Global Education

 

The Learning Trellis

'Fifteen hundred years ago Saint Benedict wrote about providing conditions for ill structured,  unpredictable, real life. The root meaning of the Latin and Greek words he used that are usually translated as “rule” is trellis. Saint Benedict was not promulgating  rules for living; he was establishing a framework on which life can grow. While a branch of a plant climbing a trellis cannot go in any direction it wants, you cannot know in advance just which way it will go. The plant is finding its own path within a structure. The space in which it moves is open, though not without boundaries. (From Gillian Stamp. Bioss. January 2007. 'TrustandJudgementinDecisionMaking.pdf")'

 

When I started my quest to bring global education to my students at Foster High School, little did I know what paths I was taking or where they would take me.  I wouldn't change anything!

 

Principal seeks overseas connection

By the time today's high school students are in the prime of their business life, they'll probably be calling Korea, England and Tanzania s easily as we phone Detroit today, says Cheryl Hansen (Morgan). Hansen (Morgan), who is principal at Foster High School, wants to give her students a jump on cross-cultural communication.  She is working to set up a way for South Korean students to study economics with Foster students. 'We know our students will live in a world that will be totally different than the one we live in,' Hansen (Morgan)  says.   Fax machines and satellites are making the world a smaller place.  Talking with students from another country will give Foster kids a taste of what it's like to deal with another culture, she says.   'The sky is the limit,' says Hansen.  'I use the analogy of the pearl.  What's a pearl when it starts?  A grain of sand. 'This distance learning project, as far as I'm concerned, is a grain of sand." (Read full article...)

By Becky Kramer, Times-News, Sunday, September 10, 1989.

 

Skills for the 21st Century

In 1989 the new technology included telephones/lumaphones, computers, modems/telecommuncations, CDroms, Video Laserdisks and Computer Aided Instruction.  Today we have video streaming, internet and games technology.  But we still lack a global educator or a global student. We are far from achieving a global society. The following ideas were developed by Foster High School staff in 1989 - they are still true today.

 

In the new global society students must:

• develop a world view of issues, including the concept of interdependence
• work collaboratively in international settings
• develop knowledge and empathy of cultural and religious difference both in our country and abroad
• become less wasteful of natural resources and develop habits which conserve our environment

 

In the new global society teachers must be:

• seekers of new information, learning, ways of working
• long-range planners
• collaborators (work with others)
• researchers
• mentors/mentees

 

The global student:

• Is self directed
• Works colaboratively
• Is culturally empathic
• Is technology literate
• Uses email/electronic conferencing
• Accesses databases
• Applies and synthesizes information

 

Further study 

Surfing the 7 C's. 7 conditions for global learning, Hofman, Bob, ICT&E, Netherlands

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