KIDS TALKING TO KIDS Presented by Edna Sackson Mount Scopus Memorial College IB Asia Pacific Conference March 2011 CREATING GLOBAL CONNECTIONS FOR LEARNING

Imagine…

Imagine…

Key concepts

Japan Hong Kong Indonesia Israel Sri Lanka Singapore India Thailand UK USA What does it look like? Form

Growing food successfully requires knowledge and understanding of the natural world. Understanding our geographical neighbours helps develop a global perspective

Understanding other cultures To connect to different cultures we need to understand their customs, beliefs and values

Connection

Kids talking to kids Understanding our geographical neighbours helps develop a global perspective

Instead of learning about them, we talked to them.

your friends you your school your country my country your community my community Perspective Similar and different… me my friends my school

I think it’s great that we (Australians) can talk to people in India. I find it even better that it’s led by children, because it can help us with our inquiry. It’s a good idea that we can interact with children of a different culture and find out about them in this way.

think big make it relevant be inspired get tech support develop a PLN think small join skype be persistent let go connect asynch How does it work? Function

Connecting asynchronously Understanding our geographical neighbours helps develop a global perspective

Monika: The boys literally looked like they were trying to peek into a window. I think it’s fantastic that we are getting the opportunity to teach, so others maybe can benefit from what we’ve learned ourselves. It was great in the sense that we can share our learning all over the world and it’s not limited just to the classroom.

Overcoming obstacles

Reflection

Little kids talking to kids

What are the effects? Causation connection authenticity engagement creativity collaboration understanding awareness social conscience critical thinking communication

Q: Where do you get your water from, is it fresh and clean? Do you ever get sick from the water? Do you get water 24 hours in a day? A: No (in response to availability of water) Q: When do you get your water? A: 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the evening Q:  Do you use tap water? Or store water? How? Where do you wash your clothes? A: Yes, store in barrels, cans, and tanks in the house and big kitchen utensils (wash clothes) at home from the stored water and a little later in the conversation— Q: Does the government help you in any way? A: At election time, (some parties) make sure we get water for 2 days at a stretch Q: Is the water enough for your family? A: Yes it is enough… Water is a shared resource that is precious and is essential for the survival of all living things.

The thought of seeing children from so far away in their own room was exciting, and intimidating all at once. But they caught on to the idea that they could find out about each other using this medium:  text on skype, translations from and into English, from and into Marathi and Hindi. And I was inundated with queries to send to them even after the session was over. But what really struck me, yet again, was the vast potential for understanding different perspectives and situations. 

Change

Responsibility balanced communicators risk takers open minded caring thinkers responsible inquirers knowledgeable reflective principled empathetic respectful globally aware

Where to from here?

Blog: http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com Twitter: @whatedsaid Email: eddizmail@gmail.com  Cartoons: http://bit.ly/mytoons  Voicethreads: http://voicethread.com/share/1530609/ http://voicethread.com/share/1088459/  Video: http://bit.ly/by_ed   Useful websites: http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/ http://www.wtvi.com/TEKS/05_06_articles/skype-in-the-classroom.html http://www.epals.com/ http://www.skypeforeducators.com/educators.htm http://www.iearn.org/ http://www.technologybitsbytesnibbles.info/archives/3948 http://voicethread.com/ http://www.toondoo.com  Blogs to inspire you: http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/03/04/third-graders-called-upon-to-be-the-experts/ http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/10-ways-to-create-global-connections/ http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/tag/global-interaction/ http://primarytech.global2.vic.edu.au/2011/02/10/my-journey-with-global-collaboration/ For your interest: http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/tag/soles-and-somes/ http://solesandsomes.wikispaces.com/ http://pzweb.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/VisibleThinking1.html    Images in presentation: eivindw Cesar R. Robbert van der Steeg Extra Ketchup Bob AuBuchon MazzSackson