Glocal @ Laurier

Last year, we initiated a number of glocal projects at Laurier.  One of the teacher candidates had worked in Ghana and was interested in supporting an orphanage there.  She, and a number of classmates, encouraged other Laurier students (and students in local schools) to contribute milk bags which were then shredded and woven to be used as sleeping mats in Ghana.  We also had a number of activities for Haiti including a "change for change" fund-raiser where students contributed small amounts of change to support a project involving a young man's efforts to be re-trained after having a leg amputated from the Jan '10 earthquake.

This year, I am hoping to provide more structure to Glocal.  We will have a September launch activity which will have a focus on aboriginal understandings.  There will also be opportunities for teacher candidates to be involved in:
1. Ride for Refuge - bike-a-than to raise funds to support local and global efforts for the displaced and vulnerable Ride for Refuge Waterloo
2. Road to Hope - running event to raise funds to support project in Haiti and in inner-city Hamilton Road to Hope
3. Suitcase for Haiti - I'll take an extra suitcase to Haiti in October, filled with materials for school children there

Digital Mentoring Update

I continue to work on the grant application for the CIDA Partners for Development project in Haiti.  The key aspects of the grant application are:  developing teaching/leadership modules which will be delivered to people's cell-phones, establishing digital hubs where these modules can be developed and delivered, and establishing a model school which can serve as a base for training and resource development.  Two partners in Haiti who are working with me on the project are Baptist Haiti Mission and Project Teach/Konbit Pwof.  The grant due date is October 13, just before I leave for a block of training in Fermathe, Haiti.  If you have suggestions, ideas, or connections that you think would be valuable for me as I develop the proposal, please email me: ssider@wlu.ca

Digital mentoring Haiti update

Work has been continuing with the digital mentoring project in Haiti. I have been working with our partners in Haiti since returning from the May trip to work through what the project might look like. We are talking about establishing a digital hub in Haiti where leadership and teaching modules could be developed and delivered. This would support the sustainability of the project and would provide job and technical skills in Haiti.

I have also met with 2 profs from the University of Guelph about a cellphone-teaching project they have in India and Ghana. We are hoping to collaborate in Haiti. They have reminded me of the importance of using the structures which are currently in place (I.e. Cellphones) as a stepping stone to more significant teaching technologies such as smartphones and tablets. I am working on a CIDA (Cdn International Development Agency) grant proposal with them.

Global Perspectives in Education Conference - Fredericton, NB

Last week, I gave two presentations at a conference which brought together 7,000 scholars from across Canada and around the world.  The focus of my first presentation was on the significant difference between how universities and high schools conceptualize "internationalization" and what it looks like in practice; often our goals are lofty but our practices are market driven.  The second presentation was based on research I did on how a professional development course on global education can impact classroom practice.  I received good feed-back on the presentation and will be turning it into a paper to submit for publication this summer.

I was amazed at how many different times people talked about connecting the global and the local.  I started counting references to this concept over the four days of the conference and stopped counting once I reached 20.  It's evident that people are thinking along these lines - making the connection between what happens "there" with what happens "here" (t/here), understanding that traveling to other countries does not necessarily make you a global citizen (and that some can be global citizens while never leaving their local community), and recognizing that within local communities are injustices which mirror those which take place in more distant contexts.  One of the draw-backs of a conference is that there is lots of talk.  We need to continually be reminded that a changed mind/heart needs to be "operationalized" by a changed lifestyle.

UNICEF and Free the Children

I've just finished some conversations with UNICEF Canada about working together to deliver workshops to our teacher candidates at Laurier regarding global citizenship.  I'm meeting with Free the Children (founded by Craig Kielburger) next week to talk about how we might work together as well.  One of the exciting things about global/glocal education is the willingness of people and groups to work together.

More on how we might work with UNICEF and Free the Children in future blogs!

Haiti School Rebuilding Video

Emily put this video together from some of the video footage she captured while in Haiti.  It includes snapshots of a school which was rebuilt through funds raised in Canadian schools and video footage from some of the schools we visited while there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJJLqLWLdkg

Madame DuDu and Chef Jean Claude

Madame DuDu
Chef Jean Claude