Technology and Global Learning
State Governments Respond to Globalization
The world is advancing at record speeds and so is the
technology that is accessible to students worldwide. Technology is a great asset in internationalizing
education. It allows students to overcome
geographic barriers, to communicate and collaborate
with their peers around the world, to publish and share
work, even to talk to one another in real time. Some states have harnessed their technology investments to
expand the availability of international courses online
and encourage schools to create virtual relationships
with schools in other parts of the world.
The Internet allows students to learn with, not just about,
one another. Young Americans are born into the digital world and have
seemingly no greater difficulty working with a student around the world
as a student across the room. Often, it is the teachers or school
leaders who lack the experience to run cross-cultural inquiry-based
projects. To remedy this, Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio, and Washington
Departments of Education have worked with iEARN (www.iearn.org) to
provide professional development to teachers on conducting online
project work with schools in other countries. Professional development
is focused on the technical, collaborative, and organizational skills
required to participate in a global and Internet-based learning
environment.
Many states use online courses to expand opportunities for students to learn international content. One of the largest providers of online courses is the Florida Virtual High School, through which students can take classes like World Cultures, World Geography, Global Studies, and World History. In Indiana, elementary-level distance learning courses in Chinese are being developed through a Foreign Language Assistance Program grant to the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities at Ball State University. In Kentucky, a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese Ministry of Education was signed in the fall of 2005, resulting in a visiting Chinese teacher who created a virtual Chinese language course. The Michigan Virtual High School enables students to take classes taught by certified teachers in subjects and courses that lack adequate staffing statewide. The Chinese courses, for example, now reach over 1,000 students. The North Carolina Virtual Public School offers many AP courses including Comparative Government and Politics and Art History. Whether elective courses or core subjects, distance learning opens up new learning opportunities for students across the country.