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February 1, 2015
Vol. 57
No. 2

Taking Your Classroom Global

As our world becomes moreglobally connected, studentsmust learn to work with alltypes of people —whetherthey're in the same room oron another continent. Toincrease access to culturallyrich experiences, teachersare facilitating meaningfulprojects that extend beyondthe walls of their classrooms.

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As our world becomes more globally connected, students must learn to work with all types of people—whether they're in the same room or on another continent. To increase access to culturally rich experiences, teachers are facilitating meaningful projects that extend beyond the walls of their classrooms.
Lisa Jobso
n, chief program officer atiEARN-USA, an online community for teachers with a database of global projects, says that connecting students with a diverse audience of peers they wouldn't otherwise meet "is very powerful. Just on a literacy level, it gives them an authentic audience for their writing."
At Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Teaneck, N.J., gifted program teacher Jessie Gorant loves how global collaborations help her students appreciate the differences between the United States and other countries. She leads an iEARN project with her 7th graders called "One Day in the Life," in which students exchange messages and images describing their days. It's a great starter activity, Gorant believes, because children who don't speak the same language can visually connect with classes in 30 countries, including Japan, Argentina, and Pakistan.
"My students were shocked to learn that Japanese students are required to clean their classrooms with brooms during the day," says Gorant. "We look for commonalities and ask questions to better understand the differences."

Reinforcing Skills that Matter

Besides enhancing cultural awareness, Toni Olivieri-Barton, the library/media specialist at Woodmen-Roberts Elementary School in Colorado Springs, Colo., appreciates how these connections develop students' 21st century skills. She likes to reach out to other classrooms through Mystery Skype(see sidebar on page 3), in which students ask questions, provide clues, and share details to guess each other's location.
When placing a Mystery Skype call, Olivieri-Barton prompts students to brainstorm ways to divide the Earth, such as using the equator. To guess a U.S. location, her students start by splitting the country into regions. From there, they ask questions about the weather and geographical features. As the students eliminate states, they cross them off a map. With practice, students can solve the mystery in about 20minutes, she says.
Engaging in these kinds of investigative conversations helps students flex their critical-thinking muscles, confirms Olivieri-Barton. All the lessons at her IB school are multidisciplinary, so the Mystery Skype activity helps her situate individual units within the context of other cultures.
This year, Olivieri-Barton's 4th and 7th grade students are participating in an environmental project from the Flat Connections website. Flat Connections, which requires a membership fee to participate, provides managed global collaborative projects for K–"12 teachers. Teachers choose projects (ranging from coauthoring e-books to creating videos) that align to their curricular objectives and teach students how to connect, collaborate, and coconstruct.
To kick off their adventure, Olivieri-Barton's students created a survey about access to clean water, air quality, and other environmental concerns and sent it to schools in China, Thailand, Paraguay, Ireland, and Italy. The students then used the responses to establish trends. For example, respondents said environmental problems are typically worse in cities and ranked air pollution as a top concern.
The older students analyzed the data, devised ways to improve conditions in various locations, and conducted additional research. Then, they found photos representing these environmental issues and used VoiceThread—a collaborative, web-based application for sharing audio files, videos, and documents—to record themselves discussing what they learned as well as any solutions they discovered. As the project progresses, students will continue to comment on one another's thoughts and draw conclusions about what they learned.
Similar projects are engaging even the youngest students at Cathedral of St. Raymond Catholic School in Joliet, Ill. For the past four years, kindergarteners have participated in a Flat Connections project called "Building Bridges" with their technology teacher Theresa Allen. They've partnered with classes in Russia, India, Hawaii, Canada, and Australia and shared introductory videos created with the website, Animoto. Sometimes, they use the online voice recorder Vocaroo to communicate, which Allen says they particularly enjoy because they hear their peers' voices and accents.
After students get to know one another, the classes work on projects in tandem. One class may begin writing and illustrating a book that the other class will finish, or students may use puppets to act out a story and ask their partner school to change the ending. Sometimes, Allen records performances on her phone and then posts them on YouTube. By taking part in this project, the students practice ISTE Standards (formerly known as the National Educational Technology Standards) such as creativity, innovation, and digital citizenship.
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Conducting a Symphony

Though worldwide projects may seem intimidating, some collaborations span multiple years and run so smoothly that it's simple for new teachers to jump in. Camilla Gagliolo, an instructional technology coordinator at Arlington Public Schools in Arlington, Va., participates in Rock Our World with her 4th graders. The project tasks students in 40 countries to write songs about themes such as global warming or recycling using GarageBand. One school starts with a bass line; the next school adds guitar; the next one introduces wind instruments.
"The bass line from Japan sounds different than the ones from the Netherlands or Peru," says Gagliolo. "When the song comes back after a full tour, we see how it's changed but still retains some of the characteristics we put into it."
While composing the song, the classes connect via Skype to talk about their diverse cultures and lifestyles, as well as the song's theme. "The class-to-class and student-to-student discussions are inspiring," says Gagliolo. "Students brainstorm solutions to world problems and figure out what each of their schools can do to help."
When the Rock Our World theme was the sun, classes from Alabama, Alaska, Virginia, California, New Zealand, and Japan decided to conduct some experiments to further study the sun's impact. They put ice cubes on colored paper to see how quickly they'd melt and compared their findings. "The ice in Alaska never melted!" says Gagliolo.
Even though working with schools in different time zones can be a challenge, Gagliolo says it is well worth the advance planning. Thanks to online discussions, her students logon when they are in class and have answers waiting for them the next day. She sees the potential language barrier as a positive, too, because her students can practice their Spanish when they connect with schools in Peru or Mexico.

Shattering Stereotypes

"We focus on the differences, but when children see others and communicate, they [discover how] they are similar. That's a powerful way to learn," says Merry Merryfield, professor emeritus of social studies and global education at The Ohio State University. The key, she says, is to go beyond the superficial. "They can't just discuss what they had for breakfast; you need to take on substantive issues, ideally ones that tie into the curriculum."
Merryfield worked with elementary students in Minnesota who were learning about Inuits in Alaska and were influenced by what they'd heard or seen in books. She set up a Skype discussion between their school and a school in northern Alaska and that changed everything. The Minnesota students learned that the children in Alaska did not have snow all year long, did not eat blubber for every meal, watched the same TV shows, played the same video games, and ate pizza and hamburgers as frequently as possible. Nothing the teacher had given them, including picture books, worked to counter these stereotypes until they interacted with the students themselves.
"Our students need to learn about kids from other cultures," says Carol Anne McGuire, the founder of Rock Our World. A few years ago, when there was a major earthquake in New Zealand that destroyed Christ church, McGuire's students heard about it and ran into her classroom asking if their friends were affected. "New Zealand wasn't just a faraway place; it was the kids we talked to," she says. Global collaborations have even given McGuire hope for the future. "I really believe peace is possible, but it has to come from our children who say, 'Enough is enough; these are our friends.'"
"If we bring up children today to be monocultural, we are not doing them any favors," Merryfield remarks. "In the next 20 years, we will all have to interact with people who are different from ourselves. Why not start now?"

How to Place a Mystery Skype Call

Mystery Skype is a fun learning activity in which two classrooms call each other (through Skype) and ask questions to guess each other's location. The activity lets students develop their research, critical-thinking, geography, listening, and speaking skills, just to name a few. The tool is suitable for all age groups and requires a computer with Internet access, a webcam, and a microphone. You can find a class to work with at the official Mystery Skype website, through word of mouth, at a conference, or even on social media.

You'll want to talk with the other classroom's teacher to set up a date and time and determine a call format. Will each class get to ask 20 questions? Should the questions be specific (yes/no) or open-ended? Once you've determined the format, work with your students so that they understand how the call will work. Help them come up with questions beforehand, and post a map for everyone to see. Be sure to add the other teacher as a Skype contact, and then go for it!

Ellen Ullman is a contributor to ASCD publications.

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