Teachers Without Borders

From TWB website:

Teachers are the largest single group of trained professionals in the world and the key to our children's future. Teacher training is often uneven, protracted, or unsupported. Teachers need our assistance; otherwise, we are left with poverty, lack of development, and a gaping digital, educational, and economic divide. Every major global report considers teacher development an urgent, collective necessity in developed and developing nations. Teachers need to connect to, give, and receive information quickly, and in multiple languages.

If the key to economic development and our young people's future is education, then teachers should have resources, tools, and access to the Internet, as well as each other. Even more, the resources of the community - its natural wisdom, its culture, its connection to the land and to history - must be treasured, acknowledged, and celebrated.

The education divide is not one-sided. Many "developed" countries are bereft and rudderless, yet are surrounded by modern comforts. Many "undeveloped" countries have rich resources they cannot access. All peoples suffer when we are disconnected from each other. Some need technology and infrastructure development; others need consultation and development. All peoples need education as a binding force. Education, in this era, requires global citizenry.

Teachers Without Borders was designed along the model of a circle; we receive as a charity and we give as a trade. The organization IS its collective wisdom; every member represents teachers everywhere. We are therefore able to work in emergencies, as part of national reform efforts, and with relief organizations or charities precisely because we rely on local expertise. That expertise, in turn, is a resource for others. So, the more we give, the more we receive.

We do not claim a one-size fits all model. Our "peer-education" approach ensures a "virtuous cycle" of data exchange among educators worldwide. We work toward the empowerment and enhancement of education efforts already in place, to increase long-term and local support, rather than sporadic, short-lived interventions. Education should not be limited to schools alone, but to wherever a community gathers.

Global Collaboration Opportunities

You have chosen to embark upon a plan of professional development because there is no such thing as a continental cocoon. To remain static, in this age, is to move backwards. The articles you have been reading and your conversations with colleagues must have inspired you, in some fashion, to participate in shaping a new world for the 21st century. In so doing, you are helping generations to come.

As you begin to explore the possibilities for cross-cultural interaction, global classroom projects, and new learning opportunities, you will come across several programs in existence. We have listed sites, below that may spark some ideas for you as you work on a Global Collaboration project with your learning circle and their students in Assignment 8:

Project ideas already in motion (online only)

More projects to consider (online only)

Connecting urban and indigenous children worldwide (online only)

Also, please review the following sites listed on the Teachers Without Borders website page: Global Collaborations (online only)

Recommended Reading:

Living Values education site includes bibliographies, resources, emphasizes diversity (online only)

Network of networks for global knowledge (online only)

Assignment 8: Your Global Collaboration

To do this assignment, click on the Word icon below. When it appears, press "Save" so that you can work on this assignment "off-line."

Assignment 8: Your Global Collaboration - Making a Plan

Part One

You and your students, along with your fellow teachers and their students, are being asked to participate in a global education learning exchange that will take place over three weeks. You can use the project links on the previous page as a source of inspiration or create something entirely new. Please fill in the following and send to your learning circle for feedback:

Objectives - Why did you choose this project? What is your learning objective? List the information/skill(s) to be learned.

Student groups - Assignment of roles; how group will conduct its work; how many times the group will meet and length of time for each group session; what they are supposed to do each time they meet?

Process - What you will do to prepare students for this assignment; length of time for each of the group sessions; the environment for learning - preparation of the room.

Presentation & Evaluation - Determine in advance (and discuss with the class ) your criteria for a "successful" project; create a schedule for presentations - accountability and evaluation of the project; presentation skills: (clarity, artistry, compelling quality); how you will ensure that each student has made a contribution; how you will reward the group?

Part Two

Webquests - Using the Internet to Connect Globally

Definition

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by a student is drawn from the resources on the Internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing. WebQuests are designed to use students' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support students' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

There are at least two levels of WebQuests that should be distinguished from one another:

Short-Term WebQuests

The instructional goal of a short-term WebQuest is knowledge acquisition and integration. At the end of a short-term WebQuest, a student will have grappled with a significant amount of new information and made sense of it. A short-term WebQuest is designed to be completed in one to three class periods.

Longer-Term WebQuest

The instructional goal of a Longer-term WebQuest is extending and refining knowledge. After completing a Longer-term WebQuest, a student would have analyzed a body of knowledge deeply, transformed it in some way, and demonstrated an understanding of the material by creating something that others can respond to - on-line or off-line. A longer term WebQuest will typically take between one week and a month in a classroom setting.

Adapted from San Diego State University's Webquest Place, which includes an overview, training materials, and examples

Critical Attributes of a WebQuest

According to colleagues at the University of Malta:

"There is questionable educational benefit in having students 'surf the net' without a clear task in mind. To achieve that efficiency and clarity of purpose, WebQuests should contain at least the following parts:

WebQuests might be enhanced by wrapping motivational elements around the basic structure by giving the students a role play (e.g. scientist, reporter, detective), and a scenario to work within (e.g., You have been asked by the local government to brief him on the suitability of incinerators).

Apart from single discipline (single subject) WebQuests, teachers can also work in teams to produce interdisciplinary ones, for example the Biology and Home Economics teachers may decide to create a WebQuest on smoking to be used during both lessons."

Imaginative WebQuest Projects

As mentioned earlier, "After completing a Longer-term WebQuest, a student would have analyzed a body of knowledge deeply, transformed it in some way, and d emonstrated an understanding of the material by creating something that others can respond to - on-line or off-line."

The forms that a longer term WebQuest might take are open to the imagination. Some ideas include:

Benefits

Putting the results of their thinking-process back out onto the Internet:

Assignment 9: Sharing Your WebQuest Gift

To do this assignment, click on the Word icon below. When it appears, press "Save" so that you can work on this assignment "off-line."

Assignment 9: Sharing Your WebQuest Gift