Collaborative VoiceThread- What Could it Mean?

There has been an idea of a global awareness/collaboration project floating in my head for a while. Yesterday I had a quick Skype conversation with Cheryl Lykowski from Wisconsin/USA and the idea crystallized itself some more.

The idea is as follows:

I created a VoiceThread, named “What Could it Mean?” (I am open to suggestions for a more creative title).

I will be asking for collaboration from teachers around the world to contribute one image from their country depicting a unique tradition, typical custom, distinctive perspectives, routines, habits and practices.
I am looking for an image that will start a conversation in your own class and raise awareness that “others” might not see the same thing or understand its meaning the way we do in our own country.

What could that image below, that was taken in Buenos Aires, Argentina mean? Why is the bottle on the car’s roof. Can’t figure it out? For anyone from Argentina it is the clearest thing. Imagine an Argentinean living in the USA placing a plastic bottle on his car’s roof? He would not be getting any response for what he intended.

Once images are uploaded, possibly with a description of the scene but without giving away the reason, other students leave audio or text comments on the voicethread with their ideas what it could mean.

Let’s create a story about traditions, customs and practices around the world for and with our students.

We need to sharpen our kids’ skills to foresee and sense cultural misunderstandings, instead of letting them grow up to be insensitive an believing everyone will have the same cultural background knowledge.

What is that dog doing in the mall in Frankfurt, Germany? Would you ever see a scene like this in Mexico, USA, China?

Help me spread the word to your colleagues in your schools and personal learning network. Let’s open up a conversation about “We are not alone on this planet”. Upload your image to your Flickr Account and tag it with”global-customs” or let me know the URL to your image, so I can place it into the VoiceThread.

Let me know of any ideas, comments or thoughts you might have on this project idea.