Dick Sblog

I’ve just been to the iEARN UK national conference – fantastic. Seldom has so much been achieved with so little resource! Why on earth this organisation doesn’t receive core funding from the DfES and the Dept for International Development, I just don’t know.

One of the other delegates was from Radiowaves – a company providing an easy way for kids to produce pod & video casts. Take a look at their site, there are some fascinating  items there produced by school students – easy, accessible technology and an immediate opportunity for kids to produce curriculum related materials that can be showcased to the world and their grannies.

There was a presentation from Alfredo Redondo, who runs the Argentinian desk of Peace Child International, now in its 25th year (by the way, Alfredo says that all Argentinian schools are involved with iEARN – these guys take collaborative education seriously) and a presentation from Charles Buwembo of iEARN Uganda, talking about ‘The World Starts with Me‘, a programme that deals with Aids/HIV awareness (and a whole lot of key skills stuff on the way) .

The day ended with a outline of iEARN’s ‘One World, One Environment’ project, by Mary Gowers, iEARN UK’s Executive Officer. At breakneck speed she ran through the way in which she uses this project (and its free materials) to engage students of all ages in the sustainability agenda and how it gets them to appreciate their global environmental footprint and how it compares with others overseas. The project approach also enables the kids to identify some simple practical steps that they can take, individually, to help reduce their global footprint. Absolutely wonderful.

So, if you’re a teacher reading this, have a look around the iEARN UK and international iEARN sites, think about how you could bring a international collaborative working approach into your curriculum activities, then sign up and find a project that fits. Bring a whole new dimension into your practice and watch your students engage with the world…

iEARN provides training, CPD, a safe, secure online environment and a whole raft of excellent resources. So go on, take a look. The only thing that’s really stopping you is… what? Inertia? Go on, do it; you won’t look back.