Students from the United States and China develop problem-solving
and online collaborative skills through a virtual classroom exchange.
Borders
In 2010, State College Area School District (SCASD) in Pennsylvania, USA, agreed to help develop a virtual international classroom exchange called the Schoolwires
Greenleaf program. The program’s project-based curriculum paired U.S. students with Chinese learners to collaborate, foster global citizenship, and prepare students for the
digital work environment.
I agreed to pilot Greenleaf with a group of students from
my high school social studies class because I liked the idea
of my learners building firsthand connections with peers in
another country. I also supported the program’s approach
to tech integration, which mirrored our own. We guide our
instruction by our curriculum goals, and then we incorporate technology and other tools to support them. I knew I
would have the support and guidance of our technical wizard, Jane Sutterlin, who is our high school’s instructional
technology specialist.
Schoolwires is a U.S. company that provides web-based
collaboration tools, and the Greenleaf program grew out
of its focus on tech integration. The company asked us to
partner with the Beijing Yu Yuan Tan Middle/High School
to develop curriculum that Schoowires would deliver to
us through its technology platform. During the pilot, we
provided feedback to Schoolwires about its platform and
the collaborative tools the company incorporated into its
product.
Before and during the pilot, I collaborated online with
teachers Crystal Wang and Celia Yan from Yu Yuan Tan.
Because we worked in different time zones, our communication was, and still is, largely through email. However,
we have also conducted video and Skype conference calls.
This structure allowed me to integrate digital age technology and collaboration skills into my social studies objectives. The curriculum addresses the following topics:
• Global awareness: understanding the issues that the
world is facing as a global community
• Global citizenship: what it means to be a responsible
and active citizen of the world
• Diversity and multicultural understanding: learning
how to interact and communicate in a multicultural
environment
• Project-based learning: thinking critically, synthesizing
information and social interactions, and creating tangible and relevant solutions
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Standards and Curriculum
We divided the Greenleaf program into six units, each supporting ISTE’s NETS, the National Curriculum Standards
for Social Studies (NCSS), and the Common Core State
Standards. Here are the six units:
• Team building and digital citizenship
• Where do you live?
• Our futures in school and career
• Global citizenship
• Landmark locations
• Iconic images
Communication and Etiquette
The first unit helps students familiarize themselves with the
technology platform (Nimbus from Schoolwires). Students
learn how to use it as they introduce themselves to their
Chinese counterparts and start developing collaborative
relationships. A key part of this process is learning how to
communicate appropriately with someone from a different
culture.
Understanding basic etiquette in virtual communications
is an important part of digital citizenship. We teach this at
our school, but giving students an authentic experience is
much more meaningful. The communication challenges we
faced provided valuable firsthand lessons for my students.
It made them aware that they needed to be conscious of
their audience when communicating. Working out communication issues required problem-solving and collaboration skills that will come in handy when they enter the
global workplace.
Our participation in Greenleaf also led to discussions
about online safety. Students often do not understand that
there are certain guidelines to follow when corresponding
by email with people you don’t know. Add cultural differences to the mix, and misunderstandings can abound.
Although the Schoolwires platform is secure and available
only to authorized users, it created an opportunity to teach
students how to communicate safely online.
In the first year, we assigned students to groups that
communicated as teams. One of the exercises asked our
students to create a FAQ page with answers to questions
