Module 10 Using digital communication and collaboration tools to interact globally with students, peers, parents, and the larger community

Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World 
The global economy and the demands of work have changed because of the speed of the Internet, lowering import tariffs, and foreign investment by the federal government. Employers are looking for more competent and reliable workers who are are willing to work wherever the job is located.  Jobs that are completed by using simple techniques are being completed by robots, where as jobs that require expert thinking and communication are on the rise.  High levels of mathematics, reading, writing, literature, science, history, and arts will be essential in the future employee generation. Future jobs will require employees to imagine and create things that will be able to be used in everyday life.  Examples are writing books, movies, imagining new types of software, and developing creative sales techniques. In order for the students to understand the deflated economy, they will need to be willing to improve on their own work and have the willingness to change. With globalization changing the workforce, students will also need to understand the foreign market.  For workers to be competitive, students must understand the global significance. Topics that are imperative for global significance are engineering, science and business, which require the student to think and act like an expert. A change in demographics is happening all over the world and in the United States it is no different.  214 million migrants are living and working around the world, and 50 million are estimated to live within the United States.  The migrant population is responsible for giving back $338 billion dollars to their county of origin.  Besides the money aspect, migrants also send back to their home country social ideas and know-hows.  A growing number of migrants are able to communicate with their family back in their home country because of the technology revolution. In order for students to succeed in a world of unprecedented migration we have to provide students with positive examples when cultures meet.  They can meet in the classroom, society, or virtually.  What can help the students compete in the changing global economy is the use of Common Core Standards.  Common Core gives the teachers flexibility to create learning experiences in working with the global economy and work force.  Competent global students must be able to recognize global perspectives.

     1. Recognize and express their own perspective on situations, events, issues, or
     phenomena and identify the influences on that perspective.

     2. Examine perspectives of other people, groups, or schools of thought and identify the
     influences on those perspectives. 

     3. Explain how cultural interactions influence situations, events, issues, or phenomena,
     including the development of knowledge.

     4. Articulate how differential access to knowledge, technology, and resources affects
     quality of life and perspectives. (Jackson and Mansilla, 36).

A school in California and a learning center for the poor in a slum in India engaged with each other with the concern for awareness of living conditions.  The project encouraged the students to think for themselves, and see how the majority of the world lives. Students communicated by using Skype and blogs and reviewed each others' work.  The students review of the work from their counterparts in India turned into contemporary art, and the work of the students in India turned into a mobile classroom that could be used for a place of meditation and study.  Diverse workplace, academic study, and civic participation is must for the 21st century students.  Connections with other cultures will overcome stereotypes, and develop intercultural understanding.  Learning about other people's culture forces the students to develop intercultural awareness.  

Sister Cities and Sister Schools
Pen pals are now maintained on a blog level and no longer with a pen and paper.  Sister Schools use blogs to express ideas, experiences, and histories. By using three examples it has created a worldly connection. Blogs are also being used for students introducing themselves to other foreign partners, communicating about field trips and allowing administrators to provide information to each other about their schools.  Blogs are being used primarily by teachers, but student use is on the rise. The only draw back of students blogging is that teachers are not able to consistently monitor their blogs.  PowerPoint, Keynote, and Slide Shows are all programs that help provide visual representation between global communities.  Skype is used through a PC, whereas FaceTime is used with a Mac device.  Both help with the understanding and communication with peers face to face.  Problems arise when the broad band, time zones, and cameras prove to be a speed bump when trying to communicate.  Wikis are used to collaborate information about the topics of discussion. Users are able to edit the information that is presented.  Blogs and wikis are generally used by administrators, teachers and sister city leaders and can be used anytime, in any time zone.  Again, adult supervision is a concern with wikis because the supervision maybe not be available at all times.  YouTube is used to exchange visit reports, introductions to sister schools, and documenting community information.  Lack of video equipment can be a road block when accessing YouTube, but on the bright side it can be done whenever and wherever, no matter the time zone.

Virtual Field Trips - The Hershey Company
All the cocoa beans come from other countries, and they are shipped to Hershey, Pennsylvania. The reason Hershey Pennsylvania was chosen to make chocolate is because of the lush land for dairy farms and abundant spring water.  Milk is valuable but the beans are the most important. They arrive daily. Once the beans are cleaned, they are sorted by country of origin. The beans are then shattered and the nib, which is the inside of the bean, is used to make the chocolate. Nibs are then changed to chocolate liqueur, and then when the nibs are ground up, the result is cocoa powder. Constant grinding gives the chocolate the fine texture, and this takes several hours. 100 pounds of chocolate is created each day, with almonds from California being used to make candy bars.

OERcommons
OERcommons is a free resource that teachers and students can use.  Open Educational Resource (OER) offers "courses, modules, syllabi, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, lab activities, pedagogical materials, games, simulations, and many more resources contained in digital media collections from around the world."  The feature is Wikipedia, the feature network is OLNET Evidence hub, and there is an app for training, also. There are tabs that give the user guidance around the website.  A road map is presented for leaders, teachers, and students.  There are yearly meetings, and the meeting places are all around the work. The groups where people can meet are from Hawaii, Arkansas, and UC Berkeley.

Reflection

It is impressive that globalization is uniting the work force and creating a more centralized businesses. Twenty-first century employees will need to understand different cultures in order to effectively work together.  I wonder how the communication began with the school in California and the learning center in India.  What a great experience for the students and teachers.  I bet friendships were created and bonds formed.  I would venture to say the students from California gained more than educational knowledge.  I would think they feel lucky and blessed to have such a simple and easy life at home, compared to the students  in India. Sister City and Sister Schools was interesting in that technology is their only way to quickly stay connected.  With wikis, YouTube, FaceTime and Skype being used for communication, the schools are able to create bonds and relationships. It is wonderful how all of these items have surpassed the "pen pal era".  OER is and can be a great resource; I am teaching patterns to my fifth graders and I am stuck at the moment, and I have already found information that will help me teach math patterns to my class.  There are over 312 items to look for! Great resource.

Virtual Field Trip to See Where The Battle of Gettysburg Took Place
I have always been curious about the Civil War, and more importantly Gettysburg.  There is a large amount of information and multimedia concerning Gettysburg on the web.  The amount of information was so much that it was difficult to decide what to use and what not use. My virtual field trip will explain the important significance of The Battle of Gettysburg and the events that happened that made this battle a deciding factor in the war.

Following are the links for the virtual field trip:

-What started The Battle of Gettysburg

- Picketts Charge

- General Lee's last ditch effort to win Gettysburg

-  Horrifc images of war

- The Gettysburg Address