Student as Global Citizens

 In today's society, our world is incredibly interconnected with small Asian villages being able to connect to large European cities and American schools. With the internet, it is possible to communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime and it is important that this becomes integrated into my history classroom as well. November write about "letting go" in the classroom and the importance of teachers being okay with letting the students learn from each other (p.68). Especially in a history classroom, it is important to allow students to make connections with other cultures and regions in order to increase perspectives on the historical events and times being learned. 

One app that can be used to facilitate this in the classroom is Zoom. Using Zoom students in one class can interact and communicate with students in a different part of the country, continent, or the world. Even with the free version of Zoom that does not require a subscription, users receive the ability to have a call for 45 minutes before needing to start a new call. This is ample time for students in a classroom to have discussions with other students from different regions and cultures (plus most schools subscribe to Zoom). Being that this is in our summer session, I don't have an active classroom screenshot of a class in on Zoom. However, one of Zoom's strengths is that it is very user-friendly and students can easily utilize it on laptops or even on mobile phones. Unfortunately depending on the school, sometimes internet connections and wifi connectivity can be a limitation on Zoom and cause disruptions in the feed and video/sound quality. This is a drawback to Zoom but disruptions can be avoided with a good internet connection. 

In a history classroom, Zoom can be integrated into the curriculum and lessons by partnering with other classrooms around the world. Students would complete their normal course work, readings, and lecture and group work. Zoom sessions with another classroom can be integrated into the small group work segment of the lesson. For example, if students were learning about the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence, students may partake in  group discussions over Zoom with students in London in order to converse with them and gather their perspectives and teachings about the American Revolution. Myself and the partnering teacher in London would devise a set of pre-written questions before the lesson. Students from each classroom will contribute their own questions to this list and then students will ask these questions and have discussions with each other in their small groups.