Connect All Schools

FIUTS students traveled around Seattle this year to share their countries, languages, and cultures at local elementary schools.

The survey was conducted in May, 2013 and was sent to 470 of the Forum's institutional members and program provider organizations. 151 institutions (32%) responded. (All types of Universities = 79; Liberal Arts Colleges = 59; Community Colleges = 7; Education Abroad Program Providers = 6). The survey defined e-learning as the use of electronic media and information and communication technologies in education; e-learning is broadly inclusive of all forms of educational technology in learning and teaching.

Congratulations to Safira Bibi from Karachi, Pakistan, the May YES Student of the Month! A student at both the Kentucky School for the Blind and Central High School in Louisville, KY, Safira has had “an amazing ‘can do’ outlook all year,” according to her placement organization, ASSE.

 

After facing limited educational opportunities in Pakistan, she welcomed the challenging environment at both her American schools, and was grateful to be able to study math, science and U.S. history. Safira has experienced a number of firsts this year in the United States.

 

At KSB, Safira participated in cheerleading and competed in track, winning three ribbons. Through forensics, she discovered her love of public speaking. Although by her own account she had difficulty speaking English when she arrived, she made so much progress that in April, at a speech tournament sponsored by the North Central Association of Schools for the Blind, she took second place for her dramatic reading of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.An excellent ambassador of her country, she has give ten country presentations and public speeches in all, including presentations at both her schools and at Lions Clubs.

As part of our month of exploring global education here at Edudemic, we thought that mentioning a few upcoming conferences that focus on global education would be useful.

As CEO of one of the biggest hotel companies in the world, I’m on the road three weeks out of four to visit customers, hotel owners and our thousands of Marriott associates around the world. I've been to nearly all the 74 countries where we operate or franchise our 3,800 hotels.

Every trip—whether it's business or vacation—is always an education.

 

In a way, this desire to explore and learn is in my DNA. My parents were Lutheran missionaries working in Japan when I was born. When I was seven, we came back to the American Midwest, where I spent most of my youth, including college and law school. Before my senior year in college, my father encouraged me to go to Beirut, Lebanon, for the summer. It was 1979 and there was a civil war going on, but I said "yes" in a heartbeat. I tell my kids that I would never suggest they go to a war zone, but, for me, it was the adventure of a lifetime. I was welcomed by people in Beirut in a way that still sets a great example of hospitality. 

Only 1 in 10,000 US high school students study abroad. That's a very small pool from which to draw future diplomats, aid workers, social entrepreneurs, language speakers, international scholars, and any employee or employer with cross-cultural experience.

How do we make meaningful cross-cultural exchange available for all students, regardless of socio-economic background, age or geographic location?

Brace yourselves: We may be about to see some of the best educational content of all time built on metrics that traditional educators could only dream about. And moreover, since this isn’t just about producing content one time for one show, but for topics that will require constant updating and modification for improvements.

Today, in partnership with the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, we are launching the Cannes Chimera Initiative, to help change the global conversation about tough development problems. ...

 

Our first brief is quite simple: How can you bring forward a long-term goal such as nearly eliminating extreme poverty and make it feel possible and relevant today?  How can you make it matter to people until it’s achieved?

President Obama is unveiling a bold, new initiative called ConnectED, which will connect 99 percent of America’s students to the internet through high-speed broadband and high-speed wireless within 5 years.

Over and above the annual Summit, WISE is an international initiative and platform for a multitude of established and new educational actors to collaborate proactively all year round.

 

WISE is pleased to announce the 2013 WISE Awards Finalists. Hailing from around the world, the 14 projects demonstrate innovative solutions to solve current education challenges. Find out more about these best practices. 

“The real value of a real education,” American novelist David Foster Wallace asserts in his now-viral 2005 Kenyon College commencement speech about empathy, “has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness.” Most everyone who has studied abroad, especially those who have lived with host families, understands this concept acutely.

Our publication of the 200-plus page collaborative book Connected Learners: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Global Classroom.As our press release says, this interactive eBook is:

 

"a unique compendium of stories, advice and how-to articles designed to help high school teachers and their students around the globe shift from classrooms that are isolated and teacher-centered to digitally rich environments where learning is student-driven and constantly connected to the global internet."

"A virtual global network of teachers could open the door to new perspectives on teaching and learning and to solutions-oriented professional collaboration" writes CTQ's teacherpreneur Noah Zeichner.

When Lesedi arrived in the mail we had to begin at the beginning. We read books, watched YouTube clips and researched on line. Quickly made connections to the horrific truth and the selfish reasons behind the problem. I have never seen a group of children become enraged so quickly over an issue.

We've all heard the proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." When Hillary Clinton used it as the title for her book, she wrote that she chose it because "it offers a timeless reminder that children will thrive only if their families thrive and if the whole of society cares enough to provide for them.

 

As a teacher, I can tell you: Teachers need a village, too!

Distance learning resources bring first-world education to the Third World at a very accessible price: free.