GOING GLOBAL
International Student Social Networking Project

Connect * Communicate * Collaborate

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CONCEPT
Most teens today will spend hours using social networking (SNS) and digital media. This multilateral digital exchange turns SNS and Digital Media into powerful, alluring educational tools connecting teens to their peers both at home and abroad. The Going Global Social Networking Project consists of a series of flexible projects, connected to the teaching goals of the participating schools, designed to engage students of all abilities and interests in authentic, fun, educational international exchange. This project will begin in September 2011, focusing on schools in the United States, Japan and Pakistan. In following years, it will expand to include schools in additional countries such as India, China and South Korea. All activities will take place on a secure, closed network accessible only to students and teachers involved in this project.

EXAMPLES OF PROJECTS ALREADY SCHEDULED FOR THE 2011-2012 SCHOOL YEAR
• A Day In the Life Project: Teens digitally document a day in the life of their school/town, and then create an online exhibition about teen life in another country
• Self-Introduction Project (English or Japanese): Exchange oral self-introductions and ask peers abroad three specific questions
• Responding to Art Project: Teens create an artwork in response to a set theme, and teens abroad respond to it in a medium of their choice (art, essay, poem, voice, etc.) (Translation support will be provided) Professional artists will provide feedback on student artwork.
• Debate the Issue Project: Japan (or the United States or Pakistan) should abandon capital punishment (the resolution Japanese students will debate at the All Japan English Debate Association Tournament in 2011). Experts on the death penalty in Japan and the United States will participate in this project.
• Projects to enhance and deepen sister school exchanges
Additional projects will be created based on ideas generated by teachers. A list of additional possibilities will be provided upon request.


Key Benefits for Students
• Provide practical opportunities to learn about foreign cultures first hand. (e.g., rather than just studying about life in Pakistan, discuss and share pictures, video and music about Pakistani culture with teens who live there.)
• Learn how to work collaboratively with their peers both at home and abroad using social media – an important skill in the 21st-century workplace.
• Provide experiential learning activities across the curriculum.
• Many students already spend hours using social media every day. Convert some of that “wasted” time into learning time.
• Students not ordinarily interested in international exchange or foreign languages can be motivated to learn through select projects that focus on their interests.
• Improve Japanese language skills (for Japanese language students) through use of authentic materials
• Flexible projects that allow for participation of students with multiple skill levels and different strengths at the same time.
• Interact with leaders in multiple fields (e.g., participate in an online forum with a diplomat who helped negotiate a climate change treaty)
• Engaging, authentic activities for English Language Learners in your classrooms

Ways to Participate
• Participate in either one or multiple projects each year, depending on your students’ interests, schedules, etc.
• Integrate an online project into a regular class or use it as part of a club activity
• Have many students in different classes participate or only a small group
• Use the Network to communicate with other skilled teachers to share teaching ideas and teaching materials

Cost
Participation in this Network is free of charge.

How to Participate or Get More Information
To participate, please return the brief application form in English (PDF) or in Japanese (PDF) either electronically or via mail to the Japan Society Education Program. For additional information (in Japanese or English), please contact the Japan Society Education Program at 212-715-1275 or jseducation@japansociety.org.

A printable version of this information is available in English (PDF) and in Japanese (PDF).