Hot Headline: Online Classrooms Connecting Cultures

Contrary to what may be popular belief, youth aren’t always wasting time and getting into mischief when engaging on social networks and online forums. In this Washington Post article “Students Without Borders” (6/24/09), students are actually building bridges between nations and breaking down stereotypes of each other through online global classrooms.

Some highlights of the article include ...

Teachers are signing on in record numbers to online forums designed to link students across the world through secure digital spaces.

Teachers, driven by a desire to help students navigate a world made smaller by e-mail, wikis and teleconferences, say lessons once pulled mainly from textbooks can come to life through real-world interactions.

Teachers see such exchanges not only as an exciting way to teach geography, history, language and science but also as a vehicle to forge connections that push children beyond cultural stereotypes.

In a speech this month to promote better relations with the Muslim world, Obama pledged to encourage student-to-student connections by creating "a new online network, so a teenager in Kansas can communicate instantly with a teenager in Cairo."

One student relates, "It's far more interesting to hear a person your age tell about the volcano than to read in a book about a volcano."