Kayla NapierNarrative of Globalization Pillar Project

Overall, Globalization is important because it leads to increased tolerance and understanding of

diverse cultures, enhanced communication skills, and global collaboration through the use of digital

media. Thus it plays a vital role in 21st Century education by encouraging cooperative learning between

students of various backgrounds and cultures. Such skills are necessary to possess, if students are going

to become successful individuals in today’s technology-based and global world.

With this in mind, my group and I decided to incorporate a variety of digital tools into our

presentation. One such tool is Second Life, which would allow the students to explore other countries

and languages through a virtual world. This would provide them with multiple interactive exposures to

cultures around the globe. Also digital storytelling could be used in a globalization lesson plan. For such

an assignment, students would conduct an interview, in which they would ask their parents to define

globalization and how it affects their lives. This project would allow the students to see the tremendous

impact of globalization on their families and friends. Additionally, students could create blogs describing

the lifestyles and cultures of a certain country. This would give students opportunities to research

information such as traditional cuisine, apparel, music, and cultural celebrations of that country. Since,

globalization is all about communication and collaboration; we also decided to incorporate Facebook.

For instance, our class could connect to other classrooms around the world using this social media site.

This would then give the students the opportunity to communicate with other learners. Finally students

could perform a global read aloud about various Christmas traditions from around the world using a

program called Radio for Learning (or 105 the Hive). This site is a free online application that allows

students to record their voices to be heard by others. Such tools, when incorporated throughout one’s

curriculum, allows students to become more prepared to enter our globalized world.

For our group lesson plan on globalization, the students will first watch a video describing the

various cultures around the world with a focus on China, which will be our country of study. Students

will then listen to traditional Chinese music on iPods to begin comparing and contrasting the China’s

culture with that of our own. Next, we will give the students a virtual tour of China using Gigapan to

introduce the students to that region. Our class will then connect to a globalized classroom from China

so that the students will have an opportunity to collaborate with individuals from a different walk of life.

As part of this experience, students will be assigned a “web pal.” They will then correspond with each

other using Skype and Epals (a free way for students to send messages to other learners around the

globe). Each partner will then collect information about types of foods, traditional music, pictures of

nearby cities/villages, cultural celebrations/customs, and tourist attractions. After researching and

collecting this material, students will then complete one individual project, in which they will create a

travel channel commercial using a Voki to describe a particular region of China. As the final project at

the end of the week, students will complete a collaborative project with their web pals. In which they

will work together to create a PowerPoint on Google Drive to compare and contrast the cultures of both

countries. For example, the students from America will create slides about China, and the students in

China will create slides about American culture resulting in a truly globalized project. To assess the

students, we will collect their commercials and group projects. Each commercial must be two to four

minutes in length and contain: the name of the chosen location in China, its geography, types of

traditional cuisine, and tourist attractions. The collaborative projects must be four to five slides, contain,

historical facts, cultural celebrations, types of foods, music, pictures of traditional apparel, and a

reflection of their experience/conclusion. We will also check for student participation to ensure that

they are corresponding with their partners, and we will frequently walk around the room asking

questions to make sure that the students are collecting relevant data for their projects. Upon

completing this assignment, both classrooms should have a better understanding of each culture. As can

be seen, globalization is all about collaboration and communication between learners of various

backgrounds. Thus it is important that we incorporate technology and communication tools that will

prepare our students to work collaboratively with others of different cultures and beliefs, resulting in a

generation that is educated for future success!