Classroom Potential: Going Global

Leaz, Bob, "How to Go Global in Your Classroom." Blogs: Bob Leaz. June 30, 2009. http://www.edutopia.org/technology-global-classroom

Bob Leaz, a educational technology blogger from Edutopia.org, discusses the potential positive results of going global in today's classroom.

Leaz claims, "given the level of sophistication of today's students, why not use technology to extend the classrooms and collaborate globally?: Furthermore, Leaz states, "Today's digitally connected world presents challenges and opportunities never before seen. To be successful in the workplace tomorrow, students must know how to interactively collaborate with peers locally as well as globally."

Leaz argues that today's students should be offered the chance to use technology in the classroom to work on projects in a collaborative fashion with students from around the world.

He cites one instance where high school students from the United States and high school students from Singapore collaborated, via Google documents, to create a web site dedicated to promoting tolerance and eliminating bullying in school.

Leaz also mentions how some college professors will use videos from YouTube as a way to bring experts "into the classroom" for their students. Students are required to view the YouTube videos before class and then the class discusses the content matter. Later on, the experts in the YouTube videos can be brought into the classroom, via teleconferencing, to discuss their YouTube video with the students in the classroom.

I enjoyed Mr. Leaz's blog because there is so much optimism in the subject he discusses. We have learned in class that today's students are indeed digital natives who are used to not only multi-tasking but also used to utilizing technology on a daily basis.

Today's world indeed is shrinking and we are connecting not only with our neighbors on our street, but now also connected with our neighbors in our global neighborhood. The shared project between the students from the United States and Singapore not only resulted in a cool project (a joined web site), but it also probably provided the students from each country to get a better understanding about the culture in the other county and how it defines, tolerates and reacts to an issues such as tolerance and bullying.

Teachers are crippled by teaching to the OAT and OGT tests, and I'm sure it limits the amount of time they have to work on cool independent projects because they need to hit as many standards and objectives as possible. However, if organized, a teacher can find time to work on a collabortive project that is enriching for one's students.