So you know it’s important to connect your students and you want to do it, but you’re not sure what to do once you find another teacher? Below are a few ideas to help you get started with connecting your students with other classrooms around the world.
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General Tips for Getting Started
Asynchronous Activities
Synchronous Activities
General Tips for Getting Started
4Cs Series: Collaboration by Kate Petty on EdTech Team’s blog
Global Education On a Dime: A Low-Cost Way to Connect by Alexander Russo on Edutopia
Four Steps for Jumpstarting Global-Collaboration Projects by Ben Curran on Education Week
Global Collaboration Projects that Go Way Beyond Skype by Stephen Noonoo on T.H.E. Journal
7 Steps for Starting a Global Collaboration Project on ISTE Connects
Connected from the Start by Kathy Cassidy is a great book to help you get started connecting your kids on a global scale, especially teachers of primary and elementary students.
Flat Connections offers courses for Global Educators. These are paid courses that offer graduate level credit for completion. Worth the investment- Julie Lindsay really knows her stuff when it comes to global education!
The video below is a great resource for figuring out how global collaboration could work. It’s a three part series from the K12 Online Conference in 2016. You can view Part 1 here, which discusses the importance of global collaboration and the changing pedagogy behind it, and Part 3 here, which shares educators experiences and how it changed their classrooms.
Asynchronous Activities
| Activity | General Summary | Examples | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Written and Media Exchange | Students from one class write letters to students in another part of the world. The class who receives the letters, creates videos to answer the other student's questions. | Larry Ferlazzo started this particular project with his ESL students. His students wrote to students in Brazil, who had to practice reading and responding to those students in English when they created their videos. | Link to Example |
| Pen Pals 2.0 | Students in both classrooms prepare presentations and eventually present to one another via video chat. During the weeks of research and presentation prep, students exchange letters or emails to get to know one another. The front half of the project is asynchronous and the final piece is synchronous. | Kay Lee of Georgia, Vermont did this with her third grade social studies class and students from Sejong City, South Korea. | Link to Example |
Synchronous Activities
| Activity | General Summary | Examples | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mystery Hangouts/ Skypes | Teachers involved set up a date and time for the Google Hangout or Skype call with students. The students do not know where the other classroom is located in the world. Each class takes turns asking yes or no questions to narrow down the location of the other class. The first one to guess correctly wins! | Mr. Solarz' website includes information about Mystery calls, resources and tips to get started, question ideas for your kids, and some examples from his previous calls. Excellent resource for Mystery Calls! | Link to Example |
| Pen Pals 2.0 | Students in both classrooms prepare presentations and eventually present to one another via video chat. During the weeks of research and presentation prep, students exchange letters or emails to get to know one another. The front half of the project is asynchronous and the final piece is synchronous. | Kay Lee of Georgia, Vermont did this with her third grade social studies class and students from Sejong City, South Korea. | Link to Example |