Global Education On a Dime: A Low-Cost Way to Connect
Teachers can create international-collaboration projects on a small budget.
by Alexander Russo
Educators don't need huge budgets to develop a global-education program. One of the best examples of this is a partnership called the Flat Classroom Project that started by connecting an international school in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with an American school in Camilla, Georgia, and has since expanded into a seven-school collaborative.
The project, based on Thomas L. Friedman's international best seller, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, calls on American high school students to partner with students around the world and conduct a series of activities that deal with globalization.
Conceived by teachers Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay (who had never met face-to-face until this summer), the Flat Classroom Project charges no fees and takes four to six weeks. The project is usually taught in the context of a computer science or media-literacy course, and some teachers fit in daily activities related to it, while others have one lesson a week.
Here are some ideas to consider based on the experiences of schools that have participated in these sorts of projects:
Use On-Hand, Real-World Resources
Finding readily available real-world resources in or near a school should be a priority for educators who want to create strong global-education programs, especially if they don't have cutting-edge technology or deep pockets.
These existing resources can include teachers, students, or community members from other countries (or who have family in other nations), businesses that work with overseas partners, or cultural organizations (such as churches or nonprofit organizations) that have an international component.
Shari Albright, chief operating officer of the Asia Society's International Studies Schools Network, says finding community assets is often surprisingly productive. Albright describes how a new international-studies school in the rural farming community of Mathis, Texas, discovered that a local company was selling cattle guards to India. The business owner helped explain to the class how the relationship with an overseas buyer works, along with the logistical and cultural issues. Other schools have found immigrant seniors with whom students can practice their language skills or conduct interviews for reports.
"Mine your existing assets for what's there," says Albright. "Forget the technology for a while."
Focus on Content, Not Technology
Almost everyone who's developed a successful global-education program says the key is to focus on the skills and knowledge you hope students will gain, not the technology itself or even the "globalness" of the activity.
These experts say a product or action should almost always be a part of the experience, whether the project is a service activity, a report, or a video. The idea is to provide a meaningful, skill-developing experience, not just a virtual field trip that is pleasant but not particularly deep or rigorous.
Cool (and Cheap) New Tools
Classroom wikis, student podcasts, and Google Earth's many functions are all fairly established ways for students and teachers to share information and work together across many time zones.
Until recently, a class wiki had been the main communication tool for the Flat Classroom Project. But newer tools, almost all of them cheap or free, are increasingly popular among those in the know.
This year, for example, the Flat Classroom Project has started a Ning -- a free, private social-networking page with audio and text and video-uploading abilities -- that allows students to introduce themselves and exchange information. The Ning provides a channel for interactions among students that were once done via email or MySpace, allowing teachers and other students to better experience what everyone else is doing.
"The connecting piece is the most difficult part," says Davis about getting the students to work together on different clocks. "Last year, we were doing it over email. We couldn't supervise. Here, all the group dynamics are out in the open for the teachers to observe."
To schedule planning and presentation time, they use a free Web program called AirSet, which can synchronize existing calendar systems (such as Microsoft Outlook's) and work between time zones.
For video, some insiders like FlashMeeting, a free service that has been described as a videoconferencing version of YouTube and that low-bandwidth schools can use to communicate online. Another free tool is Ustream.tv, which offers live video streaming anyone can watch online and chat about simultaneously.
Now free, ePals, an online global learning community for K–12 teachers and students that enables educators to find one another and protect children from unfiltered content, is already in use in many school districts around the country.
Another well-known program, iEARN (International Education and Resource Network), has 200 projects going at any given time. Users, who pay $100 per teacher or $400 per school, have access to a community of 20,000 educators and an archive of collaborative projects going back nineteen years.
For schools with little or no Internet connectivity, Journeys in Film offers strong lesson plans for viewing and discussing international cinema. Teaching guides cost $75 per movie or $250 for a series of four.
Logistical Concerns
Getting over the expectation that programs need to feature frequent opportunities for live international videoconferencing may be one of the most important and difficult lessons for teachers and students to learn. "The thing about synchronous learning is that you have to be awake at the same time," says the Flat Classroom Project's Vicki Davis. With international programs, she notes, "that doesn't happen a lot."
The Flat Classroom Project uses live videoconferencing strategically, for early planning and final group presentations. But Davis isn't worried about insufficient face-to-face interaction for her students. "I'm trying to get my students to understand that the world is becoming asynchronous," she explains. "The workday flows around the world, and I want my students to understand that while they're sleeping, others are moving things forward."
Alexander Russo is a former teacher, education researcher, and legislative aide on education issues who blogs at Scholastic.com's This Week in Education.
This article originally published on 11/12/2007
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Flat world
While I applaud the aims of this program, I'm constantly asking myself, "why do so many of these programs stress reaching around the world and not across town?" Why don't we get rural kids in the US to contact city kids in the US? Why is it we can reach out to a village in India but not into the inner city 5-10 miles away? It just seems to me that if we are ever to truly build a "flat world" we need to also connect with those closer to us. Next time we start developing a program to connect with people on the other side of the planet, ask yourself why aren't we reaching to the other side of town?
Just a thought
The Jazz Project
This article reviews some of the underlying principles of the The Jazz Project, http://www.123vc.net. The activity needs to be first ingrained with the curriculum using technology resources when applicable to provide tools and a real world atmosphere. Also, connecting globally is exciting and has benefits, but the connection does not have to be across an ocean to provide value. The value is built into the core objectives of the activity and the active engagement it should employ for the learners.
It's the content that counts
Mr. Russo, As a teacher who is late in embracing web 2.0, I was glad to hear that you addressed one of my main concerns--the centrality of the content. I'm as interested in the bells-and-whistles of technology as the next person is, however, I have always been concerned that content was getting lost in the process. I was please to see that you are encouraging projects that are rigorous and meaningful.
digitial divide - how good is good enough...?
It keeps coming back to the idea that just because we are putting computers in the class room we are doing enough. Unfortunately, a lot of times the orders for such new machines end up being one-size-fits all. In one case, the computers ended up with the ratio: How can we get the largest number of computers for the largest number of students? The result is that all of the computes run the "standard set of S/W" (eg, M/S Word, Safari, etc), but none of them will run the high-end applications needed to show what "state of the art IS".
In most cases the instructors (read that "just us chickens here") have to bring in our own personal computers, set them up to show what's really out there.
What should be done is that someone that knows what's needed are some "development computers" and then "production computers". There's no way a (v. nice to look at) laptop that doesn't have at least a half-way decent graphics chip set can be used for modeling, rendering or any of the "new media" that are part and parcel to the new techno world.
But, still hopefull - blind fool that i am,
"Franklin Twine" (Second Life).
--42--
Best Practices visit
I am a teacher in Sutton, Quebec, Canada who would like to visit a school that is currently involved in a technology project for us to experience and learn from: video, international email/video-conferencing, podcasting, wikispace use, etc.
Please let me know of any contacts. Preferably in Northeast U.S. We would like to come and join you for a couple of days.
J. Palov johnpalov@yahoo.com
Why not reach across town? I for one think that is a great idea. My district, for example, has 4 elementary schools. Although we all have the same curriculum, we go about teaching it in very different ways. I think it would be great to use this service (or a similar one) to connect to teachers and students from another district school and discuss how they are teaching/learning the same content. We'd get new ideas, be able to communicate, all without having to get in our cars and pollute the ozone!
Applications
Which applications will allow us to reach across town and around the world, in whole classrooms with web based applications and two-way synchronous audio-video capability?
Let's talk.
Flat Classrooms
Flat classrooms are great ideas. After reading through a number of comments, I have to agree with observations that support both global and local student interactions. I agree that, while going global certainly is important, it is just as important to link to local communities. I especially like the idea of linking a city school with a rural school; I think students from each would be surprised to learn their similarities as well as their differences. However, I do believe it is equally important to connect globally; it is definitely a flat world with which younger generations will be working and communicating.
Flat Classrooms: The Future
I found this article really interesting. I can imagine that when schools hear the word technology, they automatically think "how much is this going to cost?" The two teachers that created the "Flat-classroom Project" have found a way for educators to integrate technology and globilization for a relatively low cost. The world is becoming so international that it is virtually impossible for students not to be connected with students from other countries. It is really important that they learn how to communicate. I like when the article talked about how you need to focus on content, not technology. That was really interesting and demonstrated to me how the technology is almost invisible at that point. The students are using it to communicate but that should not be the focus. The communication should be the focus. The article also gave lots of useful and low-cost websites for teachers to use to start a successful Flat Classroom. Overall, this was very interesting.
Flat classroom
In a technology crazy world, its nice to see how learning can happen without the most popular or expensive tools and softwares. It's hard to think about new and exciting ways of learning and not be worried with the cost factor. Also, I think it helps the students view the world both internationally and locally. I found this part very interesting: "The workday flows around the world, and I want my students to understand that while they're sleeping, others are moving things forward." I don't think this is something that most students think about and being able to connect this way might be good.