Connect All Schools
Your Name and Title: David Potter, Director of Development
School or Organization Name: iEARN-USA
Co-Presenter Name(s):
Area of the World from Which You Will Present: United States
Language in Which You Will Present: English
Target Audience(s): US educators, policy-makers
Short Session Description (one line): Connect All Schools
Full Session Description (as long as you would like):
What if ... all schools in Newark and New York City, Maine and Mississippi were linked with partners worldwide?
How would that change teaching and learning?
What if ... all US Schools were connected with international partners by 2016?
From European financial turmoil to the Arab Spring, our nation is being impacted by crises worldwide. These crises have again clearly demonstrated how interconnected our societies, economies and lives are. Our nation’s future prosperity and security requires global leadership. Yet, very few of today’s American youth are prepared to be tomorrow’s global leaders. From language to STEM skills to geographic knowledge and cross-cultural understanding, American youth are ranked below most of their peers in developed economies. This potential crisis in US global leadership capacity demands a dramatic, yet achievable goal: connecting every school in the US with international partners.
All of our students—regardless of their future occupation or current socio-economic situation—beginning with kindergartners need the opportunity to gain awareness of and respect for different cultures and languages, to work with their peers collaboratively—anytime, anywhere—to build trust and achieve mutual understanding. The current administration’s State and Education Departments are joining the private sector to create a globally competent citizenry through curriculum, world languages, physical exchanges, and online interaction by 2016—an ambitious, five-year global education effort called Connect All Schools (http://connectallschools.org).
Join us at the Global Education Conference and help us address this challenge: how can policy-makers, new technologies, and community-based organizations help teachers empower a new generation of global leaders when global education, language learning, and exchanges are a low priority and deemed extracurricular for most US schools?
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: http://www.connectallschools.org/
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