Discussing Global Issues via Online Communication Journals

[Trent Nichols]

Hello, my name is Trent Nichols and I am the elementary ICT specialist (K-5) at Canadian Academy, Kobe, Japan. I am currently in the process of trying to organize an online communication journal for a 4th grade classroom, and am looking for a partner class. We would like to target 'global issues,' with an emphasis on reflecting upon particular issues, and offering honest perspectives based on individual's knowledge/experiences and geographic settings. I think this could be a very enlightening and valuable experience to see what issues such as global warming, security, or health mean to individuals around the world. If you are interested in a project such as this, please contact me at [e-mail]

[Dilip vasu]

Dear Trent Nichols,

I am very much interested in collaborating my school students with your students, kindly let me know as to how it can be arranged. our school is in India. you can have a look at the school website www.choithraminternational.com its an IB school with all the three programmes of IB.
we can collaborate with the grade 4 students of your school.

Regards
Dilip Vasu.

[Trent Nichols]

Hello Dilip,

Thank you for your response. I am currently in the process of setting up student group accounts so that participants will have the necessary communication channels (online discussion forum via Google docs, and blog postings via Google Sites). At the moment, our grade four students will be collaborating with a grade 4/5 class from Canada. I think that your students in India would be a wonderful addition. The project plan would require students to work in teams of 3-5 (with 1 or more representatives from each geographic location). I would coordinate the IT framework and send out instructions to all 3 supervisory teachers. Each group of students would be provided with a group Google login/password and students would begin by introducing themselves in a brief letter (via Google Docs). Once students had become familiar with the members of their group, we would introduce the first 'global issue' for investigation and discussion. Each member of the group would be responsible for creating one blog post about this issue, and may also comment on the posts of other group members. As the year progresses we would vary the discussion topics, with the goal of opening the eyes and minds of our learners to global issues and perspectives. If you are truly interested in this project, please email me a.s.a.p., and provide me with the name of a supervising teacher, and a class list (indicating student genders) so that I may create groupings and begin the process of coordinating this project. Hope to hear from you soon!

Trent Nichols
Elementary ICT Specialist
Canadian Academy, Kobe, Japan
www.canacad.ac.jp
[e-mail]

[Rachel]

I teach 10-11 yr old children and would be very interested in this collaboration. Have you set up the communication journal you will be using? My school is in central Birmingham, UK and the students come from many different racial, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. Therefore my students have varying perspectives on life in Birmingham and in Britain. I am currently trying to make links with other classes around the world to enhance our social networking experience.

[Trent Nichols]

Hi Rachel,

Thank you for your interest. Our school was away for a 1 week 'fall break.' We are now back in session and I have been working 'feverishly' to design a collaborative network for this project. I may have one more opening if your class is still interested. The commitment would be an introductory letter from each of your students (addressed to their fellow group members). Followed by 1 blog posting about a 'specified' global issue every 4 - 6 weeks. Group members may also comment on one another's blog postings. Students will be asked to 'reflect,' 'investigate,' and 'post comments' about issues based on personal perspectives (their local setting & culture).

If you're interested, please reply to this post or send me an email.

[e-mail]
Elem. ICT Specialist
Kobe, Japan

[Richard Close]

Trent
I am writing a book on the Global Learning Framework that you may find interesting. Just doing presentations on it. http://globallearningframework.ning.com
Here is my piece on scalability: http://globallearningframework.ning.com/forum/topics/global-scalabi...
Here is the presentation:

I am trying to help out two remarkable schools in Africa that have few resource but excellent reputations and teams on the ground. Perhaps we can collaborate an save a few liveshttp://purposedrivenedcenter.ning.com
Feel free to reach me at [e-mail]
Richard