A guest post from Kimberley Rivett (@krivett), an eLearning Teacher in New Zealand and inspirational member of the #globalclassroom community
Ah yes, this whole ‘going global’ experience just gets better and better. We have spent almost a full year communicating using a range of means from blogs to wikis to Edmodo to Skype and what is our lasting impression?
My students reflected on their year of global interaction and the comments were amazing. Many used language such as ‘collaboration’ and ‘knowing the wider world’ while others talk about the knowledge of another place and seeing the world through someone else’s lens. They are changed, forever, by this experience.
We have gone from one class in America as our global pals to having quadblogs, posting our Flat Stanleys away to buddies last year and then sending our class mascots, the Gruffalos, to Lebanon and Singapore this year. We sent a New Zealand mascot, the beautiful Fantail to America and received Chiplet, the chipmunk in return.
The class have learned about communicating and questioning, reflecting and reviewing, writing and reading, blogging and commenting, creating and editing videos about favourite things, making slideshows and posters and much, much, more, all because they have an authentic learning experience and they are engaged by it.
The Global Classroom Project ignited a tiny spark and the litmus has been burning out of control ever since!
So, where to from here? We are currently exploring our ‘where to next?’ idea, so we will keep you posted…perhaps we need to work out a way to communicate with the space station…
