Educating For Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth To Engage The World by Veronica Boix Mansilla & Anthony Jackson
In the first chapter of the e-book, “Educating For Global Competence”, the authors describe three global concerns that are changing jobs and cultures throughout the world: An unstable international economy, migration, and climate instability. Mansilla and Jackson offer solutions for ways to continuing globalization through the trade of products, people, and ideas. If people are to be prepared to solve the world’s problems collaboratively, they must be creative and adapt easily to change. Students who seek future jobs must be aware of other cultures and their world views. They must learn intercultural skills and be able to work together on problem solving strategies with people from all over the world.
The number of migrants around the world rose to 214 million in 2010. We live in an age where people identify themselves as members of more than one country, identifying with more than one culture and economy. In order to obtain future employment, current students need to communicate effectively and work to understand perspectives that are diverse from their own. They need to value the variety of other people’s opinions and traditions. Instead of focusing on how to help their own country, students can work toward solving global issues such as poverty, global warming, and human rights concerns that will benefit all countries.
Chapter 4 identifies four ways students can acknowledge perspectives different from their own: Expressing their opinions on a situation, understanding what influences the opinions of others, explaining the value of cultural experiences, and identifying how access to education and technology affect quality of life. Students can explore the world views of others through online research and interactions. Understanding the values and needs of other cultures through online outlets helps reduce stereotypes and encourage action to be taken.
Sister Cities And Schools
Sister Cities And Schools promote relationships between different countries in an effort to learn more about each other’s governments, educational systems, people, businesses, and traditions. This program was first started in 1956 by President Eisenhower as a way to rebuild partnerships and avoid conflict after World War II. Cultural bonding is initiated to encourage one another to consider the needs of all people known as global citizenship. Global citizenship reduces discrimination, promotes peace, and develops respect between nations. Sister Schools have similar goals. The schools are also able to instruct collaboratively and work on project-based learning together. Web 2.0 tools allow skills with technology access to video conference, email, and more. Schools can also use blogs and wiki’s to share opinions, opportunities, and experiences. Working together with another country can result in profit for each. Good relationships between cultures can foster trade, business expansion, international educational opportunities, employment, and more!
Virtual Field Trip: Lascaux Caves
I chose Lascaux Caves for my virtual field trip since it is related to my content area, art. It was a little confusing to navigate at first, but I eventually found a hidden button that offered more information in English. The website showed a life-like digital model of the inside of the cave with a thumbnail map in the corner to help the viewer understand where they were “standing” in the cave. Descriptions can be read about individual drawings and rooms in the cave along the way. The viewer can pause the video tour and zoom in on the cave drawings. They can also view maps and pictures of the cave exterior and surrounding land in France. The information provided with these maps and pictures shares how the terrain contributed to the cave and what efforts will be made for continued preservation.
OER Commons
Open Education Resources (OER) Commons is a website that shares free educational materials for teachers and students. The website is setup into courses complete with lesson modules, activities, tests, and lectures. Lessons are organized by topic, education level, resource materials, and more. Users have the ability to upload lessons and collaborate with other teachers and students on topics of interest. Collaboration can occur through discussion boards or “Challenges” involving a broad question that requires teachers and learners to work collaboratively toward a solution prototype. Most items on the OER Commons website are Creative Commons licensed unless listed differently.
Reflection
Reading about ways to increase student knowledge of different cultures and world views made me reflect on our own education system’s values of cultural diversity. I think I have an advantage teaching art to help students learn about other countries and cultures through knowledge of historical and contemporary art. I read a lot of blogs to look for interesting websites and lessons from art teachers of all kinds. One of my favorite blogs is from a teacher in Italy, arteascuola.com. Other websites like Google Art Project and thisiscolossal.com showcase art from all over the world and bring opportunities to expand the minds of my students without leaving my classroom. While I think OER Commons is a really neat concept, I have doubts about the authenticity and relevance of the information to my particular classroom. While there are many resources for my content area, they are all formatted in text descriptions, which would require a lot of time and research to find something relevant. I think this site would be more useful if it had thumbnail pictures of the activities and presentations that go along with each lesson. Additionally, I would like to know more about the educational backgrounds of the teachers who have produced these lessons and the sources of their information before using it to teach in the classroom. I had trouble finding answers to these questions on my own.
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