Sunday, March 27, 2011
Bridging the Continental Divide Through Flip Share
Just this past week I saw the immense potential for using technology to build global awareness and develop connectedness between distinct cultures. Each Friday I lead a group of thirty fifth graders through some sort of activity, sometimes we read and discuss the reading, other times we watch movies and interpret the significance of certain lines and the cinematography. This week was a bit different. I had the opportunity to share videos with them of students in Nicaragua who were introducing themselves to initiate a combination video and written pen pal project. The students from Nicaragua shared stories about themselves and their families in both English and Spanish. When the information was communicated in Spanish, students from our class translated for their peers who are not bilingual. I feel that this video project is a significant and important element of the education of our students. Through these videos students are being exposed to different cultures, communicating through multiple media, and collaborating at a local and global scale. I am excited to see how this project develops over the course of the year and interested in pursuing a similar opportunity with my own students.
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Nikki,
ReplyDeleteI believe that a very powerful way to build global awareness and appreciation and respect of other cultures is by connecting students from different cultures together in projects like yours. I am currently student teaching at Gateway, and they also have a special exchange project among teeenagers from the Guarani tribe in the Amazon jungle of Ecuaudor and the students from Gateway in NY. The project consist about making a documentary about the studenst life here and in Ecuador, and compare the two cultures. The students have to show each other an ordinary day in their lifes and than create a mini documentary about it. The students in Ecuador and NY have technical and educatioanl support and they are guided troughout this process. Specially for the students from the Guarani tribe this is very innovative since they are learning for the first time how to use a video camera and the internet. The project implies learning about the culture and Gateway is bringing the main leader of the Guarani tribe to speak to the kids and talk about his culture and values. Comming from Ecuador, this project is very meaningful to me and I believe is a great way to create global awareness and respect and aprreciation of other cultures. By putting students as their own protagonists, we are giving them the chance to understand the world in a more meaningful and deeper way that makes sense to them.