Technology Integration

What does technology have to do with global education?

Articles on technology integration

• "Technology Integration For The New 21st Century Learner" by Nancye Blair. This article provides a great overview of how there needs to be a change in mindset so that teachers are teaching through technology by allowing students to take more ownership in their learning rather than the teacher being the person to do all of the creating. There are also some good examples of how technology can be used to help student work become more authentic by allowing them the opportunity to share it with the world around them.

• "Five Ways to Use Technology and Digital Media for Global Learning" by Alexis Menten. This is a short article that highlights several ways that technology can be utilized to help globalize your lessons. Rather than providing specific technology resources, this article provides some general ideas as to how online information can be used to teach many of the global competencies that have been discussed on the previous pages.

Technology Learning Inventory - Detailed Report

Technology Resources and Ideas

For the Technology Beginner, you may want to try...

• Padlet: I'm in love with this application. Essentially it is an online bulletin board that is great for collaboration and it is extremely user-friendly. Once you create a board, you can provide your students with the link which then allows them to click on the board and to post material. Multiple students can add to the board at the same time. I used this application several times last year. In my general chemistry class, students completed a personal reflection on padlet regarding their thoughts on the global water unit that we had finished. In my regents chemistry classes, I set up a padlet for students to use as part of a review. Students were introduced to the application and were given a few minutes at the end of class to post questions that they had about the unit. Students were then asked to log on again in the evening to try to answer some of the questions that were posed. Students found this to be easy to use and in terms of review, students liked that all of their questions and answers were stored in one spot that they could go back and reference before their tests. Here is the link to the padlet that my general chemistry class completed: Clean Water Reflection. Even though my example shows only text, users can also add images, links, and files to their posts as well!
• Google Earth: This resource has become quite detailed and may require a little time for you to familiarize yourself with all that this site has to offer. While it is typically known for its street-view which gives you a detailed 3D look at places all around the world, it also has historical imagery for many locations as well. Students can also use Google Earth to create and record their own tours of an area. Looking for ideas as to how you might be able to utilize this resource in your class? Check out this site for some interesting ideas: Google Earth Lessons - An Educational Resource for Teachers.

For the intermediate technology user, you might want to try:

• Thinglink: This allows users to create interactive images like the one towards the top left of this page. It can be used in just about any discipline. In math, students may have to annotate an image of a particular graph with its slope and function. In history, students may have to map out the trail of a particular war and then annotate each stop on the trail with a document, video, musical piece, etc.
• Flipgrid: On this site, the teacher can create grids of short, discussion-style questions that students respond to by recording a video. This application works with cell phones as well so that students may use their phones to record and upload their videos. This is a neat way for students to present information. There is a 30-day free trial. I used this for my global education course and found it to be fun and user-friendly. The video was easy to create and post, and it was neat watching videos of my classmates. I was hoping to have my students utilize this application to make videos for the students that I visited in Morocco but we didn't have a chance to.

For the advanced technology user, you might want to try:

• Skype/Mystery Skype: Skype would be a great way to connect your classroom to somewhere else. This could be to a classroom someplace else within the U.S. or somewhere else in world. Skype would also be good for setting up a video-conference with an expert that your students could connect with. If this seems daunting, you could try a "mystery skype" to start. With mystery skype, you can select criteria (such as student age and subject area) to find a classroom to connect with. Then its up to your students to figure out where the classroom is located that they are connected to. It's the global guessing game that gets kids learning about geography, culture, and the similarities and differences of how children live all over the world".
• Twitter Chats: Whether or not you are new to twitter, setting up twitter chats for you and your students is a great way to help move discussions beyond the classroom setting. Give you students specific hashtags to utilize such as #presidentialrace and you may find some experts that jump into the chat as well. Similarly, many experts can be located via twitter that may be willing to hold a twitter chat with your students. I have started participating in twitter chats professionally and would like to incorporate this into my classrooms as I would like to be able to connect my students with some scientists in the field.

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