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Name:

Betty Tonsing

About Me:

Founder, Global Visits. International aid and development (15 years living/working overseas) working with the United Nations, USAID, Catholic Relief Services and the National Democratic Institute in Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. Fulbright Scholar in Beirut Lebanon. Extensive non profit executive management and high end fund raising. Entrepreneur and business owner

Website:

http://www.globalvisits.com

Interest in Flat Classrooms

An early pioneer in using technology to link students together from diverse parts of the world -- overcoming geographical and cultural divides -- Global Visits (a non profit 501 (c)[3]) initiated Project Perception in 2001 linking students from the US together with students in Central Asia, Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa. Using also the ning network, Global Visits has most recently changed its web page and activities for social networking. Our mission remains promoting peace and understanding by dispelling myths and misperceptions about each other through collaborative exchanges between students and their teachers at the university and college level. We have expanded to also include projects between service groups. Technology for peaceful purposes is our aim......as it is obviously also the aim of flatclassrooms.

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At 6:25am on October 8, 2008, Nerine Chalmers said…: Hi Betty
I don't know how I missed this post - so sorry. I am sure that by now it is far too late, but should something like this arise again, let me know as there could well be university faculty who would be interested in getting involved in something of this nature.

At 12:40am on September 14, 2008, Betty Tonsing said…: Hello Nerine: I will look for high schools. There is a person connected to both the University of NOtre Dame and a high school here in South BEnd -- who is also a member of this network -- and I will ask him.

Chobe! Okavango.......my heart sings. While in Lesotho, we owned our own land rover and took our treks through Chobe and Okavango. Friends would visit and we would take them on our personal 'safari's'. Those were the days. Botswana was a fabulous country, and we always enjoyed our visits. Friends of our from Botswana would visit us during the summer to cool off and we would visit in the winter to warm up!

I have two college professors who would like to collaborate with a university colleague and their students in two different projects: one is a chemistry professor working with another prof on a project looking at science and evolution; and a second prof teaches poly sci and was ready to collaborate in a project with an American posted in Nigeria, but has not heard from him for awhile. His students are ready to do! Do you hae people I can contact at the universty level there in Qatar who would be interested in participating in a project. Time frame is short....still this semester. Ours have begun. Nothing serious at this stage of the syllabus, but in particular the poly sci prof is very keen to keep his American students engaged and connected with students from a diverse culture. If you have suggestions, I will follow through.

Thanks in advance!

Betty

At 6:58am on September 8, 2008, Nerine Chalmers said…: Hi Betty Thanks for the response. If high schools stuents were willing to answer questions from our Grade 2's using simple language, that would work well for us, so if you think of a school that might be interested, please let me know.

I was in Botswana from 1983 to 2007 - most of my working life. For many of those years my husband was working in Maun and more recently at Chobe Game Lodge, so my roots are still there!

At 9:08pm on August 29, 2008, Nerine Chalmers said…: Hi Betty I was very interested to hear of the work you have been doing, and also in your Global Visits ning. I have just posted the following message to the Flat Classroom groups that I belong to. If you know of any schools in the 5 countries mentioned that may be interested in collaborating, I would be very grateful for their contact details.

Qatar Academy, Doha is a PYP school. In October, the Grade 2 classes will be beginning the unit “Living here, living there.” The unit involves comparing aspects of life in other countries with life in Qatar. This year the teachers have decided to focus on the countries which are home to many of our expatriate labourers and general workers. There are 5 Grade 2 classes with 22 students in each. The countries they are studying are: India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

We would very much like to set up a collaborative relationship with a school in each of these countries. It could be Grade 2 classrooms sharing, or there may be an older class who would be happy to connect and share information about their country with younger students. It could be a wiki in which the students share information on the countries they are living in; they could use voicethread with photographs to share information, annotated photographs on flickr…..or it could be communication via email. Once we have identified schools with whom we can work, we can look at the details.

Thanks very much.

At 4:54am on August 7, 2008, Betty Tonsing said…: Hello Julie....and thanks also for joining Global Visits. We both have a lot of work to do! But what great fun when the goals are so worthy for so many.

At 2:55am on August 7, 2008, Julie Lindsay said…: Hi Betty
Great to have you as part of our Flat Classrooms community. I look forward to future interactions.