2022-08-11
By being exposed to this method of a global classroom, schoolchildren will be able to learn many new things and discover new topics that can’t be learned solely from books.
It all started with a crazy thought, completely out of the box and even out of reach - considering the zero access to technology (No WiFi, No Electricity) in the Nepalese rural community schools. The very thought led to an attempt to connect children of Nepalese schools with the children of western schools who have full access to technology in their learning programs. And we gave it a name: Global Classroom.
We have seen and experienced that even though the world has reached the 21st century or even if there is possibility for access and learning of new technology, our country Nepal is still far behind in terms of the use of all these services, facilities and technology. It is a farfetched dream of students and teachers of the schools that we work in to visit abroad with the purpose of learning, training, or workshops. Moreover, the local political situation is impacting the development of the school system resulting Nepalese school system being still far behind most school systems of the world. Keeping all these challenges in mind, we were still dedicated to finding a way to have children of the age group of 10 to 12 years from different countries to connect and exchange on relevant topics. Through an online interactive program, children could share about their personal lifestyle, hobbies, school habits and any kind of age-specific likes and dislikes.
If we would always go for the easy way, , we would neither achieve success, nor get an opportunity to learn something new. So we just gave it a go and started with our very limited resources. We connected the Beppu Primary School, Japan with the Shree Janta Primary School, Nepal, and the De speelplaneet, Belgium with the Shree Barahi School,Nepal. We have just completed the Pilot Project of “Global Classroom.”
From the very beginning, we were thinking about how to organize this project, and whether there would be linguistic and technical problems while organizing it. Despite the problems created while conducting the program, with the help of a Mentor, we managed to complete the program easily. During the virtual interaction, the children from the schools of both countries were able to exchange their views on many topics, like the differences in school habits and lifestyles of each country.
Some interesting aspects of Global Classroom Pilot Project:
1. When the children of another country asked the Nepalese children, “Hey, why are you all wearing the same clothes?”, the Nepalese children said, “All the schools in our country have uniforms. Why don’t your schools have uniforms?”
2. When the Nepalese children asked the children of other countries, “How many times do you have exams in a year?”, the children of other countries said, “We don’t have any exams.” and the children of both countries were very surprised to hear this.
By being exposed to this method of a global classroom, schoolchildren will be able to learn many new things and discover new topics that can’t be learned solely from books.
It's also extremely valuable to see the different emotions and ways of expressing the surprise of children from different countries when they hear unexpected answers to their questions. This is something that contributes to the value of the project: giving access to new knowledge and information to children in a very interactive way and monitoring the differences in emotions and expression of children from different countries.
This is just the beginning. We aim to connect the schoolchildren of many more rural schools with the world through this idea, exploring the world through an interactive global classroom.
If you want to connect your school and children through this project, you can contact us. In the first phase, we targeted children in the age group of 10 to 12 years and another in the age group of 13 to 16 years.