For years we tried expanding the horizons of the students in my former elementary
school by email exchanges and collaborative projects with students around the world.
We had simple projects with schools in Belgium, Intuit schools in the Arctic Circle
in Canada, schools in other parts of the US as well as South Africa. In some cases
we gathered data about our respective towns. In other cases we continued the
discussions for long periods learning also about the school systems and daily life.
We engaged in a teddy bear exchange with a class in Australia through I*earn.org
http://www.iearn.org.au/tbear/
I got to visit with that class and even returned their teddy bear to them one
summer (their winter). My classes also exchanged email with those in Barbara
Braxton's school. The classroom teacher at the first Australian school near
Melbourne, visited us in NJ with her family 2 years ago.
A group of 4 students and the headmaster from Crewe Primary School in East London,
South Africa visited schools in my district for 2 weeks in 2000 and were guests in
our homes.
One of our classes also got involved in the Postcard exchange with schools mostly
in the US.
http://pcg.cyberbee.com/
Finally we even engaged in a video-conferencing project with kids in our state.
Students were all studying the state and gathered facts about their town. They met
on a live video hookup and presented the facts from each location. Students in the
partner school had to do the research and guess where the other school was located.
Finally all met on video again, presented answers tot he questions and guessed
(correctly!) where the other class was located.
We incorporated state and local standards to do these projects and I am sure the
participants in each location enjoyed them. More importantly we expanded the
horizons of our elementary students in New Jersey.
On a personal level I try to visit local schools when I travel. Last Fall I
visited a K-6 school in rural China and listened to 6th grade students tell us
about their lives in perfect English!
Jo
Josephine Dervan, MLS -Online Instructor
School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Stout
dervan at optonline.net
dervanj@uwstout.edu
He who has a library and a garden, wants for nothing- Cicero
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