The Global Classroom

Every day students from countries all over the world collaborate on important projects. The web site, ePals, is a site where teachers and students can go to join or start a collaborative project with anyone in the world. According to ePals, Inc., “Our Global Community™ is the largest online community of K-12 learners, enabling more than 325,000 educators and 126,000 classrooms in over 200 countries and territories to safely connect, exchange ideas, and learn together. Award winning SchoolBlog™ and SchoolMail™ products are widely used and trusted by schools around the world.”


As we have seen from our own experiences, from the media, from university research, and as it was demonstrated in the Did You Know? video, technologies, especially the Internet, have resulted in a globalized society. The world is now “flat”. Our world has been transformed, and will continue to change at ever-increasing rates.


In order for our students to be prepared to navigate this 21st century world, they must become literate in 21st century literacies, including multicultural, media, information, emotional, ecological, fİnancial and cyber literacies. Collaborating with students from around the world in meaningful, real-life projects is a necessary tool for developing these literacies. Students can learn that through collaboration, not competition, they can work together to make the world a better place. Students will use technologies, including the Internet, and global collaboration to solve critical issues.