Introducing... Connecting Classrooms through Technology

     My Blog’s focus will be on different software or programming one could use to connect locally, nationally and internationally between classrooms.  I have chosen this focus for a couple of reasons.  To begin with, I was fortunate to attend Microsoft’s international conferences on Innovative Teaching Through Technology.  At the three separate conferences I met a host of international, national and local teachers who are educating their students in a variety of innovative ways.  A teacher from Tasmania did a very similar weather project to ours, and I began to think about how cool it would be for students from Canada and Tasmania to work on a unit together! You can check out the project I did, along with Kelli Boklaschuk, at Http://blog.scs.sk.ca/weatherproject.

     Next, when I think about how ‘small’ the world has become through technology and travel opportunities, I think about what my students ‘think’ they know.  A large part of the primary curriculum is learning about your school, community, province, country and other countries.  We see images from around the world continuously; some are beautiful some not so much.  I think it would be an exciting opportunity for students to see that world through the eyes of their peers.  Even though students today are exposed to more information about the world than ever before, they really do not understand what life around the world is like.  This became very apparent to me last year.  There have been many horrible natural disasters in the world in the past few years.  Students are very aware of them because of the media.  They feel for the needs of others and are quick to donate items or money to help them out.  Not often do they understand that need locally.  I taught my grade two class to knit in autumn of 2010.  It was not an easy project (thank goodness for loving grandmothers and mothers who love to volunteer and have abundant patience).  The purpose of the knitting was to knit scarves for a grade two class in one of our inner city schools.  The students worked endlessly on their knitting.  When all was complete the realization that they were giving away their hard work caused some to become possessive of their scarf.  I arranged a trip to the other school where my students gave their scarves away.  My class did not think the other students would care for the scarves, as they were not the ‘perfect’ scarf one would buy in a store (we nick-named them our Holy Scarves!).  The students who received the scarves praised my class for them and the work they put into them.  This entire experience made me realize there is a gap of understanding that needs to be addressed.  Many people, of all ages, are visual learners.  What better way is there to learn about the world around them than to see, hear and communicate with those in the world?  A live experience with people their own age, learning from each other about what ‘their’ world is made up of.