Abstract

Global education and technology have the ability to foster empathy and tolerance in students all around the world. Technology offers educators an engaging platform to encourage the development of empathy through connecting with individuals around the globe. By exploring new worlds through rich conversation and technology, children acquire an ability to make inferences about the feelings and intentions of others, to see things from different points of view, to engage in pro social behavior, and to develop empathy and cultural sensitivity (Salmon, Gangotena, Melliou, 2018). Empathy and global education should be fostered in classrooms as young as preschool and continue through a college education.

Thinking about educating students for the professional world depends on building their connectivity with others through empathy and a global competence. The ability to develop a meaningful rapport with all sorts of people, to respond effectively to another’s verbal and nonverbal cues, and to understand another’s predicament depends on empathy (Fanzese, 2017). The importance of technology cannot be underestimated, as it is the tool that facilitates global collaboration across classrooms. Cross-cultural collaboration encourages students to challenge stereotypes and find value in perspectives that are different than their own.

Purpose

The purpose of this Special Interest Project was to discover what global education and technology integration in classrooms could lead to. Global education has always been a passion of mine, but I was interested in better tech integration as well as a more comprehensive approach to global education with empathetic beliefs and values for students within the classroom.