Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Global Class Connect

A little less than a month ago, I participated in #GlobalEdChat.One of the questions posted to the chat was "What challenges exists to connecting your class with others across the world?". Some of the responses included permission from school/administration/parents, time zone differences, and where to find global partners. This is what sparked my interest...

As a moderator of #ILEdChat, one of our standard questions that we ask is "What can you take from this chat and DO tomorrow?". Our goal is to make the chat into something actionable and not just an ethereal discussion of the state of education. Taking that thought process, I said to myself, "Self...do something about this!"

While I cannot change the rotation of the Earth and global time zones, I did want to see what could be done about getting more people connected. I went to Google Drive and made a very simple form that people could fill out with some basic information about where they are, what they want to accomplish, and how they can be contacted. Simple form...it took less than 5 minutes to make.

It has been a month since that chat and I am so thrilled that I made that simple form. As of now we have approximately 230 educators from 16 different countries spread across 6 continents! I have made a Twitter handle for Global Class Connect (@Global_Class_1) and have been using the hash tag #GlobalClassConnect. I have even started a Google site about #GlobalClassConnect 

If you are interested in becoming a part of this global connected network, you can sign up directly here

I look forward to seeing the list continue to grow and the map get more connection points.  Please share this with your colleagues and encourage them to sign up. Let's show our students their place in a much larger world!

Global Class Connect

I want to use this post for #GlobalClassConnect users to share their successes, so please comment in the comment section!

3 comments:

Magic Carpet of 16x Books said...

I would like to thank Bob Abrams for setting up this website and Global Class Connect. As an author passionate about getting kids reading, I have SKYPED world-wide in schools, encouraging children to read, and to write stories of their own. I love flying my "Magic Carpet of Books" into classrooms, chatting about how writers craft plots, use imagination, and create characters that HOOK kids on reading. Meeting a real-life author can galvanize a reading frenzy in any classroom. HOOK them Early is my motto. I look forward to meeting and working with many more wonderful and dedicated teachers - and in many areas, the teacher is often the only stable influence in a child's life.

Thanks for the opportunity, Bob.

Margot Finke - Magic Carpet of Books
http://www.margotfinke.com

Anonymous said...

Bob,
Thank you very much for setting up this website and GCC!! We have linked our classroom with a classroom in Canada. We are in the early stages, but have already received a message from them and have mailed them a friendly letter. Our eventual goal is to Skype with them as we continue to develop our Global Classroom.

Neil Klinedinst
Teacher @ Chocowinity Middle School

Unknown said...

We just completed several wonderful Mystery Skypes with schools from around the US and Canada. The connections listed on the spreadsheet led to at least five great experiences, and this was an easy way to find others who were looking for similar types of connections at our grade level. Thanks for setting this up! I look forward to connecting with others listed in the future.

Donna Young
Library Media Specialist
De Pere Middle School