United Planet’s Customized Global Virtual Exchange Programs

Global Virtual Exchange Teacher Training and Professional Development

Duration:
July 13th – Aug 20th, 2020

Orientation – Week of July 13th (1-2 hours/week)

Summer Program (7 weeks): Week of July 20th – Aug 31st (3-5 hours/week)

Iraq

Jordan

United States

Program Overview

United Planet has brought together middle school and high school teachers (20 from the United States, 10 from Iraq, and 10 from Jordan) to work together on becoming adept at developing and participating in global virtual exchange programs.  Teachers have engaged in theoretical and experiential learning using best practices, tools, and methods related to virtual exchange programs. Through the lens of global citizenship and civic engagement, virtual online meetings, project-based learning, place-based learning will be explored.

United Planet’s Global Virtual Exchange Teacher Training and Development Program is supported by the Stevens Initiative, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government, and is administered by the Aspen Institute. The Stevens Initiative is also supported by the Bezos Family Foundation and the governments of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

Benefits & Learning Outcomes

Teachers developed competency in 7 key areas:

1. Best practices in instructional design for online, project-based, place-based learning, and virtual exchange. 
2. Use of the Learning Management Systems (LMS) tools, such as Moodle. 
3. Student engagement strategies for high performance, collaborative Virtual Meetings.
4. Scaffolding for equitable participation and utilization of discussion protocols for the maximization of sharing and bridge-building between schools and cultures. 
5. Building a toolkit/ playbook of activities that will be the cornerstone of future involvement in global virtual exchange programming.  
6. Skills to act as “trainer of the trainers” to share their learnings with fellow educators.
7. Virtual exchange programming, including United Planet’s Virtual Exchange Program (2020/2021 academic year with a goal of engaging at least 10 students in the new school year).

Teachers a part of this global virtual exchange teacher training and professional development have developed 21st-century skills as Global Citizen Educational Leaders.

Major Activities

• Live online collaboration as a group and with partner teachers from the US, Jordan, and Iraq.
• Reflections and sharing of best practices through forums.
• Readings and short videos related to project-based, place-based, and virtual exchange learning.
• Opportunities to develop hands-on projects and build curriculum.
• Facilitation of synchronous and asynchronous discussions.