Global Education

I came on here to write about the keynote address for the on-line conference we watched last week, and ended up reading my classmates entries here. An awful lot of us are really finding exciting ways to use 2.0 resources in our classrooms and it was great to read about so many projects--and realize that there are so many of you out there who can help me when mine gets to the stage where I'm actually using it with students.

This is what I found exciting--real projects, conducted in real public school classrooms with the actual resources I'll have to use. This is also what I found lacking in the presentation, although I agreed with every bit of it theoretically.

I'm not sure how many of you have read Bloomability by Sharon Creech. It is a kind of "grow where you're planted " tale, set in an international school in Switzerland. I loved the book when I read it and think working in an international school would be pretty amazing. But it is a little like Disney World. In many ways, it isn't real.

The speaker used aspects of Asian Culture to describe what schools need to do. I travelled to China with Primary Source several summers ago, and could recognize the qualities she cited both in the culture and in terms of school success. She made some excellent and interesting points. But to use a culture to school comparison without discussing the actual education in that culture is a serious disconnect. China, for example, supports free education only through grade 6. I was able to visit a subsidised school during my stay in china and found cinder block walls with room for 40 children who sat on benches at tables. 21st century techniques, such as collaborative learning or student centered projects were completely non-existant. Their computed lab had only painting and typing programs. There was no internet access.

So obviously, international schools, which use Westerm models and are filled mostly with people not native to that land, speak to an advantage had by some which the majority in a nation do not share. This doesn't make them bad places--they are probably wonderful places--but this issue of advantage and elitism can't be ignored.

I agreed completely with the gift of Global awareness being gained by these students--even from the safety of their schools. I was lucky enough to have some of these advantages myself. My parents took me to Haiti in grade 7, and I saw how incredibly little some people in the world have. I had to deal with my feelings of guilt over having so much--and be impressed by how some could do so much with so little. I got a true understanding that many parts of the world are not "safe". Our brakes were cut by people who wanted us to hire them as drivers. When passing the presidential palace, a taxi driver stopped and hurried us out of the car to stand at attention because the military band began playing. He was cleary afraid. I had never sensed this in the United States. I spent a summer in Sicily with the Experiment in International living in 1979. This experience was too amazing to go into too much here. But my point is, that I see the value of Global awareness.

I am frustrated when some of our students whose families have the resources choose to spend the money on "safe" and "fun" vacations such as Disney or cruises. There is nothing wrong with either of these--the cruise is yet to come--but Disney was fun. But I think more can be gained through travel which challenges our assuptions about the world. I appreciate the point made in the address that learning about other cultures helps one learn about one's own culture and oneself. Sometimes to learn, a level of discomfort is necessary. In some cases, it is healthy to ask, why do I have so much, while these people have so little?When I traveled to China, a man came up to me in a museum and asked me if I was rich. I answered, "Not in the United State", because I am rich compared to 90% of the people in China.

I've been actively trying to find a pen pal project with Egypt for a project on current day Egypt with my class. I've tried epals, a contact at the middle eastern resource center, flat classroom, ilearn, ($100.00 to join--and that doesn't guarentee a project...), joined a Global ning... None of this seems to be helping. I do plan to try another burst of leads--I have some in mind and welcome other--but may need to shift directions. These networks aren't really helping me so far.
But seeing what the rest of you have done in real classrooms. That is very helpful.