Creating Meaningful Global Connections

U.S. middle-school students became video pen pals with their Pakistani counterparts, acquiring real-world communication skills, enhanced cultural perspective, and an awareness of their leadership skills.

Source: Edutopia

How to be a Global Thinker

Using these routines, teachers cultivate classroom cultures that nurture global competence.

Source: ASCD

Global Competence: A ‘SAGE’ Approach to Project-Based Learning (Deeper Learning)

For students of today to become the innovators of tomorrow, they must have opportunities to think deeply about issues of global significance. Global competence requires students to be able to recognize multiple perspectives about an issue, investigate the world in which they operate, effectively communicate their ideas, and take action to demonstrate that what they have learned in the classroom can impact the world. Asia Society's International Studies Schools Network strives to achieve global competence through the implementation of project-based learning.

Source: Teaching Channel

Growing Up Globally

While different societies and cultures are becoming increasingly interconnected through globalization, schools around the world are insufficiently preparing students to seize the opportunities created by globalization. In a 2006 article, Citizenship, Identity and Education: Examining the public purposes of schools in an age of globalization, Harvard Graduate School of Education Professor Fernando Reimers stressed the importance of teaching tolerance and global values, as well as developing foreign language skills and knowledge of world history, cultures, and geography.

Source: Harvard Education

Why Even Young Students Benefit From Connecting Globally

Some teachers I talk to say they do not have time to connect with other classrooms because they are too busy covering their curriculum. In fact, connecting with others is not an addition to our curriculum. It is not something we do after we have finished our reading and math for the day. It is the way we do our curriculum. From practicing counting by fives or comparing similarities and differences via Skype, to writing for a worldwide audience, to making and sharing videos of social studies concepts on our blogs, we connect and invite the world to learn with us and to help us learn. Although learning from others is a key reason why I continue to connect my classroom online, there are many other reasons as well.

Source: KQED Mindshift

Global Thinking offers thinking routines that foster understanding and appreciation of today's complex globalized world. The materials and tools include a framework to think about global competence and offer clarity about various capacities associated with global competence. The bundle describes how to plan and document your experiences bringing global thinking routines into your classroom and to share these experiences with others.

Source: Harvard Education

How Students Benefit from a Global Perspective

Milton Chen explains the importance of developing global competency, as done in the Asia Society schools. Milton talks about how Asia Society schools embrace student choice, motivation, and taking on a global perspective. Milton adds how teachers collaborate to enrich students' learning experiences.

Source: Teaching Channel

How They Do It in the US: A Global Approach

Herricks School District in New York State has led the way in changing citizenship practice in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, by integrating a global perspective into almost all subjects and grade levels - from elementary to high school. From the age of 10 upwards, pupils learn about global politics.

Source: Teaching Channel

Kansas Students Solve Water Crisis for School in Kenya

Watch as students in Kansas help their friends in Kenya face a life-threating issue. Using project based learning, these innovative teachers design curriculum so their students can solve a real world problem.

Source: Skype

Skype in the Classroom brings together classes in New Zealand and California

Skype helps bridge the distance between a school in Auckland, New Zealand and one in Los Altos, California. Students get a global education with Skype in the classroom.

Source: Skype

Students from around the world learn together with the Global Teenager project

The Global Teenager Project is an international project that connects classes around the world. More than ten thousand students a year discuss topics in a structured online learning environment. The Darul-Hardis Junior High School in Tamale, Ghana and the Huygens College in Amsterdam, the Netherlands are two of the participating schools.

The Global Teenager Project is no longer, but this video demonstrates the possibilities for global collaboration.

Source: iicd.org

Skype in the Classroom

Skype in the Classroom is a free community that offers live transformative educational experiences for students including Virtual Field Trips, talks from Guest Speakers, classroom to classroom connections, and live collaboration projects.

Empatico

Empatico empowers teachers and students to explore the world through experiences that spark curiosity, kindness, and empathy. We combine live video with activitiesdesigned to foster meaningful connections among students ages 7-11.

Exploring By The Seat Of Your Pants

Exploring By The Seat Of Your Pants aims to inspire the next generation of scientists, explorers and conservationists. We do this by bringing science, exploration, adventure and conservation into classrooms through virtual speakers and field trips with leading experts across the globe. Since starting in September 2015 we've connected tens of thousands of students to scientists and explorers in over 40 countries. Best part of all, it is and always will be 100% free for classrooms!

Skype a Scientist

Skype a Scientist matches scientists with classrooms around the world! Scientists will Skype into the classroom for 30-60 minute Q and A sessions that can cover the scientist’s expertise or what it’s like to be a scientist. We want to give students the opportunity to get to know a “real scientist”, and this program allows us to reach students from all over the world without having to leave the lab! We have over 2000 scientists ready to chat, and teachers can choose the type of scientist that will fit their classroom. Let’s start a conversation!

Flipgrid GridPals

Flipgrid was created for a single class, (Charlie’s University of Minnesota PHD students, to be exact), but it didn't take long for educators to begin using Flipgrid to connect with classrooms around the world.

Educators have made thousands of connections, using Flipgrid to increase social learning, global empathy, and cultural understanding. They inspired us to create CoPilots so you can collaboratively manage your Grids and Topics with a fellow educator.

PenPal Schools​

PenPal Schools connects over a quarter million students from 150 countries through project-based learning. Students ages 8 and up read and write about topics ranging from human rights and environmental sustainability to robotics and fake news while practicing 21st century skills. Projects can be completed at any time from any device to easily fit into busy class schedules.

Field Trip Zoom

FieldTripZoom’s mission is simple: we facilitate unique live and interactive educational experiences between educational content providers and K-12 educators, students and homeschoolers.

We work with select educational based organizations that specialize in digital media delivery. Museums, zoos, aquariums, science centers, authors and art, music and historical organizations represent the foundation of our content community. Whatever the type of organization, the common thread is always a passionate, subject matter expert and a well prepared program delivered live to your classroom.

The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC)

The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC), established in 1994 as a nonprofit, specializes in the access to applications and the utilization of video conferencing for live interactive content and professional development, as well as web based collaborative learning environments for K-20 education.

Global Nomads

Young people lack opportunities to meaningfully engage in a world that is undergoing vast social, cultural, technological, and economic transformation. By leveraging technology, storytelling, and personal connection we enable conversation between middle school and high schools students to promote empathy, awareness, and agency to tackle some of the world's most pressing issues.

Teach Sustainable Development Goals

To help reach our goal of actively supporting and enhancing the work of the United Nations' efforts within K-12 classrooms, our TeachSDGs organization contributes to the 2030 Agenda in the following ways:

We connect with global educators dedicated to responding to a call to action within education to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.

We point to open and accessible resources, lessons plans, and global projects directly aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals.

We advance the work of the United Nations in relation to education through advocacy and outreach to inform K-12 and higher education stakeholders, defined as educators, students, parents, and community members. ​

The Global Education Innovation Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education supports the development of global education leadership for 21st century education by conducting research on innovative practices, training leaders, and creating a dynamic learning network of global partners interested in educational innovation.