International Project-Based Learning Opportunities
Bob Pearlman, a strategy consultant for 21st-century school development and writer/blogger for Edutopia, explains project based learning as the following:
Students of today enter an increasingly globalized world in which technology plays a vital role. They must be good communicators as well as great collaborators. The new work environment requires responsibility and the ability to self-manage as well as the interpersonal and project- management skills needed for teamwork and leadership. Enter project-based learning, designed to put students into a students-as-workers setting in which they learn collaboration, critical- thinking, and written- and oral-communication skills along with the values of a strong work ethic, all while meeting state or national content standards. But don't confuse PBL with simply doing activities injected into traditional education to enliven things as a culminating event for a learning unit. Real PBL, in contrast, is deep, complex, rigorous, and integrated. (www.edutopia.org)
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Project Based Learning - Web Addresses
**Note: Descriptions were excerpted directly from program websites.
Name |
Description |
Web Address |
100 People: A World Portrait |
We are traveling the globe to meet
and create portraits of the 100 people representing all 7 billion of us
sharing the planet. Using the 100 People framework, students interview and
create portraits of individuals they admire most in their communities. The
portraits are then exhibited at their schools and on our website, and
inviting students, teachers and community members into a global conversation
about their place in the world. |
|
Asia Society |
Asia Society is the leading
educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and
strengthening partnerships among peoples, leaders and institutions of Asia
and the United States in a global context. |
|
Connect All
Schools |
Read descriptions of what happens
when classrooms connect globally. Begin planning global adventures for your
own classroom. |
|
Edutopia PBL |
Edutopia Long term and student centered, project learning is
a rigorous hands-on approach to learning core subject matter and basic skills
with meaningful activities that examine complex, real-world issues. |
|
ePals |
ePals Global Community allows teachers and students to
connect directly through online delivery and share culture-to-culture |
|
Flat Classrooms Project |
Flat Classrooms Project uses
Web 2.0 tools to support communication, interaction, and collaboration
between students and teachers from classrooms around the world |
|
Global Classrooms Model UN |
An innovative educational program
that engages middle school and high school students in an exploration of
current world issues through interactive simulations and curricular
materials. Global Classrooms cultivates literacy, life skills and the
attitudes necessary for active citizenship. |
|
Global Education |
This website is a great starting
point. It contains resources to help teachers in all curriculum areas
add a global perspective to their classrooms. |
|
Global Gateway - Pulitzer
Center |
This program engages the next
generation on pressing systemic international issues. Global Gateway provides
students with fresh information on global issues, helps them think critically
about the creation and dissemination of news, and inspires them to become
active consumers and producers of information. |
|
GlobalSchoolNet |
Global SchoolNet's
main purpose is to help teachers find collaborative learning partners and
appropriate projects which engage students in brain-friendly e-learning
projects worldwide to develop science, math, literacy and communication
skills, foster teamwork, civic responsibility and collaboration, encourage
workforce preparedness and create multi-cultural understanding |
|
Growing Up Global |
Growing up Global serves as a
resource of ideas, activities, and projects to expose students to the world
around them. |
|
Heifer International |
Heifer
International encourages students to become "community aware and
community involved" in working to address global hunger |
|
iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) |
iEarn
empowers teachers and young people to work together online using the
Internet and other new communications technologies. |
|
Kiva |
Kiva provided opportunity for students to make an
economic impact through microloans to people in developing countries |
|
OneWorld Classrooms |
OneWorld Classrooms is a nonprofit organization that builds
bridges of learning between the classrooms of the world. OneWorld
Classrooms offers free online travel and a variety of opportunities for K-12
classrooms to interact with overseas partners. Within the framework of their
school curricula, OneWorld Classrooms teachers tap
the uniquely connective powers of the arts and technology to provide
opportunities for global exploration and cross-cultural communication in
their classrooms. |
|
Pen Pal News |
Connects over 25,000 students from
around the world to discover new cultures, learn about global issues, and
practice foreign languages. |
|
Primary Source |
Promotes history and humanities
education by connecting educators to people and cultures throughout the
world. |
|
RESPECT International |
A refugee education sponsorship program, and their global letter exchange program puts
refugee students in written communication with non-refugee
students. They seek to raise awareness of refugee issues, to build
bridges between refugee and non-refugee students, and to encourage students
to raise awareness of refugee issues. |
|
The Global Education
Collaborative |
An online community for those
interested in global education. Through multimedia forums and
projects, members can join students, parents, teachers, administrators,
higher education professionals, non-profit organizations, consultants and
businesses to find common interests related to global education. |
|
The Global Nomads Group |
Purpose is to foster dialogue and
understanding among the world's youth. GNG’s educational programs include
video conferencing and videos for learning content on a variety of
international issues relevant to teachers and students. |
|
The Global Virtual Classroom |
The Global Virtual Classroom (GVC)
is a collection of free, online educational activities and resources. It aims
to complement the efforts of governments and educators around the world to
integrate technology into their classrooms and curricula and to link their
schools to the Internet in educationally productive ways. |
|
The Omprakash
Classroom Portal |
Helps teachers and students
connect with active Omprakash Partners and
Volunteers who have expressed interest in using their experiences to enrich
curricula and generate resources for service and learning. Active Volunteers
can serve as liaisons between classrooms and our international Partners, and
ideally can visit schools in their local communities after they return from
volunteering. |
|
The World of 7 Billion |
The World of 7 Billion campaign
is an educational resource for both students and teachers. The United Nations
announced October 31, 2011 as the "Day of 7 Billion." Now that
we've reached the immense milestone of 7 billion people, it is important to
understand how we got here, analyze the impact of our choices, and realize
that our decisions can and will impact the future. |
|
ThinkQuest |
Think Quest is an international
student competition. Teams of students
and teachers are challenged to create web sites on educational topics and
compete for prizes. The completed
projects are published in the ThinkQuest Library. |
|
Voices of Youth |
Voices
of Youth is a global community for young
people to learn about development issues (such as Environment, Education,
Human Rights, etc) and to express their opinions. |
|
World Savvy |
World Savvy educates and engages
youth in community and world affairs, to learn, work and thrive as
responsible global citizens in the 21st century. |
|
World Wise Schools |
World Wise Schools matches up
Peace Corps Volunteers in the field with U.S. classroom teachers. |
Twitter Feeds for Global Education
Twitter is a great form of professional development and place to keep up with current news and trends. I find it to be the quickest, most comprehensive way to stay involved with the news and latest educational ideas.
Check out the hashtags #globaled and #globallearning to find other educators who are dedicated to building student global competence. You can also use these in combination with a project-based learning hashtag, #pbl, in order to find real-world projects.
Along with using hashtags, you should “follow” several globally-minded educators/organizations in order to stay informed of global educational ideas. Below is a comprehensive list I found for Global Twitter Feeds/Descriptions on Edweek’s blog.
@ConnectaSchool Sharing the Stories of Schools Connecting Internationally.
@ConnectStateGov Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of @StateDept. Building friendly, peaceful relations through international exchanges.
@DrTonyWagner Innovation Ed Fellow, Tech & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. Author: The Global Achievement Gap & Creating Innovators.
@elemenous Apple Distinguished Educator Lucy Gray is an education technology and social media consultant; co-founder of the Global Education Conference. See also @globaledcon.
@edweekcomm The commentary section of @EducationWeek, America's education newspaper of record.
@global_nomads Fostering dialogue, understanding and peaceful co-existence among the world's youth through #globaled #Exchange20 technology
@growingupglobal Author, GrowingUpGlobal (RandomHouse) write, speak, explore what it means to be a global citizen. TEDx talkhttp://bit.ly/dEUSLP
@GTEorg Supporting internationalization of teacher preparation programs in the US. Mission of preparing globally competent teachers.
@iEARNUSA U.S. member of the global K-12 project-based collaboration network. (Follow other iEARN member organizations, too.)
@julielindsay Global educator, Innovator, teacherpreneur, leader. Co-founder @flatclassroom, author, 'Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds'
@Kathe_Kirby Executive Director of the Asia Education Foundation, Asialink at the University of Melbourne.
@langwitches Modern Learning (Second Decade of Century XXI) - Globally Connected Learning- Social Media in the Classroom
@OWYP One World Youth Project links schools around the world to build a generation of global citizens. A program of the El-Hibri Charitable Foundation.
@PrimarySRC Helping educators gain the knowledge & tools they need to prepare students to thrive in today's interconnected world.
@RitaOates Global edtech leader who helps empower K12 educators to engage learners. Was edtech dir in Miami-Dade schools. Keynote speaker, author.
@TGC_IREX TGC is an opportunity for teachers from the US to participate in a program aimed at globalizing US classrooms. TGC is a program of ECA administered by IREX.
@Tonya_Muro Director of School Outreach and Educational Partnerships@AFSUSA. #globaled collaborator! Global Nomad
@WorldSavvy World Savvy educates and engages youth in community and world affairs, to learn, work and thrive as responsible global citizens in the 21st century.
(source edweek.org)