There is a great amount of attention being placed on digital
learning and 21st century skills in the classroom. This skill-set
focuses heavily on technology, problem solving, multicultural communication,
and collaborative learning. Globalization continues to dominate economic trends
and drive employment demands, which leads to the importance of teaching young
people these skills to prepare them for the workforce. With the ease of the
internet, innovative programs are available online to facilitate educational
experiences and build the capacity of today’s youth to meet these demands.
e-collaborate, a
non-profit organization dedicated to global education and digital learning, has
developed a unique online program to address this need while also teaching
global citizenship. Many students become self-aware of global citizenship after
their first trip abroad, after meeting an exchange student from a foreign
country, or from participating in service projects. However, many students
never have these opportunities. While
world history is taught in high schools, global citizenship is not a common
theme in today’s schools, yet important to teach.
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| Community project completed by e-collaborate classrooms in India |
e-collaborate’s
program is called eKWIP
Challenge, which stands for Educating Kids With International Possibilities.
Curriculum is structured in five lesson plans that walk students through an
aspect of a global issue, such as water and human rights or water conservation.
Students study the issue through a problem solving method that leads them
through different levels of understanding and is made fun through the use of online
research, videos, and classroom games. The material covered is
interdisciplinary and includes science projects, writing assignments,
challenging reading passages, and more. This makes the material interesting to
students with diverse interests and strengths, while encouraging them to use
this material to think beyond themselves and even beyond their communities to
examine the issue on a global level.
After studying the issue, students are given a scenario that
is posed as a challenge that students work on collaboratively with others around
the world. For example, one course focuses on water as a human right and explores
what happens when governments stop providing access to water through corporate
privatization. The scenario provided is from a community in Bolivia that
experienced conflict and unrest when a large company privatized their water
source making it difficult for many to afford water in their homes. Through eKWIP, students divide into
groups to role play either the local community groups or the water corporation.
They identify their main arguments for their side and their list of demands.
Then either within their class or through connecting with other classes online,
students present their case and must collaboratively come to a resolution that
leaves both the local community and the corporation satisfied by the outcome. When
doing this exercise with classrooms abroad, students also get to practice multicultural
communication, while doing it in a challenging context that requires
negotiation and mutual understanding.
These experiences help students gain problem solving skills
and an understanding of issues impacting communities abroad. However, we also
want students to understand the issues in their own communities and to use
technology to do so. Students are encouraged to explore the given issue in
their community and to develop a way to convey this through different media. For
example, participating
students in India walked to a nearby river to talk to people about water
contamination and potable water. They used the stories and photos taken to
design a newspaper cover of the information and shared this with their peers
abroad. For the other students, this was an insightful experience to learn
about how water impacts communities abroad and even more meaningful to learn
this from their peers. Students can use film, photo, podcasts, and other
computer based design programs to tell the story of their community. In doing
this, they are building their technology skills while also teaching others and
connecting globally.
The uniqueness of the eKWIP
Challenge is that it allows teachers to hit all of the 21st century
skills while teaching students to do something good and to care about others. Many
past participants were deeply impacted by the program and found ways to
continue to be involved in helping with these issues in their community. By
making the community issues global through international collaboration and
communication, students are exposed to so much more and learn to look at the
important issues of our time through a global lens. While we want to prepare our students for professional
careers and economic success, we do not want them to lose focus on the issues
that really matter – helping others, making personal connections, and being a
good citizen in the globalized world.About:
Beth Davis is the Manager of Educational Programs at e-collaborate, a non-profit in the DC area that focuses on global education and technology. Previously, Beth worked for a grassroots organization in Panajachel, Guatemala that provided empowerment trainings and non-formal education to indigenous women throughout the country. For more information about e-collaborate go to: www.e-collaborate.org or tour their global education program at www.ekwipchallenge.org/moodle.
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