Category: international links

clipped from uk.mc256.mail.yahoo.com

How many of you knew that today is El Día Internacional de Internet / the International Day of the Internet? Or that this week is Semana de Internet / Internet Week? I certainly didn’t until this morning when I checked BBC Mundo in my Google Reader.

In the article Día mundial de internet, (looking at the day from the point of view of Latin America) it reports that

‘En el día mundial de internet diversos países discuten este sábado el avance de las nuevas tecnologías, y algunos expertos consideran que la clave del futuro de internet en Latinoamérica puede estar en la “creatividad” de su gente.’

(For those who don’t speak Spanish – today different countries will be discussing the advance of technology and some experts will consider the key to the future of the Internet in LatinAmerica as being in the ‘creativity’ of the people.)

The article goes on to say that whilst technology in places like Chile is more advanced than in some European countries, many users don’t fully appreciate the benefits of being online.

“Tenemos el mismo nivel que Europa”, explica Menchaca (el director de Comunicación Digital de la Universidad UNIACC de Chile, quién durante una década lideró proyectos interactivos en España) “pero hay más necesidad de ser creativos”.
“El problema en América Latina es que internet es aún una plataforma para estar y no es visto como una herramienta de servicios, pero creo que los latinoamericanos podrían convertirse en desarrolladores de contenidos para todo el mundo.”

(i.e. the Internet is seen as a platform for ‘being’ rather than as a tool that can be used creatively.)
Universidad UNIACC de Chile has begun a new course linking design, marketing, technology etc together in a more ‘joined up’ way than previously to prepare people to change this view.

I’d encourage you to read the whole article – even if you can’t speak Spanish -for an online translator, Google Translate isn’t too bad you know ;o)

One thing I loved about this article was the news that, in celebration of the day, there is a ‘Torta Virtual‘. Anything to do with cake interests me, so I followed the link and claimed my slice! Very easy to do –

• Follow the link in the article or this one.
• Click on the piece of cake you’d like.
• Upload a picture of yourself.
• Leave your name, country, town and a message.

You will be emailed your slice of cake and your picture will appe

ar on your part of the main cake.

Why not join in? There were 746 pieces left when I wrote this.

Shame it’s not real though … ;oD

These young people were at the International Opportunities conference today. They are from five local secondary schools and were there to explain their experience of an international project called INDIE – Inclusion and Diversity in Education.

‘Inclusion & Diversity in Education is a project that addresses the challenges migration presents to schools in Europe.’
‘The impact of migration on schools presents similar challenges to school education at all levels in all European Countries. We want to combat social disadvantage and raise educational standards for students with migration backgrounds. In order to succeed, we need to develop effective and culturally inclusive schools. To achieve this we need high quality school leadership.’
(from British Council site)

They explained how they had been chosen to take part in the project as they had shown leadership skills at school and been invited to take part in training in Sutton Park on teamwork and leading people. They were then selected to take part in a conference in Brussels in February with similar young leaders from across Europe to discuss a common charter for Inclusion and Diversity. As part of the conference, they presented in the European Parliament where they received a standing ovation.

The young people above shared their thoughts and experiences today of the project. One commented on the issues they discovered through the conference such as a young lady from Belgium being banned from wearing her headscarf who was working for a change in that area. Another talked about making an effort to understand people who didn’t speak English. And the lad in the middle commented that, whilst in Brussels, he spoke to people to whom he wouldn’t normally have paid any attention – he described one encounter ‘I’m not sure what he was,….some kind of Goth…. and I definitely wouldn’t have spoken to him in Birmingham.’

Although nervous, they spoke with honesty and simplicity – and they inspired us all. Let’s hope that there will be many more young leaders who look to lead the way for inclusion and diversity in this country.

Note – I’m trying to get hold of a copy of the Charter -I’ll post it here when I have it!

Today I took part in a conference in the Banqueting Suite of Birmingham’s Council House about the International Opportunities, presenting a case study as part of a presentation on Comenius and eTwinning along with Simon Graham from the British Council and Paul Higgs from Belvedere Junior School in Burton on Trent.

For those of you who attended the session, here’s my presentation – especially if you attended the first version when I had to fit it all into 3 minutes ;o)
I’ve also uploaded a couple of examples of work that the pupils did as part of the project. More can be found on our school websites – WCPS and CPCHD.

If you have any questions, you’re welcome to contact me.

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example of pancake day work – Get more documents

I spent today in Gloucester at an eTwinning event entitled Working on the Internet with partner schools across Europe . The event was led by Baldev Singh so when I was asked following the Nottingham PDW by the British Council to attend the event as an eTwinning Ambassador and talk about my experiences of eTwinning, I jumped at the chance. As I blogged previously, I had wanted to attend all three of the workshops at the Nottingham event, so the prospect of learning something from Baldev was exciting. And sure enough, I did!

After giving us an overview of how ICT and technology has impacted our world and how it can be used to develop the international dimension, we had a go at using Photo Story 3 to make presentations on a theme of our choosing. I was itching to have a go as I helped other people with their presentations, and I managed to grab a few minutes to make a quick slideshow about ‘Healthy food’. I was really pleased to learn that Photo Story 3 is downloadable free and as soon as I got home I downloaded it – another thing to play with at the weekend ;o) It was really simple to use and you can see the result of my ten minutes (promise you it was that quick!).

Throughout the day we talked about a myriad of tools such as Voicethread, Voki, Animoto, OneTrueMedia, Flickr, and many more as well as mentioning various projects including Voices of the World and Chris Fuller’s Euro08 project – possibly not a good time to talk about footy :o( as looked at the possibilities for eTwinning. I talked to one delegate about a collaborative music project and another about their existing partnerships and how it might be developed. It was good to be able to go beyond my brief too as people asked about my PLL experiences too and I was able to point a couple of people towards online support networks such as Talkabout Primary MFL.

All in all, a successful day for all – and I must have done a half decent presentation as I’ve been asked to go back!

Enjoy the video!

Back at the end of August, Paul Harrington blogged about Imagiverse and mentioned being involved in their Hands around the World project last year. As I’m always on the lookout for new ideas for global links, I investigated further and signed up Whitehouse Common.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, the time came to take part and on Friday I sent off a large parcel of handprints to Michelle Mock in California.

A brief idea of the project –

Hands Around the World – Students from classrooms around the world will create cut out paper “handprints” which they will send to Imagiverse for distribution to other participants. You will receive as many handprints as you send (at least one per student). The Fall exchange is themed “Holidays Around the World”. Since many countries and cultures are celebrating major holidays at this time of year, we would like to celebrate how and what you celebrate. What are the traditions celebrated where you live? What are the customs and traditions you observe? What might someone in another country not know about your celebration? What is the history behind the tradition?

So, being an adventurous kinda gal, I decided that the whole school should get involved, so over the last ten days, 480 kids have been drawing around their hands and decorating the prints to depict a festival of their choice. Then on the back they have written the name of the festival and a sentence or two about why it is special to them. Most classes cut them out too but I did end up with over 100 to cut out myself, and then I took photos of them all for posterity before parcelling them up and posting them to the USA.

Now we await the arrival of our parcels of Hands from around the world! Hopefully we’ll find out about some festivals and celebrations with which we are not so familiar as well as discovering how other people celebrate the ones we know.

Just as with our eTwinning project last year, I feel that this exercise has once more given the pupils the opportunity to reflect a little on events that happen every year, like Bonfire Night, Diwali and Christmas, and to remember the reasons why we have these events – even if some of their reasons for choosing to depict them were based on sweets and presents!

So – why not get involved? There’ll be another exchange in the Spring, with a new theme. You don’t need to involve the whole school, but nothing ventured, nothing gained! It could be a gentle way to introduce the idea of International projects to your school, and, as Paul pointed out in his blog, it’s an excellent idea for keeping kids busy during wet breaks!