Critical thinking

Project Location

Country: 
Colombia
City: 
MEDELLIN

Organization

Organization Name: 
INSTITUCION EDUCATIVA JOSE ASUNCION SILVA
Organization Type: 
School
Specify: 
Donations

Website

http://amigosinfronteras201.wix.com/k

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Consenso al trattamento dei dati personali
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I do authorize the FMD to the use of my personal data.

Project Type

Education up to 10 years

Project Description

Description Frase (max. 500 characters): 

This is an adventure of learning ,without any kind of time borders or space, where children will have the chance to interact through technology with children of any country. This has awaken their interest for learning culture, languages, knowing places, etc. In this project, Reading and writing are areas are will be reinforced as well as mutual respect, respect for intercultural issues, etc.

Project Summary (max. 2000 characters): 

This project was designed because of the students’ interest of interacting and acquiring new knowledge with friends from other countries as the ones the teacher has encountered being part of the Microsoft Forums.
Build alliances internationally so that students are participants of a new learning environment in the digital century, facing global challenges through culture exchanges of learning.

This project will be conducted during the technology class and some extracurricular time after class.

To make this project work, we had to start with some phases:
1. Building alliances with teachers from the PIL network ( Chile, Puerto Rico, U.S.A, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Malasya and Guatemala). This alliance was built thanks to the friendship and collaboration in 2011 in the forums were the leading professor participated.
2. Creating online groups on Facebook social network as an interactive space where everybody can interact among each other, including Colombian students. They can post their ideas and find issue resolutions. This will be monitored by the admin teacher.
3. Choosing topics of their interests. Students will state their ideas, and problems.
4. Preparing virtual sessions. Students previously research a topic and give ideas in the session.
5. Collaborative learning: students created collaborative learning in order to give solution to problems that were given through their topics of interests. This activity was developed through a video call.
6. Rubric for Evaluating Learning: Students will have the Cultural day where through a video call, they will show folklore about each country. Parents have previously helped with this activity. Also, the national flag of Colombia has been sent as a sign of friendship without borders. Currently, we have been having exchanges with El Salvador, Ecuador and Mexico.

How long has your project been running?

2011-10-30 23:00:00

Objectives and Innovative Aspects

Objectives:
- To generate meaningful learning ,through cultural exchanges, that allow students to have respect for the different uses of technology in everyday life. To create this objective, we diagnosed students’ needs and interests because we have been working with moral values to enhance a better co-existence despite all the social problems that they suffer like violence, family issues and home displacement.
- To generate collaborative work and school co-existence through interaction. In this objective, the collaborative work was taken as part of the methodology of the roles in the classroom as well as in the social network. It has been worked under the contributions of Vygotsky.
- To take advantage of IT in the areas of learning and enhancing writing and communicative skills. We follow UNESCO’s skills of the XXI century reflected on the Colombian curriculum.
- To stimulate creativity in students when developing narrative and descriptive projects. In this objective, we covered selfsteem, trust in one’s self, so that children can express their feeings through lecturing and conversing in a pacific way.

Results

Describe the results achieved by your project How do you measure (parameters) these. (max. 2000 characters): 
Results - 450 students have been participating from primary since 2012. - Academic development has increased specially in the Spanish course. Writing and reading have also improved and now students communicate in a better way. -When building autonomy and implementing collaborative work, coexistence improves and that helped students respect the different society that we live on. Also, by knowing about other cultures, they were motivated to learn new languages like English and French through apps in their tablets or computers.
How many users interact with your project monthly and what are the preferred forms of interaction? (max. 500 characters): 

Around 120 students from different course of primary school through virtual platforms (Facebook, Schoology, skype) and classes.

Sustainability

What is the full duration of your project (from beginning to end)?: 
From 3 to 6 years
What is the approximate total budget for your project (in Euro)?: 
Less than 10.000 Euro
What is the source of funding for your project?: 
Other
Specify: 
PUBLIC SCHOOL
Is your project economically self sufficient now?: 
No
Since when?: 
2015-06-29 22:00:00
When is it expected to become self-sufficient?: 
2016-10-30 23:00:00

Transferability

Has your project been replicated/adapted elsewhere?: 
Yes
Where? By whom?: 
Other school in our city( Medellín) who wants to participate and do a new strategic alliances.
What lessons can others learn from your project? (max. 1500 characters): 

It is really important to create and implement innovative projects. Projects that are student-centered. This will take students to have new and different experiences beyond the classroom. These kinds of experiences help students enhance their coexistence and value different people. Children can be capable of building new learning styles through technological collaborative ways.

Are you available to help others to start or work on similar projects?: 
Yes

Background Information

Barriers and Solutions (max. 1000 characters): 
Internet connectivity. Solution: students went to a cyber café or they visited relatives who have internet. The language, for example in Malasya, children were using the translator to write in English and the Children in Malasya to write in Spanish. The interaction was amazing.
Future plans and wish list (max. 750 characters): 
To continue making these alliances and try to connect not only primary but secondary area from our school as well. To promote values among the group like Respect, Self-confidence, Academic improvement, etc.
Creativity and School Life Critical thinking ICT : Collaborative work
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