Educating for Global Competence:
Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World (Chapters 1 & 4)
Chapter 1 discusses the forces that are
shaping lives on the planet. These
include “the flattened global economy and changing demands of work;
unprecedented global migration and the changing nature of neighborhoods,
identities, and citizenships; and climate instability and the growing need for
global environmental stewardship”.
First, the flattened global economy and
changing demands of work talks about the new distribution of labor in the
making. Computers are now taking over
many of the jobs. There were only 5
percent of American jobs in the beginning of the 20th century that
required special skills and knowledge and by 2009, 70 percent of jobs did so. The article talks about how students today
have to have multiple skill sets to be able to do well in a flattened global
economy.
Second, the unprecedented global migration
and the changing nature of neighborhoods, identities, and citizenships talks about
international migration. International
migration is happening more and more which has an effect on the demographics of
neighborhoods and classrooms. The
article talks about how students need to be prepared for a world of diversity
in which they need to be taught the different history, languages, geography and
cultural contributions of people all over the world. By learning about the different history of
other cultures from around the world, this allows the students to see the
others views which can help them for global migration.
Last, the article talks about the climate
instability and the growing need for global environmental stewardship. It begins by talking about how the earth in
the last few decades has experienced a change in extreme weather conditions and
higher temperatures.
Chapter 4 talks about “globally competent
students recognize perspectives”. Students
that are globally competent can recognize perspectives in the following ways: “recognize
and express their own perspectives on situations, events, issues, or phenomena
and identify the influences of that perspective; examine the perspectives of
other people, groups, or schools of thought and identify the influences on
those perspectives; explain how cultural interactions influence situations,
events, issues, or phenomena, including the development of knowledge’ and
articulate how differential access to knowledge, technology, and resources
affect quality of life and resources”.
Many examples are then given including exploring shelters across the
world and laughter in the U.S. and Afghanistan.
It ends by talking about powerful learning experiences. These experiences allow students to study
world views from others and be informed.
Reflection:
As for chapter 1, I feel that global
warming is a lot of theories and really no actual proof. My feeling is that the jury is still out on
global warming. Yes, we didn’t really
have a winter this year, but think about last year. We had almost a week of negative 40 degrees in
the winter and many other days were well below average. When watching the weather, they always show
the records and many days match the same high/low for that same day that
happened 50 plus years ago. Some believe
that global warming is the cause of one year to have higher or lower
temperatures. I believe that all weather
is cyclical because if you look back in time when the population wasn’t as
large, we still had temperature fluctuations.
As for chapter 4, I agree that it is
important that this generation recognizes others. Everyone though has different views on every
topic. You have to accept other people’s
views but you are also able to hold your own.
Sister Cities and Sister Schools
The website is about Sister Cities and
Sister Schools. It talks about global
interaction. There are parts of the
website that show different technologies used for global connectedness. These include blogs, presentations,
Skype/FaceTime, websites and Wiki, and YouTube.
All of these technology resources are free to use. Many schools utilize these technology
resources to connect with schools around the world. The blogs are used to communicate with others
as in compared to a pen-pal.
Presentations, such as PowerPoint, Keynote, Slideshare and Google Presentation
are used to present information.
Skype/FaceTime is used to interact with others through video
technology. Websites and Wiki are used
to collaborate through blogs, videos, and presentations. Google Sites offer joint collaboration for
educational projects. A video sharing
website, YouTube can be used to post a video of practically any topic virtually.
Reflection:
I have never heard about Sister Cities and
Sister Schools before now. I found this
website a bit confusing about everything, maybe it was the way it was laid out. Sister Cities and Sister Schools seem like a
good way to help other students understand different global connectedness. With the variety of technology used to
connect with others, it makes it easier to connect with a variety of
technology.
Virtual Field Trips (Hershey)
The website talks about different virtual
field trips and lists ten of the best virtual field trips. Virtual field trips are often free or cheap
verses an actual field trip than can be very expensive. I thought the Hershey’s virtual field trip
would be a good one to look at. I have
never been to the Hershey Factory in Hershey, PA but would like to go
sometime. Like stated on the website,
“sometimes students just want to explore something cool, like chocolate”. I felt that this field trip would be fun to
learn about, and who doesn’t like chocolate? :) This field trip takes you
through the history of The Hershey Company and the man himself, Milton S.
Hershey. It talks about how it all
started. There is even a section for
Milton Hershey School. This is a school
that was founded in 1909 for orphan boys.
It is now a free world-class education that includes meals, clothing, a
home, health care, counseling and training for careers. There are several retail locations for
Hershey, including a few in the Middle East and Asia. The website includes sections for different
brands that are made by Hershey, the corporate social responsibility, about
their ingredients, investors, careers, Hershey’s partners and a news room.
Reflection:
I have heard of virtual field trips
before, but this is the first time I have experienced one. The website itself was pleasant to look at
and easy to navigate. I really enjoyed
looking through the information and background provided about Hershey. I have always wanted to go visit the town of
Hershey, PA. This field trip showed me
all about it and an opportunity to figure out a plan when I get the chance to
go. I think virtual field trips would be
awesome for students to participate in as well.
It would be a great, cheap way for students to explore different places
to learn about. Virtual field trips
would allow students to have a choice as well, like we did, on what trip they
would like to take.
OERcommons
This website explains what an OER is and
about the future of education and OER resources. OER stands for Open Education Resources which
are “teaching and learning materials freely available for anyone to use,
whether you are a teacher or a learner”.
These materials include modules, syllabi, homework, lectures, quizzes,
games, etc. that are digital media collections.
After exploring, the website includes other examples of OER materials
which include full university courses, interactive mini-lessons and
simulations, adaptations of existing open work, electronic textbook and
elementary school and high school lesson plans worksheets, and activities. Included on the website are links to
different websites dealing with OER’s.
These include OER’s on Wikipedia, Featured Resource: Open Education
Quality Initiative, Featured Network: OLNet Evidence Hub for Open Educational
Resources, and OER Training. This
site allows you to also create your own OER.
This allows you to download and share your resources with other
colleagues and students. By doing this,
the websites research suggestions that using OER verses traditional books saves
money and student outcomes improve. The
website states that “OER Commons helps educators, students and lifelong
learners avoid time-consuming searches and find exactly the right materials”. It also states that over 50,000 high-quality
OER collections in which can be searched, browsed and evaluated are available.
Reflection:
This site gave a lot of information on
OER. I feel that this could be the
future of education because the materials for teaching and learning are free
for everyone. Who doesn’t like
free? The only problem for me is I
noticed after searching on the website for physical education, there were not
many sources found. Most that came up
was dealing with physics education. I
did however find a few lessons and different content with some neat ideas but
not nearly as much as I thought. I think
OER could be beneficial to many because of the fact that it is free and you can
create your own lessons and share with others.
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