Global+Connections,+Pen+Pals,+and+Projects

Connect your students with other learners around the world!
__**Tools to support connections:**__
 * Skype
 * VoiceThread
 * Wikis
 * Email
 * Multimedia Dialogue
 * VoiceThread (ed.voicethread.com)
 * Movies and SlideShows (Animoto)
 * Podcasts (try Spreaker)
 * Interactive multimedia posters (Glogster)

__**Organizations and Projects to connect with:**__

[|__ePals__]  - Build your own project or join an existing one ePals is the leading provider of safe collaborative technology for schools to connect and learn in a protected, project-based learning network. With classrooms in 200 countries and territories, ePals makes it easy to connect learners locally, nationally or internationally.

We are pleased to welcome our newest partner, ONE DROP, an initiative of Guy Laliberté of Cirque de Soleil that focuses on water-related issues worldwide. Of particular note, ONE DROP develops access-to-water and sanitation projects in countries where access to this vital resource is lacking. ONE DROP joins with ePals to raise awareness of water issues among teachers, students and parents worldwide and invites the entire ePals Global Community to commit to the cause of water for all, today and tomorrow!

ONE DROP is proud to introduce its class project titled Drops of Poetry. Inspired by the Poetic Social Mission into space of Guy Laliberté, its goal is to enable young people to learn more about water-related issues and to create! Explore the AQUA activity of the month and take part in the discussion on the monthly theme. All of ONE DROP's activities are offered in English, French and Spanish.

Learn more about the featured project, Drops of Poetry, now. Visit [|__www.epals.com/onedrop__]  today!

[|__Skype in the Classroom__]  - Build your own project or join an existing one Skype in the classroom is a free global community that invites teachers to collaborate on classroom projects where they might use Skype, and share skills and inspiration around specific teaching needs.

[|__International Education and Resource Network__]  (iEARN) iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is the world's largest non-profit global network that enables teachers and youth to use the Internet and other technologies to collaborate on projects that enhance learning and make a difference in the world.  130 Countries  30 Languages <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 40,000 Educators <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 2 Million Youth

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__TakingITGlobal__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - TakingITGlobal's mission is to empower youth to understand and act on the world's greatest challenges. We use the power of online community to facilitate global education, social entrepreneurship, and civic engagement for millions of youth worldwide. Founded in 1999, our award-winning www.tigweb.org is the leading social network for global citizenship, bringing together over 340,000 members with more than 22,000 non-profit organizations across 13 languages. Our <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__TIGed program__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> serves over 2,400 schools in 118 countries with professional development, engaging lesson plans, and collaborative global projects. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vision <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Youth everywhere actively engaged and connected in shaping a more inclusive, peaceful and sustainable world. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Who We Serve <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We serve youth primarily between the ages of 13 to 30 through:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__an online community__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and initiatives that focus on enabling actively engaged youth.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__education programs__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> geared towards middle and high school students.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What We Offer:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Global online social network and hub for civic participation
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Content & tools for educators to facilitate rich, interactive learning experiences
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Outreach & Collaboration tools for events, networks, campaigns, and causes
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Research, development, and sharing of best practices on youth engagement
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Facilitated learning experiences through workshops, webinars, and e-courses

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Why Bother?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Global awareness and understanding across cultures is key to the future of the planet
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student dropout and disengagement rates are at all-time highs, and costing billions in lost economic opportunities and crime
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Preventable diseases and health issues are on the rise globally, with young people often the most vulnerable and affected

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So Far...
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4.5 million young people reached in 2010, over 30 million since launch in 2000
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Engagement across 13 languages, and in every country and territory in the world
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thought leadership through presenting at over 500 education, technology, development, business, and youth conferences and events
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Partnerships across sectors with over 8 U.N. agencies, dozens of international civil society organizations, several top-tier technology companies (Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, Best Buy, Staples), and leading-edge foundations across North America.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Global recognition from the World Economic Forum and Tech Museum of Innovation

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Global SchoolNet__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - Global SchoolNet's mission is to support 21st century learning and improve academic performance through content-driven collaboration. We engage educators and students in meaningful e-learning projects worldwide to develop science, math, literacy and communication skills, foster teamwork, civic responsibility and collaboration, encourage workforce preparedness and create multi-cultural understanding. We prepare youth for full participation as productive and compassionate citizens in an increasing global economy. Founded in 1984, GSN is a 501(c)3 non-profit education organization. Let's work together to give youth the skills they need. You can create a profile and design your own proeject or join a GSN project or join another member’s projectProjects they run include:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Doors to Diplomacy__]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__International CyberFair__]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Online Expeditions__]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__GeoGame (Geography)__]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Newsday (Journalism)__]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Letters to Santa (Writing Exchange)__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Teddy Bears Around the World Project__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The idea is to collaboratively create a space with stories from different locations around the world. Students practice creative writing skills as they contribute stories from the bear’s perspective about their lives, surroundings and customs. I would like to expand having classes connect and interact with the stories of their teddies via more commenting. Teddy Bears Around The World started as a project with a school mascot called JosÃ©,Â the travel bear, who enjoyed roaming the world, getting to know new places and meeting interesting people. The Teddy Bears Around the World blog provides the space to hang out and communicate with different teddy bears around the world to hear more about their lives and adventures. This will allow our students to see each otherâ€™s countries, customs and traditions through the eyes of our â€œteddy bearsâ€ and open their horizons through a more global perspective. The idea is to have an ongoing exchange (no deadlines, no pressure) to contribute stories, photographs, videos or podcasts.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Flat Classroom Projects__]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Flat Classroom - <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Designed to develop cultural understanding, skills with Web 2.0 and other software, experience in global collaboration and online learning, awareness of what it means to live and work in a flat world, while researching and discussing the ideas developed in Friedman's book, ‘The World is Flat’. ( <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.flatclassroomproject.net/flat-classroom-project.html__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Digiteen Project - <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">21st Century Character Education - discuss current digital citizenship trends and news; research and take action to do with being online in the 21st century. Design and execute an offline action project at school to promote safe, appropriate online behaviors. ( <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.digiteen.org/apply.html__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eracism - <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A series of asynchronous debates be held via VoiceThread to promote awareness of racism on a global basis and how we need to work together to solve the world's problems. ( <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.eracismproject.org/__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Net Gen Ed (Internet Generation Education) - <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A study and "mash up" of the results of the 2011 Horizon Report from the <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__New Media Consortium__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Educause__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and Tapscott's book <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Students will:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Study the current research and create wiki-reports with their student partners around the world analyzing current trends and projecting future happenings based upon this collaborative analysis.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Receive encouragement from "expert advisors" (subject matter experts in the industry),
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Create a video in one of two strands (1-envision the future of education based upon current global technological trends; 2-Macrowikinomics Challenge where students envision the future of global social action based upon their research) ( <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.netgened.org/__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A Week in the Life...' - a Flat Classroom® Project for Elementary School students of approximately ages 8-10. The curriculum focus is Interdisciplinary, how we live, how we communicate, cultural understanding and awareness. The aim of the project is to join Elementary School classrooms globally with a view to exploring what life is like in each country through discussion, sharing and collecting multimedia to create final products together.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">K-2 'Building Bridges to Tomorrow' Project! This project will run as a pilot for the coming semester, February-April 2012 and be open to Prep/Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 classrooms (4-7 year old students).
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Can very young students effectively connect, communicate, and collaborate in a global project? What does this look like? What products can students in mixed classroom teams co-create? What activities and structure can we design and implement to scaffold this collaboration? There are many wonderful opportunities out there already for students to connect using technology tools. However the aim in this project is also to encourage students in different places to collaborate, not just communicate, and to enhance understanding of cultures and life styles beyond the immediate environment.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We invite teachers who believe global collaboration has a place in their classroom. We invite those who want to improve digital citizenship and cultural understanding, leading to global competency amongst students and teachers. We invite teachers who have some digital fluency and access to digital tools who want to use them in meaningful ways to connect with others and learn together.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The ‘Building Bridges to Tomorrow’ call for <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__applications is open now__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">! Classrooms will be selected for the pilot and announced before the end of February. Following a teacher kick-off meeting, classrooms will work collaboratively through March and April with final products and celebrations taking place late April and into May.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">IB Schools Connect Project - a model of what we might do: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://mcg.psdschools.org/who-we-are/classrooms/technology/global-collaboration__]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Model: Technology is allowing students at McGraw to actively explore what it means to be a global citizen. This year, all 1st-4th grade classes and Matt Brinkman’s 5th grade classroom at McGraw are part of a collaborative learning community with same-grade classes at BINUS International School in Jakarta, Indonesia.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Over the course of this school year students in participating McGraw classrooms will be collaborating with their peers at BINUS in exploring common PYP units of inquiry, on writing and digital art projects, and in sharing with each other what they are learning. Students’ participation in PYP Pals is an extension of the curriculum at McGraw and will also help them enhance their communication, thinking and social skills. Having a “live audience” for students’ work is a huge motivator for them to develop these skills and provides a greater sense of purpose, beyond the walls of the classroom, for their learning. It also prepares them for the type of global online collaboration that will be expected of many of them in their future careers. Most importantly, this project is helping our students explore their world through a different set of eyes.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Classrooms in grades 1-2 are using a private Voice Threads site and students in grades 3-5 are using a private pbworks wiki sites that are “by invitation only” and are managed by myself and the media specialist at BINUS, Mr. Boni Pandojo. Each student has been provided their own unique password to their class Voice Thread or wiki, which they can access from school or home.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Soon,students will begin more formal collaboration with each other on projects and PYP units. We will keep you posted as our collaboration develops. Please contact me at pschkade@psdshcools.org or 488-8374 if you have questions about our students' global online collaboration with BINUS students or anything else technology-related at McGraw.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Our World, Our Stories__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: Primary Students Connecting and Sharing <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How will it work? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students from all classes will connect and collaborate by sharing their stories, experiences, thoughts and opinions about a variety of themes. This will happen through <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__the blog__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and involve a variety of media. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A different class will “lead” a topic each week, publishing posts and replying to comments. Topics will be based on students’ interests such as school games, hobbies, food, local environment etc. The other classes will read the posts, possibly publish their own posts, and leave blog comments. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The learning <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Through the blog comments, students from the different classes will have conversations. Students will gain an understanding of different countries and cultures. They will make comparisons and contrasts between their lives and other students’ lives. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The students will reflect on their own experiences and hopefully develop a curiosity about other students’ stories. They will develop a voice to share their own stories. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Concluding the project <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This project will last for seven weeks. Stayed tuned for a culminating celebration in December!

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__The Machinto Project__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is a K–12 literature-based iEARN program that draws inspiration from the Japanese picture book Machinto, which is about a 3-year-old girl who is outside playing in Hiroshima, Japan, on the morning of August 6, 1945. She is tragically killed by the atomic bomb but is resurrected as a peace dove that brings hope to other children in the world who are affected by war.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students learn about how war affects children their own age in the past as well as in the present day. They also read other books with a similar theme, such as Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and Peace Crane, and learn to make both text-to-text and text-to-world connections.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The culminating task for the project is the creation of a picture book with the theme of peace and friendship. Every participant makes his or her own book to publish on the Machinto website. The program also sends the collection of books to children in war-affected areas of the world as a gift of friendship from the project participants.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This year, our students created picture books about how they imagined peace and sent them to a school in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The amount of work, care, and thought the students put into their writing and artwork showed the depth of connection they had to the project and to their peers in Afghanistan.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Machinto participants located at schools throughout the world had the chance to meet each other during a live Web conference. They participated in a literature circle during a virtual class-to-class meeting and shared their stories, poems, and artwork in a "classroom without borders" with peers from Canada, Taiwan, Japan, Mali, and the United States. It was a life-changing experience for both the teachers and the students involved, as having that personal connection to others reinforced the relationships they developed through the project.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The students get to view each other through a different lens than if they had been left to learn about each other through contemporary media alone. One student articulated her feelings about the project in a profound way: "Before the Machinto project, I never gave the war much thought. Now that I know someone living in those situations, I feel compassionate toward them." This kind of character development, though immeasurable, is an invaluable learning experience.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Integrate global collaborative projects into all curriculum areas, so they aren't just time-consuming add-ons, and they meet curriculum standards in all subject areas. For example, one project that fits many K–12 curriculum strands is the <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__My Hero Project__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students can publish essays about their heroes for a global audience. Entire classes can also participate in the project within a formal global "Learning Circle" of six to eight classes from countries all over the world.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A project facilitator coordinates activities for all of the classes in the circle. Each class is responsible for completing and posting class interest surveys on group forums, sending welcome packages to the other classes in their circle, and participating in online circle discussions about their heroes.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students research and write about a hero in their lives using a structured writing-process tool and create a webpage about the hero with publishing tools (found on the eCreate page of the My Hero site). These tools enable students to include pictures, Web links, bibliographies, and quotations. At the end of the project, each class has a professional-looking webpage that features My Hero stories from each participant.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Knowing that their stories are to be part of a worldwide project and having the ability to share their work are huge motivators for many reluctant writers. In fact, we have seen students who had never before finalized a piece of written work produce an inspiring My Hero story.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students can also produce short films about their heroes. Several fourth grade students from W. H. Day Elementary School in Bradford, Ontario, Canada, wrote, filmed, produced, and edited a short film about their hero, Mohamed Sidibay, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone they had supported and communicated with for several years. They submitted the final product to a national Canadian multimedia competition and won first place in the elementary school category for their film.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">These projects also allow for differentiation within the summative and assessment pieces while encouraging all participants to reach their potential. We encourage teachers to participate in the My Hero project as a springboard to integrating technology into their classrooms while participating in collaborative learning, as the project is so successful with students of every age group.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Art Miles project__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> is a collaborative global project that helps geographically distant K–12 classes learn about a specific aspect of each other's country. This year, several classes from Japan partnered with classes from Canada, Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam, Italy, and Fiji. As the program expands, other countries will be added as partners, including Romania and the United States.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The students' primary job is to teach their partners about a specific aspect of their own country or culture. Each class begins their participation by preparing and sending a welcome package of gifts from their culture to introduce their community to the other class. The students put a great deal of thought and effort into this package. Our Ontario class sent Canadian flags; maps; hockey cards; maple syrup; a small Canadian sweater; a variety of Canadian tales, such as "The Paper Bag Princess;" and information about an environmental issue in our region. In return, our Japanese partners sent origami paper, Japanese cartoons, Japanese games, and books that depict the Japanese culture and environment. Each class also prepared a short video that gave a tour of their school and community.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The students communicated through a wiki, where they posted photos, told stories, and planned their final collaborative task, painting a 12-by-5-foot mural. For their part of this task, the Japanese students painted half of the mural about what they learned about the Canadian environmental issue. They then shipped the mural to us, and we completed it based on what we learned about the Japanese environmental issue. The end result was a truly inspiring depiction of an important part of each country’s environment, a symbol of the classes’ collaborative relationship, and a demonstration of how technology can seamlessly integrate science, art, and literacy while celebrating cultural diversity through the universal language of art.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We will display the mural around our community before it goes back to Japan to be part of the Japanese students’ graduation ceremony. From there, it will become part of a traveling art exhibit that will be displayed at major art galleries throughout the world before ending up in an exhibit with 5,000 other Art Miles murals at the Great Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, to celebrate the end of the UNESCO Decade of Peace in 2010.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__Stories Around the World__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - We are 11 classes from different parts of the world. Our stories come from 5 countries across 3 continents in both the northern and southern hemispheres. We hope to use technology as a tool to enrich student learning as we flatten our classroom walls. These are our stories.

Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE)
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">**__ SCHOLARS CORNER __** Scholars Corner features videos of scholars from the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) discussing contemporary issues and research in their fields of expertise, reflecting FSI¹s research interest in the problems, policies, and processes that cross international borders and affect lives around the world. Each video is accompanied by a suggested short activity and/or lesson that can be used in the classroom to help students better understand the content being discussed.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">@https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/content/scholars-corner