1. Kayla Napier
Narrative 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 skillsare 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, whichwould 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
couldperform 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

2. 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 informationabout 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

3. prepare our students to work collaboratively with others of different cultures and beliefs, resulting in a
generation that is educated for future success!