Digital Cross Cultural Exchange Program
Technology offers more opportunities to connect classrooms than ever before. No matter where educators are in the world, a variety of open-sourced platforms or government supported initiatives exist, helping teachers locate partners for collaboration.
Bringing the world into your classroom provides new learning relationships and pathways to share information, deepen subject content and explore social, emotional and cultural dynamics. Without the proper skills to manage digital learning relationships, teachers can become overwhelmed and disengaged, thus losing out on the experience.
In today’s world, being digitally connected is not enough. Without strong communication skills, we are merely plugged into a lot of information.
As international educators, Know My World has made it our purpose to uncover the challenges that get in the way of effective digital cross-cultural experiences in the classroom, and transformed those obstacles into learning opportunities. We have found the most common difficulties for teachers when bringing digital cross-cultural exchange into the classroom are:
- Time Management
- Intercultural Communication
- Collaboration Strategies
- Project Design
- Evaluation
Know My World Professional Development Exchanges educate teachers in planning, developing and managing virtual cross-cultural projects. Through coaching and support from a Know My World Educational Coordinator, teachers develop a skill set to create their own effective digital cross-cultural exchange experiences for their classroom.
Teachers who complete a Professional Development Exchange receive the Know My World Digital Exchange Certificate recognizing that teachers have demonstrated their ability to:
- Implement a framework to bring cross-cultural learning into the classroom
- Promote cross-cultural awareness and understanding with their students
- Effectively manage time within the exchange
- Design customized collaborative projects that connect with your standards or units of study
- Develop essential questions that incorporate social, emotional and cultural learning
- Use latest digital technology for collaboration
- Reflect on and evaluate student work
Educators from over 30 countries have participated in Know My World Digital Exchange experiences, contributing to a community of teachers who are able to design and implement powerful cross-cultural experiences. Know My World participants are eager to include digital cross-cultural exchange as a reoccurring part of curriculum and feel confident to do so.
“I was confused and wondering about how or where I could be heading, and what should I do. She [KMW Educational Coordinator] gave a sense of purpose and direction which shaped the project beautifully. My students have learned a lot. I thank her from the bottom of my heart… The impact has been deep, students came up with so many questions and could further their knowledge through effective communication. They learned to open up, explain and felt a sense of pride in their own culture. Students learned about the own mothers and grandmothers too, as they interviewed them, they felt the deep roots of discrimination in Indian society, and the secondary status of women in both the countries. Thus, it has opened up their thinking and changed the perception of the world too.” – Shivani Katkade, India
“Know My World and our facilitator set us up to be successful. They gave us every opportunity necessary to succeed. In the end, the success was up to us and our students.” – Cori Shulte, USA
“I realized that cross-cultural exchanges are exactly what the students (I’m a Foreign Language teacher) are craving. My experience could lead to the elaboration of global projects, with a local implementation.” –Cecilia Nottebaert, Mexico