Global Connections with Apps: Talk It Up!

1. 1.• Turn down for what?”,
Turn up!, Swag (money),
LOL,“Great selfie--
Mupload that ish to
Facebook!”, I can’t even!,
KK, Cray Cray, Hashtag
WHATEVER, Me importa
un pimiento, Que chulo,
Me lo pasé pipa, Que
Guay, …
• Kids CONNECTING!

2. 2
• I'm Fran Siracusa, and
I believe in kids
connecting by
TALKING IT UP.
• What do kids want to
do in the classroom?
(Pause) What do kids
love? (Pause) They
love TALKING with
each other. Even
better, they love talking
with kids far away in
another country!

3. 3• Who remembers taking a
couple years of World
Language classes in high
school, yet still can’t TALK
their way out of el baño?
Or sadly, your most
treasured memory of
Spanish class was when
the teacher was absent
and you didn’t have to
REPEAT phrases in boring
drills. Is this what we want
for our kids?

4. 4• Imagine TODAY, where
instead, students are so
tech-savvy and
education-entertained...
We teachers ought to,
should be REQUIRED
to, empower our
students with
personalized creative
learning experiences
that MAKE them want to
learn and CONNECT!

5. 5• For example, how do we
encourage them to
WANT to learn in a
language
classroom? ...to WANT
to connect globally? I
think back, & textbooks,
worksheets and drills
are NOT the way to do it,
unless some of you out
there miss your 9th
grade rote
memorization?!?!

6. 6• How can I the Spanish
teacher get them to want to
talk, and later, TO WORK with
other students, digitally and
across the globe? First, you
have to find the OTHER
students! My favorite place to
search is “Mystery Skype:
Skype in the Classroom.”
Why ... Because teachers on
Skype Education want to be
found and WANT their
students to talk!

7. 7
• Or, one can go to 1. The
Global Education
Conference, or 2.
iEARN ... Or a personal
favorite of mine: 3. Flat
Connections or 4. The
Global Classroom Project.
Use these FORUMS to
find useful teacher
contacts, connect with
those teachers, try out a
Mystery Skype, and then
find out if those teacher
contacts are as
dedicated to
“edutainment” as you are.

8. 8• You can also contact a rep at
the Ministry of Education in
(your desired) country, and
ask for a list of
technologically-advanced or
creative-minded schools.
Write those schools, contact
those teachers. Next, after
you establish a relationship
with a teacher by email or
Skype, offer up an idea for a
Global Project, and then GO!

9. 9
• Next, in the planning
part, find the
CREATIVITY tools that
the students will use. Is
it an iPad with apps? Is
it a PC with web 2.0
tools? Is it simply just
Skype? You decide
which is best for you
and your class. But to
catch the students
HOOK, LINE, and
SINKER, remember,
choose useful tools and
apps, make it project-
based, and definitely
MAKE IT FUN.

10. 10
• Reminder: What is so
important for you as the
teacher: FOCUS on the
content, NOT the
technology! As Russo
wrote in a recent
Edutopia article, "Focus
on the skills and
knowledge you hope
students will gain, not
the technology itself or
even the "global-ness" of
the activity" (Edutopia,
Russo, 2007, 2012).

11. 11
• Give the students a TASK or
a project. Structure the
project and give them
guidelines. But then, let
them go to do what best
works for them. Let them tell
you their ideas. Then, don’t
just let them have a
conversation online—they
need a task and a focus! A
PRODUCT should always
be a part of the experience,
whether the project is a
report, video or song.

12. 12
• Pedagogically, provide
students a meaningful, skill-
developing experience.
• PLAN STRATEGICALLY,
because time flies in a class
period. Much of the work
will be done on “their own
time.” They will want to
Skype every day during
class time but you need to
plan it so as a class, they
just meet together a couple
times (during your
classroom time).

13. 13
• Now my personal story:
• This year in my Middle School
Spanish classes in preparation for
our Int’l Trip to Spain, I aimed to
foster teamwork and collaboration.
I created an off-shoot project tied
into this year’s Global Happiness
Project. Next, after sending out a
letter and speaking to a rep from
the Ministry of Education of Spain,
I was put into contact with a
couple schools and found Inés
and Diego from Colegio Decroly in
Madrid, who were willing to work
with me.

14. 14
• 14 Our FL & Spain classes separately
investigated “the topics” and then had
to collaboratively and digitally write/
sing/produce their own “reaction” with
regards to their 2 separate
hometowns in 1 project.
• Our favorite apps we used were:
Google Earth (to find each other)
at the same time we used Skype
(to talk live with each other) and
Edmodo (to talk/write
asynchronously). Next, the
students chose 2 songs in which
to co-write “parodies” and used
Google Docs and Skype
(simultaneously again to work). I
even used Nearpod in
conjunction with Skype with both
groups simultaneously in an
exploratory exercise at the
beginning.

15. 15• 15. Next, we MET in
person (one time) in Spain
for three hours. The kids
examined their written
parodies, tweaked and
wrote a little more. They
took pictures and video-
recorded pieces of the
song, both singing and
acting silly. Our students
brought their iPads to
share and with which to
work.

16. 16• In Spain ...Ratio: two
iPads to four kids.
• Separately, our kids used
GarageBand to record
the song pieces; Keynote
and Haiku Deck to create
the images and slides;
and finally iMovie to put it
all together. The
possibilities are
endless…

17. 17
• 17. Again, what were the
students’ favorite Creativity
and Productivity apps?
(Pause) iMovie,
GarageBand and Google
Docs…favorite
Communication apps?
Skype, Edmodo, and
Nearpod.
• ISTE Standards for
Students that were met?
Communication &
Collaboration

18. 18
• Were there Challenges?
Yes! We had to cross the
hurdles of:
• time-zone differences,
technology barriers, reliable
internet, innovative
teachers to work with,
having to establish several
student Skype accounts to
allow for pairs working
together across the globe,
travel expense of visiting
LIVE, …

19. 19• In the end, students
developed their
communication skills in native
and target languages, created
multi-cultural understanding
and experienced a taste of
future workforce
preparedness. But most
importantly, they
CONNECTED emotionally
with real people, made new
friends, and did what all kids
love to do: they TALKED!

20. 20• The best part was
that they each have
a digital memento
that they could keep
forever to remember
the experience in
THE VIDEO. Now
that’s worth TALKING
about!
• Read more at
ourglobalprojects.blo
gspot.com