This document discusses the need for global collaboration projects at a school to foster critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and develop 21st century learners in line with the school's mission. It discusses how constructivist learning theories support global collaborative projects. While recent studies have found positive learning outcomes from online collaboration, the document notes a need for more recent studies within the past five years specifically showing global collaborative projects raise student achievement. The document also discusses how incorporating global education can be accomplished using existing digital equipment and online lesson plans.

1. Slide 1-Need: Date: 6 /30 /2011 Global Collaboration Text Notes: Need: What problem or need existed that gave rise to your innovation? Our school’s mission is to provide an educational environment which enables students to strive for excellence in academics. By restating our mission to include developing 21 st century learners we would foster a climate of critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity. We would increase our competitive edge and appeal to potential parents by meeting the ISTE NETS Standards (national) .

2. Slide 2 Research: Date: 6 /30 /2011 : Text Notes: Research: What research organization or people developed a solution to this problem or need? What were their findings? Who were the “lead thinkers” for this innovation, and how did they convince a manufacturer to produce it? Global Collaborative Projects are based upon constructivist principles. Piaget felt that learners construct knowledge and learn through interaction with others. Palloff and Pratt (2005) report that, “Recent studies of the online learning environment [where the global collaborative projects I propose take place] have noted that involvement…has contributed positively to learning outcomes” (p.7). The identified gap in the literature are actual studies within the past five years demonstrating that global collaborative projects raise student achievement. [Note to Dr. Almasude: I continue searching for such studies.]

3. Slide 3 - Development: Date: 6 /30 /2011 : Text Notes: “ Development is the process of putting a new idea in a form that is expected to meet the needs of an audience of potential adopters.” Refocusing our mission from ourselves to our global community will require a paradigm shift in the community’s ideas about schools but will not be so foreign to the community’s ideas about missions.

4. Slide 4 - Commercialization: Date: 6 /30 /2011 : Text Notes: Commercialization: Describe the production, manufacturing, packaging, marketing, and distribution of your innovation. Incorporating global education into our classrooms can be accomplished through use of digital equipment our school already owns and in many cases has already installed in specific classrooms. Ready to go projects and lesson plans already exist on the internet for many subject areas.

5. Potential References Hostetle, A. L. (2009). Democratic citizenship in a global society: purposeful use of technology in social studies classrooms. Ohio Social Studies Review , 45(1), 51-58. Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Scheidet, R. A. (2003). Improving Student Achievement by Infusing a Web- Based Curriculum into Global History. Journal of Research on Technology in Education , 36(1), 77-94.