If you want globally connected students, you need globally connected teachers who are capable of communicating, collaborating and connecting to experts and peers from around the world. These educators are harnessing the power of global connections for their own learning in order to bring the world to their students.
What does collaboration, communication and connections mean in a connected world? What are the steps in becoming a globally connected educator?
The presentation below attempts to answer these questions in addition to debunking the myth that “global learning” is occurring when teachers or schools hold international days for their students complete with food, dances and cultural “dress up”. Teachers need to ask themselves if they are globally connected educators (learners & teachers) BEYOND
- teaching at an IB school
- reading an email listserve with members from several countries
- using books in a foreign setting or written by an author from another culture
- living abroad and teaching at an International school
- travel (for their own pleasure or as part of going-abroad student trips)
What steps are YOU taking in becoming globally connected as a learner and as a teacher? What are some strategies for making your classroom a global communication hub?
If you are interested in the topic, Eduplanet21 has just released the Globally Connected Educator’s learning path I authored.
With the increasingly interconnected nature of our global society and the need for a very different kind of literacy for our students, extending teaching and learning beyond the walls of our classrooms is especially vital in this digital age. Through a blend of authentic examples, hands-on activities, and engaging social learning experiences, this learning path will guide you through the process of modernizing and globalizing your classroom practices while expanding your professional learning network to include colleagues from around the world.
I also contributed a chapter on the globally connected educator in Heidi Hayes Jacob’s upcoming book (available in November 2013) titled Mastering Global Literacy.
I just wanted to know if you could elaborate on the slide with the “survey the world” title. What was that for? Did you have students create those topics? Were they crowdsourced? Great graphics, by the way!
–Daniel
6th graders created the survey to find out the needs of their audience as they were getting ready to create tutorials.
You can read more about it …
http://mrstolisano.blogspot.com.br/2013/08/6th-grade-survey.html and
http://mrstolisano.blogspot.com.br/2013/09/preliminary-results-from-tutorial.html
Globally connected teachers need an explicit framework to build authentic examples, hands-on activities, and engaging social learning experiences for their learners. By constructing a context for inquiry that explores interdependence, globalisation, identity, cultural diversity, human rights, social justice, peace building, conflict resolution and sustainable futures, learners have the platform by which to think, wonder, ask questions of themselves and others and act for a more just world.
@malmade1