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At the International School Award ceremony in October, Charles Clarke, Secretary of State for Education and Skills, praised the Award which recognises schools’ achievements in embedding the international dimension into the curriculum.
He then took questions from the floor, one of which touched on the relative importance of international activity and information and communications technology (ICT) in education.
When he replied that ICT was the friend of international activity, lots of people in the audience nodded enthusiastically. Many teachers have already discovered a synergy in combining these two activities, resulting in increased motivation, curriculum enrichment and a boost to standards.
The new DfES International Strategy for Education, Skills and Children’s Services actively encourages schools in England and Wales to increase international activity.
It is Charles Clarke’s ambition that every school in England should be twinned with a school overseas within the next five years.
ICT can be vital as the first enabler. It makes international activity and finding partners far easier. It is now possible, by searching international partner websites, to find schools in many countries which are looking for the same things as you.
The British Council’s Windows on the World website has been providing this service since 1997 and the Global Gateway has now taken over, with a new, improved, partner-finding service due in the spring.
E-mail has done away with the time lag associated with posting letters to pen pals, and made international collaboration between classes a real possibility. There are many websites which can help schools that are searching for e-mail pen friends. The Global Gateway is one of these.
Teachers are now using e-mail in ways too numerous to list here, but the combination of e-mail and international activity brings new life to exercises such as ‘A day in my life’ and drives many more complex projects.
Also, in considering any international activity involving ICT, e-mail is the technology that people anywhere in the world are most likely to have access to, if they have access to any technology at all.
In its various forms, ICT can add an important dimension to international contact, helping to develop strong and lasting partnerships between schools around the world.
Your school website can play a variety of roles in international activity. The first of these may be attracting a partner. Schools with established and attractive websites are often contacted directly by schools in other countries looking for links. Secondly, the site can act as a home for the international activity, hosting projects that the schools are doing together. The site can also be effective in telling parents and the local community about international activity the school is engaged in.
Video conferencing can be an expensive activity and many teachers have frustrating memories of technicians saying, ‘I don’t understand, it should be working’.
However, if properly set up and with a carefully planned activity, it brings the partner school so vividly to life, making it one of the most powerful tools in international activity. The digital divide is wider in this area than in many, but most British Council offices worldwide have video conferencing equipment and can be approached to host a group from the overseas partner school.
If your school doesn’t have access to video-conferencing you could also contact your local authority’s ICT coordinator or international officer for advice.
At the most basic level, digital cameras can allow you to see who you are corresponding with. Taking it further, projects could involve one school getting students to pose and recreate famous works of art and asking the partner school to identify their work from a digital photo.
If you are involved in Comenius, (part of the Socrates programme), you can use some of your funding to buy small items of hardware.
While ICT can undoubtedly benefit pupils’ development, it can also be used to enrich the development of educators, too. The Teachers’ International Professional Development is a UK scheme where teachers spend time with a school overseas.
Though this is of great value to the teacher and the school they visit, building the visit around a web-based project lengthens the period of contact. It brings the teacher’s home school into the equation, gives the visit a focus, and leaves a record that can be used as the basis of further inter-school activity.
Internet safety is a subject which often causes worry. However, in many activities, communication is moderated by the teacher and the teacher is the best device yet developed for internet safety. Once lines of communication have been established and everyone is sure they know who they’re talking to, the teacher can step back and let things happen.
For further information please contact David Mason.
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