The terms Globalisation and Internationalization are not easy to differentiate. I understand Globalisation as a worldwide activity and if I hear the word I have to think of the industrys. Internationalization means more the cultural exchange and could also be only between two person from different countries.
Cultural exchange is a new challenge for teachers and it is necessary that they will be supportet from parents, other institutions and also the government. Because of the cultural diversitys teachers have to offer activities to open the pupil's mind. In an international learning environment children should aquire cultural competences and get to know other cultures.
Intercultural competences means that people try to understand other nations and cultures. Furthermore it is important to ask questions to understand and the condition for that would be the same language.
But what is if children in the primary school don't speak English? It doesn't matter because they also can get in contact with other countries by non-verbal exchange. It is an idea to sing a typical song from their country or to dance something special.
Skype is a good opportunity to get in contact with others. I was not aware of that opportunity before. It would be a poject which would be easy to handle.
Furthermore, I like the portal www.espnet.eu. It seems to be easy to find a suitable partner. When I was surfing at this portal, I discovered, that there are also teachers who want to find other teachers, who can give them some ideas for topics and projects. Actually, I think that is also a good idea for using this portal.
I like the idea of connecting with another class from a different country via the internet. Otherwise, in my opinion, there should also be a personal contact with people from other countries.
Some ideas for intercultural pojects:
- Pupils can cook different meals with people from other countries.
- Children should tell about their culture: Each child makes a cube out of paper. Each side of the cube has another topic and the child has to draw and write something to that topic on this side. The aim should be, that the children get to know and accept other cultures.
- Different countries are presented in group works.
- Student exchanges
- Visit a partner school in another country
For the teachers it is important, to think easy if they want to do a project. The class can start with simple things like sending letters to a school from abroad. The teacher and the children only have to be a little creative.
In Austria it is a duty for teachers to do intercultural in the class. But I am not sure, if all teachers know about the possibilities which enables us the internet.
