2/26/2012

EDL 510 DR. S. HENRY BARTON

GLOBAL SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT PROPOSAL

Tunai Anderson Margaret Knowles Maria Andrade Rebecca Trawick Jodi Garries

Global Service Learning Project Proposal

Team D: Tunai Anderson, Maria Andrade, Jodi Garries, Margaret Knowles, Rebecca Trawick
Dr. Shana Barton February 26, 2012

*Note*: This proposal (with the title above) was uploaded to www.scribd.com on Feb. 26, 2012

Ideas Considered for a Global Service Learning Project

 Science Snap!: A comparative exchange of photos with text, then final conversation via Skype (one example:My Favorite Trees)  Legend Links: Visual stories recorded with text and music that will be exchanged with global partners to be determined  My Hero: Visual drawings (one per child) of a favorite person in their community, with text about what kind of job that HERO does, and the childs experience with that HERO. Individual reading of that story with the child holding his/her drawing via Skype, then his/her global partner reads his/ hers  Me to We Kenya: Using www.xtimeline.com, a partnership is created between 2 school districts to show the progress of fundraising efforts, communication with Free the Children, and the building progress. Text and photos are shared on the timeline and responsibilities are divided.  ePals: The ePals Global Community is a network of classrooms specifically designed for kindergarten through twelfth grades that allow students, teachers, and parents to participate securely in global learning experiences. The program is free and because the program is a cloud based solution the school district will not be responsible for software or hardware maintenance, which will save money. Connecting teachers and students from over two hundred countries and territories around the world students, teachers, and parents can work collaboratively on projects and creating presentations through web 2.0 tools, discussion forums, email, digital content, and real world connections. ePals Global Community provides meaningful teaching and learning opportunities in a technology based global society. (ePals Global Community, 2010)

Chosen Idea and Rationale

 The team has selected an ePals project to have students share information about their homeland environment with students in another land. Those students will then share information about their environment, helping them to learn about both.  Rationale for this decision include:  It works well for any grade level.  It encourages sharing between students and teachers because students are writing to a real audience (Peters, 2009, p.71).  Its simple to use, user friendly, and the site is secure (Peters, 2009).

Key Points
 Provides opportunities to employ scientific approach, learning, and research, develop in-depth subject area knowledge.  Provides opportunities for collaboration and developing critical thinking skills.  Provides opportunities to enhance communication skills.  Provides opportunities for collaborative work with peers from another culture, and country.  Provides opportunities to enhance global knowledge.

 Provides opportunities to build cultural proficiency.  Provides opportunities to utilize and further develop technology skills. ..students be taught the skills needed to retrieve, process, and publish this kind of multimedia information in school and elsewhere. (Jukes, McCain, Crockett, 2010, p. 99).

Implementation  Teachers have students create ePal accounts for their group assignments. Students input ideas, share
thoughts, collaborate with home group members, and add their researched information.

 At this point the group selects a team member to organize the collected information.  The team sets a date for a Skype conference call with their ePals in the previously arranged school and
country (teacher assisted).

 Prior to that date and in the meantime, student teams will continue to compile and edit their project
information. When finalized, teams will collaborate, choosing which question(s) are most important to be addressed that they have become aware of through their learning and project development. They will select one two of these questions to act as a bridge for further research, and possible collaboration with their ePals partners. The questions will be presented as the final component of their project, as a part of their conclusion.

 Student teams will exchange their final projects with another home team for reviewing and critiquing.
Once the ready status is achieved, the project will be reviewed for a final OK by teacher.

 Student teams will select sections of their project to be presented by individual members of their team,
allowing each member to share fully in the presentation.

 Student teams will present their projects to their home class for important sharing of their
information, and as a dress rehearsal for their presentations to their global partners.

 Students will present their projects to their global partners via Skype.  Students will later record their Skype interactions, along with their ePals texts and images, onto a DVD
for keeping and sharing with families and school community.

Effects on Global Learning

 Creates opportunities for students to collaborate with students from a different culture / country about the kinds of geography, terrain of their home area: hills, mountains, rocks, trees, plants, rivers, lakes, climate, agriculture, home construction, technology that serves well in that environment and kinds of animals.  Allows students to become acquainted with other lands and environments and how people live in those surroundings.  Allows students to exchange information with other students around the world so that they may observe similarities and differences in their respective environments.  Allows students to raise questions about how well the various interactions within their own environment work; how well things work in their global partners lands, and whether they might be able to derive solutions for any problems that may exist through their ePals exchange.  All of the above effects would raise the awareness of all involved to the value of having global learning experiences.

Possible Effects on the World

 Students learn that they can make a difference in the world through connecting and interacting with students or other people and cultures around the world.  People from around the world who witness these kinds of collaborations and interactions by their children may be more inclined to join in to support collaboration in global service projects themselves.  People all over the world start demanding that their children be allowed to participate in global learning; that their school districts must make it a regular component in their curriculum.  There is a possibility that the questions the students raise, and choose to continue to confer and collaborate upon, could result in some real solutions to environmental problems in the students homelands. Those solutions could positively impact the reality of life for people living there.

References
Crockett, L., Jukes, I., McCain, T. (2010). Understanding the digital generation: Teaching and learning in The new digital landscape. Kelowna, B.C., Canada: 21st Century Fluency Project,Inc. ePals Global Community. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.epals.com Peters, L. (2009). Global education: Using technology to bring the world to your students. Washington, DC.: International Society for Technology in Education.