How important is mastery of a language other than your native language in the world today?
Australia has recently chosen to give all Australian students access to at least one “priority” Asian language (see below).
Month: February 2013
Building Bridges Kindergarten through 99+
My mother was a first-grade teacher; my sister taught in high school and college. My father-in-law and brother-in-law were high school principals; my sister-in-law taught in elementary schools. I have a long-standing interest in building and crossing bridges that connect teachers and learners of different ages and from different cultures. I continue to discover and marvel l at internet tools that facilitate “learning without borders.”
While I blogged for a year at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online as “Curious David” one of my most valued colleagues in learning was a middle school teacher (thank you Pamela, for all you taught me). I find considerable value in monitoring the blogs of Richard Byrne, Steve Johnson, Larry Ferlazzo, and of course the ubiquitous Jane Hart.
Recently I have begun investigating the capabilities of epals and edmodo as tools I might use to reduce barriers between learners from different cultures (including academic cultures) and different ages. The payback has been immediate both in developing of new virtual friends and of being impressed at the amazing kinds of learning experiences our children are being introduced to. I am becoming quite impressed by the teaching/learning capabilities of learnist.
What bridge-building tools have you discovered that can promote collaborative leaning across cultures—and across ages Kindergarten through 99+?
Musings about Virtual European Cultural Immersion Experiences
Sunday I had a wonderful Skype session with my nephew, Andrew Bowman and his family now living in Switzerland. The video was crisp — he was using an IPad mini and I was sitting by my MacBook Pro. The sound was clear and the technological glitches were minor. I still need, however, a few more practice sessions with some old and new international friends (Thank you, Irma Milevičiūtė, for your patience, kindness, ideas, and assistance as I begin learning through Epals about the wonderful work you do in beautiful Lithuania!). I still need to master how to record Skype sessions and to practice embedding such conversations into blogging software such as WordPress. I’m also eager to compare Skype with other Skype-like video conferencing tools (e.g. Google plus hangouts and Oovoo).
I’ve rediscovered Curtis J. Bonk’s book The world is open and I am pondering to what degree I want to infuse my courses with global awareness and connections before I retire—or afterwards!
Here are some incipient thoughts I am exploring. I welcome YOUR thoughts and reactions—especially those of you living in other countries.
- I see a need and many opportunities to increase global awareness of my students through the use of media such as BBC News, Google News, and Newsvine. I was thrilled last week when one of my student research collaborators in the “Pioneering a Virtual European Cultural Immersion Course” project Phoumany Phouybanhdyt alerted me to some of Carroll University library’s global news resources she had learned about in her World Politics class.
- I’m very much interested in investigating how I might become a member of (or associated with) Etwinning. My thanks to student research collaborator Catrina Duncan who first brought this potential resource to my attention and to my new and old European friends Irma Milevičiūtė and Reidar Ommundsen who pointed me in some directions on how to join.
- I’m debating the value of incorporating Kiva or some such international charity/ service component into the classroom to reinforce global compassion.
- To what degree should I explore global views of religion, spirituality, and being?
- How essential (and what degree of mastery is essential ) for our students to learn non English languages? What should be the role of tools such as Google Translate and Livemocha? I am always humbled at the mastery of English of my international friends and embarrassed at my own failure to master the basic elements of their beautiful languages.
- Does it make sense to incorporate into my courses, where appropriate, cultural universals such as music, cusine, sports, and literature? So much to think about, but I enjoy thinking—and I welcome your thoughts in particular about what are ideally the key elements for an international cultural immersion experience. Looking forward to your comments.
Reaching Out Internationally
I’m becoming quite excited about this research project with my S-Team students which involved their creating a “virtual” European cultural immersion experience. So far we have created a Wiki on Wikispaces, built a Ning, and begun to establish international contacts. I’ve discovered, through Epals, tremendous global education resources and made a new Lithuanian friend who has already taught me a lot and reinforced my belief in the kindness of people throughout the world. Tomorrow I try Skyping to Switzerland!
So much to learn—together.
Is it time for me to graduate from TypePad to Word Press?
I’m beginning to find myself handicapped by the limitations of TypePad and motivated to explore the additional “power user” features of Word Press. Thanks to Jane Hart for extending her Ten New Tool Challenge and her blog software comparison activity for nudging me into this transition.