I attended the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference online this year. I had access to a few sessions a day, and time to process in between. One of the best sessions I saw was Lisa Parisi's presentation on being a global educator. Her projects reminded me of our Volunteer Club work. One of the thoughts that struck me the most is that her students learned so many real-life skills through globally connected projects, but that they wouldn't have had access to those experiences if she wasn't a connected educator.
Ken Shelton talked in one of the ISTE sessions about teaching kids a mindset, not a skillset, and that is what Lisa embodies in her classroom. Globally connected projects teach students how to communicate and interact with others while stretching their global mindset. Here is Ken's TED Talk on this idea.
Lisa suggests getting started by cultivating your Twitter PLN (Personal Learning Network), and starting with a Mystery Skype.
A Mystery Skype is where two teachers meet up on the website, coordinate a Skype time and have their students guess the geographic location of the other class. The learning occurs as a result of natural curiosity when students start asking and answering questions. (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.2 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.)
Lisa has all of her projects on the Our Global Friendships wiki. There are replicable projects, and activities where a teacher is looking for other classes to participate with them. One of the collaborative projects last year was a compilation of pictures and videos from classes across the globe for the UN sponsored, International Day of Peace.
Another activity classes can participate in is Pernille Ripp’s Global Read Aloud. This project is where teachers sign their classes up to read the same book during the same period of time. The students are able to discuss the book with others around the world.
Lisa organizes Quad Blogging between her class and three others from around the world. The teachers decide on a theme. Week 1, class 1 blogs and the other three classes respond with comments. This continues for the next 3 weeks so that each class gets a chance to be authors on an original blog post. The final week, all classes can reflect on the process and discuss what they learned from each other.
If the technology involved in these projects makes you nervous, there are a lot of other educators out there who have tried something for the first time as well, and are more than willing to help. Search for #edtech or #globaled on Twitter to find them, or investigate Lisa’s wiki to figure out how to jump in!
One of the other great messages throughout the conference was the reminder that learning takes place in the process, not the product. If we can teach kids how to pick themselves up after each try and continue the process, we will be cultivating a growth mindset that will propel them forward.
#notatiste, but still learning!
