practice examples, team up in Groups, learn together in Learning Events and engage in online-based projects.”
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Do you have a favorite organization you’re working with to connect your students to other classrooms or students around the world? I’d love to hear about it – especially if it’s related to making science and math learning more global! Send me a message via twitter – I’m @jgvanides.
