OUR CHILDREN IN A SMALLER WORLD

The world just got a lot smaller. It shrunk when nations started sailing across the seas to faraway lands. It shrunk again when companies began to go international: manufacturing, buying, and selling products around the world. And it shrunk again when individuals were able to communicate and collaborate with one another through the internet. If you’ve read Thomas Friedman’s book, The World Is Flat, then you understand—we are living in a different time. Yet, many of us still teach as if the world is not accessible…as if connectivity (not just information) is not at our fingertips. I confess that I taught this way for a long time, before I took the leap with my students and joined the Flat Classroom Project (created by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay). My students were able to connect with their peers from three different continents – working to understand big issues, solve problems, and collaborate on wikis. We eventually did more global projects like “Project: Global Inform” and Net Gen Ed. That was 5 years ago. Now, connectivity really is everywhere. Students play video games (and make video games) with their peers around the world. They compete for college scholarships. They apply for the same jobs. And they talk on social media about the same shows. The question is, “How can we as educators, make the world smaller for our students at school?”