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Ms. Kraft goes to Colombia¡

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The answer seems to be yes and no.

"Some cultures talk more or less to babies, some not at all," said Mark VanDam, assistant professor of speech and hearing sciences in the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University.

"Overall, however, the impulse and act of infant-directed speech seems to be pretty human, not necessarily culturally defined," he said.

Here is a sampling of how moms and dads from around the world use infant-directed speech or "baby talk," and why.

How baby talk might be consistent

Mothers around the world consistently alter their voices when talking to their babies, no matter what language they speak, according to a study published in October in the journal Current Biology.

Researchers recorded and analyzed the voices of 24 moms with a powerful machine-learning algorithm.

Half of the women were English speakers, and the others spoke Spanish, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, German, French, Hebrew, Mandarin and Cantonese.

Despite their native languages, the study showed, all of the women consistently shifted their timbre -- or the tone and sound of their voice -- when interacting with their infants.

The researchers were surprised that this shift in sound was a consistent pattern across such a diverse range of languages, said Elise Piazza, associate research scholar at Princeton University and lead author of the study.

"After we controlled for pitch, we still found timbre differences between infant-directed speech and adult-directed speech," Piazza said.

Though some similarities have been seen in how mothers speak to babies, studies have also spotted some cultural differences among both moms and dads.

How baby talk might differ

A study published in February in the journal Child Development found that dads in North America tended to slow their speech when talking to infants, whereas dads in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu did not. Rather, they tended to shift their pitch more.

Researchers examined 30 interactions between the fathers and their infants, around 7.8 months old. More research is needed in a larger sample of fathers to determine that such differences do, indeed, exist in how these dads baby talk.

"These are small samples," said Greg Bryant, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He conducted the study with Tanya Broesch, assistant professor in the department of psychology at Simon Fraser University.

"The bigger picture is that there are many ways that mothers and fathers can achieve the same communicative effect," he said. "What's universal is that parents often do change their voice when speaking to young children, but how they change exactly could vary across cultures."

As for mothers, a study published last year in the journal PLOS One found a tendency for Lebanese mothers to use more infant-directed speech than American moms.

The study involved 19 American and 19 Lebanese mothers. The researchers recorded audio of the American moms interacting with their infants in a lab and the Lebanese moms interacting with their infants at home.

The key difference between the groups was that Lebanese moms had a higher rate in utterances per minute of baby talk than the American moms, the researchers found.

Although other research groups have identified differences in baby talk across cultural contexts, this study was the first to report quantitatively on such language differences, the researchers wrote.

Still, the study had some limitations. For instance, American moms were tested in a lab, but Lebanese mothers were tested at home, which could explain the differences.

On the other hand, it turns out that how babies respond to their parents could vary by culture.

How babies babble around the globe

"Babies will often babble with their native sound-sequences," VanDam said.

"For example, we don't have words in English that begin with 'tl,' such as 'tlick,' and English-speaking babies don't tend to babble that way," he said, but some Spanish words begin with "tl."

"We also see sign language babies babbling in sign language, which is fairly strong evidence that it's more of a human trait than some language or culture specific trait," VanDam said.

In other words, as kids develop, their babbling starts to reflect the speech patterns of their native language, Bryant said.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Novembersuggested that infants start understanding words around 6 months old.

"So mothers and fathers exaggerate vowel categories, for example, so they'll make vowel sounds a little more noticeable, and then that helps the infants acquire the vowel sounds of their language," he said.

"Some people also think that exaggerated features in infant-directed speech help kids learn how to parse the syntax of spoken sentences, but that is a little more controversial," he said.

The changes we tend to make in our voices -- such as exaggerated, repetitive and high-pitched baby talk -- could actually be useful for babies' learning, Piazza said.

"Previous experiments have shown that infants segment words and learn the meaning of novel words better from infant-directed than adult-directed speech," Piazza said.

"It also seems to help parents capture babies' attention and engage them emotionally," she said. "Adults are generally motivated to engage infants, and they intuitively know that babies respond well to the exaggerated patterns in baby talk. Infant-directed speech is just one example of tailoring your communication style to a particular audience, which we do all the time."

Why we use baby talk

Some scientists argue that baby talk not only helps infants acquire language, it helps parents form a positive emotional bond with their babies, said Linda Polka, a professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University in Canada.

Other studies suggest that infants prefer high-pitched infant-directed speech and even infant-directed singing, Polka said.

The reason for this preference remains complex, but research suggests that when adults shift the sound of their voices for "baby talk," that causes them to sound smaller -- as if their voice is coming from a smaller vocal tract, Polka said.

"Our research shows that babies prefer to listen to speech coming from a smaller infant talker, but we don't know exactly why babies show this preference. Do they simply have a general 'smaller talkers are better' bias, or are they particularly sensitive to how big an infant is?" Polka said.

In the future, "we could figure this out by assessing how they respond to speech sounds that come from a vocal tract that is too small to be an infant. Would they still like it, or would that be less interesting to them?" she said.

Additionally, Polka said that whether you are talking to a baby or an adult, research suggests that there is a tendency to shift your speech to sound more like the person who you are interacting with.

"You are more likely to do that when you have a positive regard for the person you're interacting with," Polka said.

"Adjusting our speech to sound smaller when we use baby talk may be a way to convey affect to the baby, by trying to sound like them," she said. "At the same time, it can also help them in terms of their own learning, because we're giving them a chance to listen to a voice that sounds more like them. We may be kind of priming them for their own voice, which is quite distinct from an adult voice."

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baby talk: what it sounds like around the world
 - cnn

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What baby talk sounds like around the world

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The answer seems to be yes and no. "Some cultures talk more or less to babies, some not at all," said Mark VanDam, assistant professor of speech and hearing sciences in the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University.

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10 Reasons Today's Students NEED Technology in the Classroom

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With an increasing emphasis on personalized learning and mobility, using technology in the classroom is a must for schools today. Here are 10 reasons why.

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New methods and technologies are opening up incredible opportunities in this realm, providing real-world connections with those speaking other languages, thus motivating students to learn to communicate in a foreign language. To that end, wired schools are using high-tech tools -- mostly free, like Skype and Google Talk -- that make it easy to connect students with their counterparts in other countries. And government funding is creating opportunities for student-exchange programs.

On the forefront of this cause is the International Education and Resource Network-USA (iEARN), which started in 1988 to foster U.S.-Soviet cultural understanding and has kicked off language learning in 130 countries. Among its key initiatives is an online program where kids from different countries can work together on projects.

Credit: Aaron Meshon

"Some of the Russian-language teachers actually tossed out their textbooks in favor of the authentic interaction we were engaged in," said Ed Gragert, iEARN's executive director. "It's better to present something written by a student, because it's going to be read by a real student."

Gragert calls for more student travel to other countries; it may not build immediate fluency, but that kind of firsthand experience provides critical incentive to learn. As students make friends in other countries, they want to improve their language skills. "If I had my way, everyone in the U.S. would have this kind of experience," he says. But he also notes that at a cost of $5,000 to $10,000 per student, "that's obviously too expensive."

Technology, however, is bridging the gap left by lack of funds by providing affordable new tools that create easy international interactions. Take, for example, the following online services: Elluminate is a conferencing platform that enables schools to collaborate on projects together. Teachers have used Elluminate's videoconferencing technology for a wide range of educational applications, from teacher training to debate competitions to geography lessons. But it's particularly valuable with international connections because it can work over a dial-up connection, the kind still prevalent in the developing world, according to iEARN's Lisa Jobson.

Educators also use VoiceThread, which provides an online space where teachers and students can post dialogue, photos, videos, and audio files that can be retrieved by anyone, anywhere. One person can post a photo or video, for example, and others can add voice or text comments to the item. The basic version of the service is free, and for a small subscription fee, educators can add student email accounts, extra storage, and management tools.

For simple exchanges, there's ePals, a social network for K-12 students: Think online pen pals and digital storytelling. Because ePals was built for schools, it offers secure email and blog tools. Although it is not a specialized language tool -- its Web site deals more with projects on global warming, natural disasters, weather, water, and digital storytelling -- it does help connect thousands of classrooms in 200 countries.

Though some services aren't built specifically for schools, teachers use them in classrooms because of their easy accessibility. The Audacity application allows you to store, edit, and share audio files. Skype and other services make online video chats a breeze. Of course, real-time interactions can be a challenge: Time differences mean students in the U.S. are sleeping while their Korean counterparts are in school, and vice versa. But teachers occasionally organize a Skype chat as a treat at the end of a semester.

Almerinda Garibaldi, who oversees some programs in Brazil for iEarn, says teachers who use these programs are excited by the possibilities for breaking down borders. Garibaldi vividly recalls one teacher, Valda Costa e Silva, telling her "there is no doubt that the use of technologies became the shortest way to overcome borders between the countries and peoples. Now we are here, but we can also be there; everywhere, without limits."

Beyond technology, many other programs are facilitating global encounters. Some initiatives are bringing native speakers from abroad to the U.S. The Chinese ministry sends hundreds of native speakers to America through a program called Hanban to teach the language in Confucius Institutes. These schools are dedicated to Chinese language instruction. In addition, a number of exchange programs work with Hanban to send teachers, administrators, and students to China to supplement the language learning that's happening in the classroom.

Credit: Aaron Meshon

The State Department's National Security Language Initiative provides scholarships for American teens to go overseas for a summer, a semester, or an academic year to get immersed in a language and a culture. "Kids will learn a language better if they have to function in it every day," Gragert notes.

Apart from government organizations, private institutions are also on the task. The Asia Society, for instance, runs 18 schools for more than 4,000 predominantly low-income and minority students. The schools emphasize global themes and proficiency in at least one foreign language (or a world language, as it's increasingly being called in educational circles). The organization also works with mainstream high schools to promote languages, particularly Asian languages, according to Vivien Stewart, vice president of education programs at the Asia Society.

It's a big shift from the backlash that bilingual education suffered several years ago when the issue became entangled with immigration politics and states like California essentially voted it out. Voters resented the notion of immigrants coming to American public schools and being taught in their native language. Yet those students are now getting more of an immersion experience in English, while English-speaking parents are sending their children to schools where lessons are taught in Mandarin, Japanese, or another world language.

Schools that offer language classes are immediately oversubscribed, according to Stewart. Joanne Wright exemplifies the urgency felt by some parents to expose their children to foreign languages. Her children are in their second year at the public Richmond Elementary School, a Japanese immersion program in Portland, Oregon.

"We bought into the idea that learning a second language would make our children better thinkers," she says. "Also, I want my kids to value a culture other than their own. I want them to be exposed to an entirely different way of being -- different values, different foods. They even do math differently."

The first graders spend half the day learning in Japanese and the other half in English, and most subjects are taught in both languages. Although neither of the Wright parents speak Japanese, the children are devouring the language, much to their parents' delight.

On The Precipice

Although this enthusiasm has been a boon for world-language education, these offerings, already relatively slim in the U.S. when compared with other countries, actually slipped in recent years, particularly in the most critical elementary school and middle school years. Budget cuts and the demands of No Child Left Behind have made language education an easy target, according to Nancy Rhodes of the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL).

"What we've seen over the last 10 years is pretty devastating," Rhodes reports. The number of elementary schools offering foreign-language instruction dropped from 31 percent in 1997 to 25 percent in 2008, and the number of middle schools dropped from 75 percent to 58 percent in the same period, according to a study by CAL and Westat, a research organization. Even though 91 percent of high schools offer foreign languages, only 46 percent of students actually take them.

The challenges are multifold. "No Child Left Behind established an overemphasis on reading and math and took away time from the study of languages," says Shuhan Wang, deputy director of the National Foreign Languages Center at the University of Maryland. Because it's not an area being assessed in testing, Wang explains, schools don't teach foreign languages as much.

Compounding the problem is the fact that schools that want to offer a foreign language have trouble finding qualified teachers. Nearly 31 percent of the schools in the CAL survey have some uncertified language teachers. Thirty-six states and Washington, DC, have identified a shortage of world-language teachers, according to Wang.

Inequities also abound. The CAL study found that rural and poor urban schools don't get nearly the world-language offerings that suburban schools do and that while 51 percent of private elementary schools offer language classes, only 15 percent of public schools do.

"People talk about their concern that the U.S. is behind other countries in math and science, but we are much further behind the rest of the industrialized world in language learning than we are in math and science," says the Asia Society's Stewart. "In almost every country, it's compulsory. In almost all of them, it starts in kindergarten. In almost all of them, it goes on for several years. That's a huge difference."

Children who speak only one language may get frustrated with problems that are not easily solved, she notes. But children who speak two or more often seek a new route in attacking the problem.

Changing Priorities

Over the years, Americans haven't considered foreign-language education a priority because it seemed like everyone else learned English, the world's most widely spoken language. It's taught in schools in more than 100 countries and is spoken by 1.5 billion people -- one-fourth of the world's population, according to scholar David Crystal. Adds Stewart, "Because the U.S. has been dominant economically, we felt we could dictate to the world on our terms."

But that scenario has changed drastically. As the economy grows in China and India and, to a lesser extent, the Middle East -- to say nothing of the increasing focus on security after the attacks of September 11 -- studying world languages is becoming a priority. The U.S. State Department's National Security Language Initiative encourages the study of seven languages that are rarely taught in the U.S.: Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Farsi, and Turkish.

But European languages are still valued. Though some have minimized French, for example, the language is spoken in many countries, especially in Africa. And with the U.S. Census Bureau survey counting 34.5 million people speaking Spanish at home, that language is increasingly important domestically.

New programs and classroom innovations that emphasize immersion in culture are boosting the effort. Teachers are beginning to reward students for being able to function in a language, according to Marty Abbott with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. National standards and state frameworks have all grown out of the idea of encouraging conversation. "We're trying to change the way we assess and teach students," she explains.

In fact, some of the greatest obstacles to world-language education are parents who recall their own miserable experiences. Many Americans were introduced to foreign languages in middle school or high school classes that emphasized conjugation of verbs and other dull grammatical tasks rather than relevant communication skills. "Language teaching in the U.S. has been ineffective," Stewart says. "We start it at the wrong age. Teacher skills are not great. There's a focus on grammar and translation." The result: "Adults who took three years of French don't speak a word," she states.

But the trend toward competency and away from conjugation is helping create a new generation of language learners, one that gains real-world skills with many practical applications.

The Asia Society works toward what Stewart calls "the need for students to graduate from high school college-ready and globally confident. In our shorthand term, the 21st century will be very different than the 20th."

Adds Stewart: "Every issue you can name -- economics, public health, police work, climate change -- there are international dimensions to all of them. You have to have an awareness of other cultures. You can't know about all of them. You can't speak all languages. But languages are going to be important, and we are going to need to continue to learn about them."

Dan Fost is a San Francisco-based freelance writer and the author of a book about baseball called Giants Past and Present, from MVP press.

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How Global Language Learning Gives Students the Edge

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New methods and technologies are opening up incredible opportunities in this realm, providing real-world connections with those speaking other languages, thus motivating students to learn to communicate in a foreign language. To that end, wired schools are using high-tech tools -- mostly free, like Skype and Google Talk -- that make it easy to connect students with their counterparts in other countries.

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https://www.edutopia.org/blog/films-teaching-about-globalization-modernization-eileen-mattingly

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The global learning crisis -- and what to do about it

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The most important infrastructure we have is educated minds, says former Tunisian government minister Amel Karboul. Yet too often large investments go to more visible initiatives such as bridges and roads, when it’s the minds of our children that will really create a brighter future. In this sharp talk, she shares actionable ideas to ensure that every child is in school -- and learning -- within just one generation.

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Think before you snap that selfie.

That's the serious message of a joint campaign created by two groups that have spent the past few years poking fun at problematic photos taken by Western volunteers. They often have the tendency to paint themselves as saviors to needy people in low-income countries.

The campaign, launched this month, offers guidelines and a cheeky video to first-time travelers or young volunteers eager to capture every moment of their vacation or mission on Facebook or Instagram. It was created by Radi-Aid, a project of the Norwegian Students' and Academics' International Assistance Fund (SAIH) that fights stereotypes in aid and development, and by Barbie Savior, an Instagram parody account.

According to the campaigners, the selfie takers may not realize that their posts, from the photo to the caption to the hashtags, can perpetuate stereotypes and rob the subject of dignity or privacy.

A seemingly innocent selfie with African kids, for example, can perpetuate the idea that only Western aid, charity and intervention can "save the world," says Beathe Ogard, president of SAIH in Norway. These children are portrayed as helpless and pitiful, Ogard says, while the volunteer is made out to be the superhero who will rescue them from their misery.

Both Radi-Aid and Barbie Savior have gained a cult following for using satire and humor to tackle poverty porn, voluntourism and the white-savior complex. Radi-Aid, for example, made a viral video in 2016 titled " Who Wants To Be A Volunteer?" about a reality show whose grand prize is the chance to "Save Africa!" It has more than a million views.

Barbie Savior spoofs volunteer photography by recreating popular images using Barbie dolls and Photoshop. A recent entry portrayed Barbie sitting on a pit toilet. The caption: "Did you know that 112 percent of the people living in the country of Africa don't have access to toilets? #squatitlikeitshot." The account has more than 120,000 followers.

Despite their efforts, Barbie Savior and Radi-Aid have continued to observe "simplified and unnuanced photos playing on the white-savior complex, portraying Africa as a country, the faces of white Westerners among a myriad of poor African children, without giving any context at all," Ogard says. The proliferation of these posts, she suspects, is the result of social media becoming a big part of how we communicate.

That's what makes the guidelines so crucial, says Adeela Warley, CEO of CharityComms, a network of communications professionals working in U.K.-based nonprofits. "In the age of instant communications, it's too easy to press 'go,' " she says. "You still see so many images that make [impoverished people] look passive and helpless as opposed to empowered. People need to take the time to think about the stories their [social media posts] are telling."

Ogard and the co-founder of Barbie Savior, Emily Worrall, hope that the guide will make young volunteers and travelers more aware of what they're posting. Advice in the ten-point checklist includes: Be respectful of different cultures and traditions, avoid sweeping generalizations, challenge perceptions.

The campaigners also want photo-takers to question their own intentions. Are they just posting the photos for "likes"?

Worrall recalls her own experience a decade ago. When she was 17, she went on a volunteer trip to Uganda. She shared photos of herself and the orphans she was helping with her family and friends. They showered her with praise. "They told me, 'Wow, you're doing such amazing work.' They put me on a pedestal," she says. At the time, she didn't consider the children's privacy or vulnerability. Years later, it became inspiration for this Barbie Savior post:

That image is one of many cliched visual tropes that Ogard and Worrall have observed. They shared examples of the kinds of photos volunteers should avoid when traveling to the developing world:

Photos of volunteers giving candy or high fives to children.

These can give the viewer the impression that such small gestures can change a child's life when "in reality it has no impact. A lot of these people make empty promises and never come back to the community," says Worrall, who has worked in Uganda as a development consultant for seven years. She recreated the image for Barbie Savior in August 2016.

Photos of children on playgrounds.

"We're constantly reproducing these images that have no respect for informed consent," Ogard says. "In Norway, I would never show up at a school and take a selfie with kids playing."

Photos of sick children in hospital beds.

The campaigners illustrate this point in their animated video. The young volunteer takes a selfie with a sick child in a hospital bed while bored hospital staffers look on. "It completely disregards the child's needs," Worrall says.

For years, communicators in the field of global development have been working to fight stereotype-reinforcing images in charity ads through awareness campaigns and codes of ethics. But few specifically address social media or are geared toward young people.

Susan Krenn is the executive director of Johns Hopkins University's Center for Communication Programs, and her work centers on global development and public health programs overseas. While the university has a cultural orientation program for students traveling abroad, there are no hard and fast rules for how to portray their experience on social media. "I have not seen a resource like this," she says of the guidelines. "We'd use it. It's quite helpful, clear and easy."

Ogard and Worrall don't want the guidelines to discourage volunteers from posting photos on social media. They just want photo-takers to reflect on what they're sharing. Ask for a subject's consent, they say. Show your social followers something different.

If you need inspiration, Worrall says, check out some of the positive imagery from charities that received a Golden Radiator award in Radi-Aid's annual contest for the best and worst charity ads. These ads, like those from an NGO called Mama Hope, show local people actively engaged in helping others in their community.

If you're staying with a family in a low-income environment and they allow you to take a photo with their children, use it as a "great opportunity to challenge stereotypes," Worrall says. That might mean providing details and context - names, locations, personal stories - in an extended caption on social media.

And if a child gets excited when they see you pull out your tablet or smartphone and ask to take a photo with you, that doesn't mean it's OK to do so. "It's a cop out to say, well, they want it," Worrall says. "A child can't make that kind of decision."

"Think of how they would view the photo if they found it at 25 years old," she adds. "How would it make them feel?"

Your Turn
Have you ever felt conflicted about taking a selfie with children in low-income countries? Share your experience with @NPRGoatsandSoda on Twitter.

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Volunteering Abroad? Read This Before You Post That Selfie

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Think before you snap that selfie. That's the serious message of a joint campaign created by two groups that have spent the past few years poking fun at problematic photos taken by Western volunteers. They often have the tendency to paint themselves as saviors to needy people in low-income countries.

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Researchers can solve that problem by randomly assigning some students to use laptops. With that approach, the students who use laptops are comparable in all other ways to those who don't.

In a series of experiments at Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles, students were randomly assigned either laptops or pen and paper for note-taking at a lecture. Those who had used laptops had substantially worse understanding of the lecture, as measured by a standardized test, than those who did not.

The researchers hypothesized that, because students can type faster than they can write, the lecturer's words flowed right to the students' typing fingers without stopping in their brains for substantive processing. Students writing by hand had to process and condense the spoken material simply to enable their pens to keep up with the lecture. Indeed, the notes of the laptop users more closely resembled transcripts than lecture summaries. The handwritten versions were more succinct but included the salient issues discussed in the lecture.

Even so, it may seem heavy-handed to ban electronics in the classroom. Most college students are legal adults who can serve in the armed forces, vote and own property. Why shouldn't they decide themselves whether to use a laptop?

The strongest argument against allowing that choice is that one student's use of a laptop harms the learning of students around them. In a series of lab experiments, researchers at York University and McMaster University in Canada tested the effect of laptops on students who weren't using them. Some students were told to perform small tasks on their laptops unrelated to the lecture, like looking up movie times. As expected, these students retained less of the lecture material. But what is really interesting is that the learning of students seated near the laptop users was also negatively affected.

The economic term for such a spillover is a "negative externality," which occurs when one person's consumption harms the well-being of others. The classic negative externality is pollution: A factory burning coal or a car using gasoline can harm the air and environment for those around it. A laptop can sometimes be a form of visual pollution: Those nearby see its screen, and their attention is pulled toward its enticements, which often include not just note-taking but Facebook, Twitter, email and news.

These experiments go only so far. They may not capture positive effects of laptops in real classrooms over the course of a semester, when students use their typed notes for review and grades are at stake. But another study did just that.

At the United States Military Academy, a team of professors studied laptop use in an introductory economics class. The course was taught in small sections, which the researchers randomly assigned to one of three conditions: electronics allowed, electronics banned and tablets allowed but only if laid flat on desks, where professors could monitor their use. By the end of the semester, students in the classrooms with laptops or tablets had performed substantially worse than those in the sections where electronics were banned.

You might question whether the experience of military cadets learning economics is relevant to students in other settings - say, community college students learning Shakespeare. But we'd expect the negative effects of laptops to be, if anything, less at West Point, where all courses are taught in small sections, than it is at institutions with many large lectures. Further, cadets have very strong incentives to perform well and avoid distractions, since class rank has a major impact on their job status after graduation.

The best way to settle this question is probably to study laptop use in more colleges. But until then, I find the evidence sufficiently compelling that I've made my decision: I ban electronics in my own classes.

I do make one major exception. Students with learning disabilities may use electronics in order to participate in class. This does reveal that any student using electronics has a learning disability. That is a loss of privacy for those students, which also occurs when they are given more time to complete a test. Those negatives must be weighed against the learning losses of other students when laptops are used in class.

Students may object that a laptop ban prevents them from storing notes on their computers. But smartphones can snap pictures of handwritten pages and convert them to an electronic format. Even better, outside class, students can read their own handwritten notes and type them, if they like, a process that enhances learning.

The best evidence available now suggests that students should avoid laptops during lectures and just pick up their pens. It's not a leap to think that the same holds for middle and high school classrooms, as well as for workplace meetings.

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Laptops Are Great. But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting.

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Researchers can solve that problem by randomly assigning some students to use laptops. With that approach, the students who use laptops are comparable in all other ways to those who don't. In a series of experiments at Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles, students were randomly assigned either laptops or pen and paper for note-taking at a lecture.

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GEEO is a 501c3 non-profit organization that runs travel programs for teachers.

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NOAA Teacher at Sea Program Favorited Blog posts, Images, and Lesson Plans

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Check out my favorite images, blog posts and lessons from the NOAA Teacher at Sea Program website. http://teacheratsea.noaa.gov

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Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching

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Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching

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The Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE). It seeks to promote mutual understanding among teachers, their schools and communities in the U.S. and abroad by:

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Teachers for Global Classrooms Program (TGC)

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The Teachers for Global Classrooms Program (TGC) is a year-long, fully funded professional development opportunity for U.S. elementary, middle, and high school teachers to become leaders in global education. Starting with the 2018-2019 program year, the program will become the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program (Fulbright TGC).

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Global Competency for an Inclusive World

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Global Competency for an Inclusive World

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(select download option)

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Globalizing the local, localizing the global.  Interesting perspective on cultural identity in a globalized world 

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Globalizing the local, localizing the global.  Interesting perspective on cultural identity in a globalized world 

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Sheikha Al Mayassa: Globalizing the local, localizing the global

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http://www.ted.com Sheikha Al Mayassa, a patron of artists, storytellers and filmmakers in Qatar, talks about how art and culture create a country's identity -- and allow every country to share its unique identity with the wider world. As she says: "We don't want to be all the same, but we do want to understand each other."

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TES Global Citizenship Teaching Resource

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TES Global Citizenship Teaching Resource

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Help students think about their place in the world and their responsibility to society with this range of free teaching resources focusing on global citizenship. We have lesson plans, worksheets and more on a number of topics, including genocide, child soldiers and Fairtrade.

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City International School Guide for Global Citizenship 

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City International School Guide for Global Citizenship 

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City International School - Pledge of a Global Citizen

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Pledge of a Global Citizen - I hereby pledge to live as a Global Citizen throughout my life from this day forward. I will strive for a deeper...

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#TEDEdChat: My Daughter, Malala | Ziauddin Yousafzai |

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TEDEdChat participants chatted with @TED_Ed on 11/10/15 about the importance of equal access to education. Ziauddin Yousafzai reminds the world of a simple truth that many don't want to hear: Women and men deserve equal opportunities for education, autonomy, an independent identity.

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The ISTE Student Standards guide educators toward student-driven learning practices that prepare students to thrive in an evolving technological landscape.

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Global Citizenship Guides | Oxfam Education

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Free guides for teachers on global citizenship.

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“I have cerebral palsy. I shake all the time,” Maysoon Zayid announces at the beginning of this exhilarating, hilarious talk. (Really, it’s hilarious.) “I’m like Shakira meets Muhammad Ali.” With grace and wit, the Arab-American comedian takes us on a whistle-stop tour of her adventures as an actress, stand-up comic, philanthropist and advocate for the disabled.

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Content/subject specific global competence outcomes  

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Content/subject specific global competence outcomes  

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Scroll to the bottom of the page to find subject specific global competencies and outcomes.

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Five Reasons Why Global Competence Matters

1. Global competence is the toolkit a productive, involved citizenry uses to meet the problems and opportunities of the world.
In the curriculum, global competence challenges students to investigate the world, consider a variety of perspectives, communicate ideas, and take meaningful action. A globally focused curriculum engages students in their own learning and motivates them to strive for knowledge and understanding. And a curious, inspired student strives to learn more in school and beyond.

2. A new generation of students requires different skills from the generations that came before.
The world is changing fast. Boundaries-literal as well as figurative- are shifting and even disappearing altogether. The culture that once lived halfway around the world now lives just down the block. The ability to thrive in this new and rapidly changing environment is grounded in a globally focused curriculum.

3. More than ever before, individual actions reach around the globe.
Environmental concerns, economic shifts, global poverty, population growth, human rights, and political conflict can seem intractable and overwhelming, yet they absolutely require thoughtful action. In a globally focused curriculum, students learn that the world needs them to act, and that they can make a difference.

4. Global competence integrates knowledge of the world and the skill of application with the disposition to think and behave productively.
Global competence is not restricted to knowing about other cultures and other perspectives. In addition to knowledge of the world, a globally competent citizen exhibits habits like critical thinking, rational optimism, innovation, empathy, and awareness of the influences of culture on individual behavior and world events.

5. Success in career and life will depend on global competence, because career and life will play out on the global stage.
Already, government, business, and cultural institutions are called to solve the world's problems cooperatively. Engaging in these challenges requires high-order knowledge and thinking skill, as well as shared language and cultural understanding. In a globally focused curriculum, students prepare to approach problems from multiple perspectives and to thrive in a global future.

Ready to Put More Global Competence In Your Curriculum? Start here!

Download and read a free copy of the book Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World, by Veronica Boix Mansilla (Harvard School of Education) and Anthony Jackson (Asia Society's Vice President for Education).

Get the free Global Leadership GPS Performance Outcomes, Rubrics, and I Can Statements for grades 3, 5, 8, 10, and 12 (linked)

GPS Performance Outcomes, Rubrics, and I Can Statements are available in leadership, world languages, mathematics, the sciences, the arts, history and social studies, and English language arts for grades 3, 5, 8, 10, and 12 through ISSN membership.

Contact Kate Farmer (kfarmer@asiasociety.org) and ask about our range of school support services for global competence initiatives, including affordable, on-site one-day professional development workshops and membership in the International Studies Schools Network.

Performance Outcomes and Rubrics

What is Global Competence?

Global competence is the capacity and disposition to understand and act on issues of global significance. Download the free book here.

Looking for resources to help implement global competence in your school or classroom? Download a sample of the Graduation Performance System (GPS) here.

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Global competence is the toolkit a productive, involved citizenry uses to meet the problems and opportunities of the world. In the curriculum, global competence challenges students to investigate the world, consider a variety of perspectives, communicate ideas, and take meaningful action.

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American Association of Colleges and Universities Global Learning Rubric

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American Association of Colleges and Universities Global Learning Rubric

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IDEAS for Global Citizenship - Home page

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The International Development Education Association of Scotland (IDEAS) is a network of organisations and individuals involved in Development Education and Education for Global Citizenship across Scotland.

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Global Citizenship in the English Language Classroom

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Global Citizenship in the English Language Classroom

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This 54-page booklet comprises a collection of papers with contributions from leading researchers on global citizenship in language education in several corners of the globe. It provides not only sound theoretical frameworks for investigation but also practical findings for application in diverse segments of ELT, ranging from university environments to public schools and from EFL to ESL contexts.
Global citizenship has become one of the most important issues for English language teachers around the world, as we witness the growing importance of this language in the international scenario and its incorporation as part of the discourse of socio-economic inclusion. This is owing mainly to the recognition of the interdependence among countries and advances in communication technology that have created opportunities for greater contact between people from various parts of the world. There is a growing sense that local problems are in fact connected to wider social processes in a global scale.

The English language plays an important role in creating a global community and developing planetary citizenship. Consequently, the education of learners to enable them to participate in the global forum has brought new challenges for teachers who have to go beyond the traditional 'tools of the trade'. There is a whole new world to be explored. In order to help teachers in this journey of exploration in 2005 the British Council organised a seminar entitled 'Global citizenship and language learning: education in a multilingual world', attended by teachers, lecturers, researchers and administrators from all continents, in both face-to-face and online modes of participation. It was the first event that provided 'live' coverage, enabling professionals to interact with the discussions via technology. For this reason it created a more global forum that brought together experiences and ideas from both the UK and the participants' countries.

Following on from Audrey Osler and Hugh Starkey's 'Citizenship and Language Learning: international perspectives', published in 2005, this collection aims at offering ideas and practical suggestions on how teachers around the world have tackled the teaching of English within a citizenship education perspective. There are seven chapters, from authors working in different parts of the world, such as Argentina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Colombia, and Pakistan.

There are five report style chapters that deal with courses, teaching materials, research and curriculum innovation. The two remaining contributions can be seen as proposals for implementation of a global citizenship perspective in English language classrooms.

The diverse interpretations teachers of English around the world have been giving to the task of promoting global citizenship in their classrooms are reflected in this collection with understandings that range from a more prescriptive approach to a transformational one. They bring the potential for new approaches to be tried out in different contexts. The aim is to inspire teachers to experiment and evaluate the results.

Contributing authors include Susan Hillyard, Elena Tarasheva, Clarissa Jordão and Francisco Fogaça, Esperanza Revelo Jiménez, Sabiha Khuram, Vanessa Andreotti and Telma Gimenez.

Edited by Telma Gimenez and Susan Sheehan and published in 2008.

This booklet is free to download.

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Global citizenship in the English language classroom

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This 54-page booklet comprises a collection of papers with contributions from leading researchers on global citizenship in language education in several corners of the globe.

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UNICEF Kid Power Schools

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An American tradition since 1950, Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is the original Kids Helping Kids® initiative, empowering generations of children to become global citizens. In addition to the iconic orange collection boxes, classrooms receive free educational resources that can be incorporated into everyday curriculum. These lessons help students learn what it means to be global citizens and also converts their learning into real-world impact. Along the way, students become empowered to help their peers around the world.

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Kid Power School Program | UNICEF Kid Power

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An American tradition since 1950, Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is the original Kids Helping Kids® initiative, empowering generations of children to become global citizens. In addition to the iconic orange collection boxes, classrooms receive free educational resources that can be incorporated into everyday curriculum.

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National Education Association: Global Education Resources

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National Education Association: Global Education Resources

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Curriculum guides and teaching resources

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Curriculum Guides and Teaching Resources

Organizations, Professional Development Resources, and Web Portals

Choices for the 21st Century Education Project Curricular resources, professional development workshops, and special projects, focusing on empowering secondary level students in international issues and civic engagement. Based at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. http://www.choices.edu/

Globaled.org A teachers' resources database from The American Forum for Global Education including lesson plans, teaching units, primary documents and book reviews. Also links to Issues in Global Education, occasional papers on important topics for educators and education policy makers. http://www.globaled.org/database/

World Trade Organization and Globalization
This issue of The American Forum for Global Education's newsletter, Issues in Global Education, provides a brief introduction to and lesson plans around the World Trade Organization and its role in the global economy. http://www.globaled.org/issues/160/index.html

Global Education Collaborative The Global Education Collaborative is a community for teachers and students interested in global education. Contribute by adding media, conversation, and collaborative project ideas. http://globaleducation.ning.com/

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ACE Center for International Initiatives
The American Council on Education's Center for International Initiatives offers programs and services that enhance internationalization on U.S. campuses and situate U.S. higher education in a global context. In addition, ACE works with international partners on higher education issues that have a global impact.

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Curriculum Guides and Teaching Resources Organizations, Professional Development Resources, and Web Portals Choices for the 21st Century Education Project Curricular resources, professional development workshops, and special projects, focusing on empowering secondary level students in international issues and civic engagement. Based at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies.

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Collaborative educational series & shows

aligned to subject area, standards and the global goals.

cutting-edge learning experiences that have been featured in

Don't just take our word for it

Educators around the world love Belouga.

Belouga has truly changed my school and my students. Belouga opened my students' eyes to a world of opportunities and possibilities.

Mireya M.

Primary School Educator, Colombia

To say having Belouga as a part of your school curriculum and professional learning is a smart choice is an understatement.

Beth S.

Tech Integration Coordinator, AL, USA

Through Belouga, students can take their learning from "what if?" to "what's next?"

Mike D.

District Tech Integrator, NY, USA

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Belouga | Learn about the world, with the world!

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Belouga is a web based educational platform that connects classrooms around the world. Our mission is to encourage intercultural communication to create a better tomorrow.

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Generation Global is the Tony Blair Institute's global citizenship education programme for young people ages 13 to 17-years that enables them to embrace the future, equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to become active and open-minded global citizens.

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Generation Global is the Tony Blair Institute's global citizenship education programme for young people ages 13 to 17-years that enables them to embrace the future, equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to become active and open-minded global citizens.

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Primary Sources for World and American History

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Primary Sources for World and American History

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Primary Source Activities for World & American History | Students of History

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Over the past few years, I dedicated myself to curating and editing engaging primary source resources for both my World and US History classes. I researched and found ones that cover important topics and can be understood by students.

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9 Rules For Digital Citizenship - TeachThought

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“ Are there ‘rules’ for digital citizenship? And how are the unique from non-digital, ‘local’ citizenship? These are the questions the fine folks at ISTE tackle

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Interesting interactive digital resources on world population.

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Our population is expected to grow to over 9 billion by 2050, yet the ability of our environment to provide space, food, and energy are limited. Explore population growth from 1 CE to 2050, see how our numbers impact the environment, and learn about the key advances and events allowing our numbers to grow.

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The Water Project organization provides free lesson resources for educators.  What a great way to introduce water as a global issue!
www.thewaterproject.org

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The Art and Science of Teaching by Robert Marzano offers ideas on incorporating learning scales across curriculum.

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The Art and Science of Teaching by Robert Marzano offers ideas on incorporating learning scales across curriculum.

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https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/toolkit-for-speaking-of-digital-literacy

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Teaching Tolerance is a wonderful magazine for educators. Articles range from diversity to global issues.  I have used the classroom resources on several occasions.

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Teaching Tolerance is a wonderful magazine for educators. Articles range from diversity to global issues.  I have used the classroom resources on several occasions.

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https://www.tolerance.org/

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https://research.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/publications/2013/6/researchinreview-2012-4-global-education-connections-concepts-and-careers.pdf

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Great resources to introduce diversity/social justice and global citizenship. 

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Great resources to introduce diversity/social justice and global citizenship. 

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Guided Inquiry Design Framework