On the Road with Teddy Bear and Technology
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Have you ever wondered how you can take your students on a trip around the world? Now you can…virtually. One innovative elementary school from Jacksonville, Florida in the United States took Global Studies to a new level with a non- traditional approach. Stretching the traditional boundaries of schools, teachers, students, and their personal learning journey is assisting in the effort of making our students critical thinkers who have the ability to communicate across borders and cultures. Exposing our students to the “interconnectedness” of the world’s countries is imperative and not optional anymore.

Through a grant funded by the Jessie Ball duPont Foundation, our school was able to physically send faculty members traveling half way across the world to Egypt. We were able to learn first hand and alongside our students through the use of technology. The experience transformed our traditional classrooms through blogs, podcasts, photos and videos, blurring the boundaries of space, time and closed walls. Opening these dimensions created opportunities for our students and fellow teachers alike to become engaged co-learners.

We wanted our students to feel and make connections between the two countries, their own lives and learn more than just facts about pharaohs, mummies and pyramids. In preparation for these connections, we enlisted the help of our school mascot, Jose the bear. The bear traveled across our school campus, visiting each classroom, helping teachers introduce the country of Egypt. Students were excited and hooked on finding out about the adventures Jose would encounter.

Once the physical journey to Egypt started, everything was documented through blog posts, photos, video and audio clips. Having a working Internet connection every night at our hotels was absolutely crucial to being able to upload media and write posts that would allow continuous conversation between us and our students. The travel bear story took on its own life when Jose made a new friend, Omar the camel, in Cairo and disappeared with him. It starting a hot pursuit across Egypt, through Abu Simbel, Aswan, Luxor, and Sharm El Sheikh to catch up with our little travel companion.

At each location the bear left a note or had sent an e-mail with clues of where they were heading next. Our blog posts focused not only on the typical tourist attractions that we were taken to each day, but tried to capture cultural universals that would allow the teachers to come back later on and use the blog as a reference tool and a connector for instruction. In accordance with a general Connection theme, we paid special attention to specific curriculum areas of each grade level. Cultural Universals, such as religion, food, education, clothing, history, language, and community among others were on our minds when we wrote 57 blog posts in 14 days, snapped over a thousand images, recorded countless video clips and captured sounds in an effort to bring the country and people of Egypt closer to our students.

Jacksonville, our hometown is located on the Atlantic coast on the same latitude as Cairo and is situated alongside the St. Johns River. It was clear that we needed to use these similarities to create something tangible, a bridge of understanding. We collected water from the river as well as sand from our beaches. Like this, we were going to leave part of “us” behind in Egypt while forming a permanent connection when bringing Nile water and sand from the Pyramids back with us.

We tried to make the curriculum come alive through personal stories and comparisons while trying to focus on breaking down stereotypes and misconceptions our students had of Egypt. It was priceless when technology tools, such as Skype allowed us to video conference with our students and bring a live view of the Nile River directly into the classroom. Google Earth captured students’ interest and allowed them to make geographical connections between our two countries with interactive travel maps that linked videos and photos to specific locations, while allowing them to zoom in to ground level and out to space. Listeners of the podcast felt that they were ascending right along side of us while hearing the sounds of the night, while climbing Mount Sinai on the back of a camel. The experience became personal and real to our students when they were watching a video of their teacher bargaining at a local market. It opened a door for further discussion on cultural differences, similarities and realities.

Examples like these made the experience come alive rather than a flat account of descriptions of daily activities.

You can be part of Jose’s and our travels by going to the Egypt blog at http://www.sjeds.com/blog/egypt or our Global Studies website at http://www.sjeds.com/blog/global_studies/ , where you will find links to our past (China) and future travel destinations.