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Recent Posts
- Everyone speaks English. So you can just speak English, right?
- What do Halloween, population growth, and other global issues have in common?
- The sun had still risen…
- Preparing students for the digital AND GLOBAL world
- Educational Success: Expectations are Key
- Where are you from? Third culture kids
- Race to Nowhere: Can we change the cultural definition of success?
- From the Icelandic Volcano to a World School
- Please, say “thank you.”
- How to give to disaster relief in Japan
- The U.S. must come out of its monocultural cocoon
- It’s Groundhog Day: recognizing cultural differences
- Fortune cookies: the relevance of education
- Hey, why did “they” do THAT to education?
- Want to join the 21st-century coffeehouse for optimizing education?
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Author Archives: educationisglobal
Everyone speaks English. So you can just speak English, right?
No, and not really. English is the lingua franca in much of the world, but not everywhere! And even if it were, the communication is not as clear as one might think. In reality, there are too many lingua francas … Continue reading
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Tagged communication, culture, English, foreign language, global economy, job prep, learning, lingua franca, respect, translation
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What do Halloween, population growth, and other global issues have in common?
Halloween, and a snow day already—yes, two months before winter officially starts. About 2,000,000 east-coast customers have no electricity; countless trees broke because they hadn’t lost their leaves yet. It’s Monday, and trick-or-treating has been moved to Saturday in many … Continue reading
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Tagged Africa, Asia, developing countries, education, foreign language, global economy, global issues, jobs, living abroad, population growth, poverty
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The sun had still risen…
…Wednesday when I left for school. But Thursday it rose during my commute: opposite a nearly full moon, a magnificent orange orb emerged from the fabulous purplish fog, which later burned off and morphed into a muggy, 80°F (26°C) day. … Continue reading
Preparing students for the digital AND GLOBAL world
Leadership Day is organized by Scott McLeod: Dangerously Irrelevant (blog on Big Think). Summary of this post: Digital, linguistic, and cross-cultural skills are required for jobs in the global economy; what jobs are actually like in global business, and suggestions for schools. … Continue reading
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Tagged communication, culture, education, foreign language, fungibility, global economy, job prep, jobs, learning, life skills, living abroad, purpose, teaching, technology, user-centered design
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Educational Success: Expectations are Key
My experience studying abroad When I studied at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1981-82, I realized that the French system of education (and likely that of other countries) expected a lot more of students compared to the American system. Here’s what … Continue reading
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Tagged culture, education, foreign language, language, language acquisition, learning, teaching
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Where are you from? Third culture kids
It used to be easier to tell where someone was from. People immigrated and stayed in the new place, or traveled for brief periods and then went home. But more and more often, people live for extended periods in other places, … Continue reading
Race to Nowhere: Can we change the cultural definition of success?
The parent organization in my town showed this film to parents; school administrators attended and answered questions. Thankfully, in my town, people can have such conversations and remain civil. The film focused on students who were highly stressed because of … Continue reading
From the Icelandic Volcano to a World School
A year ago, we received daily reports about the effects of the horrible earthquake… not the ones in Christchurch or Sendai, but in Port-au-Prince. And then there was the eruption of the volcano in Iceland, which disrupted aviation for a … Continue reading
Please, say “thank you.”
A teacher named Dave organized a summer exchange program. My mother saw the ad in the paper, and we hosted a 17-year-old French girl for a month during the summer when I was 15. The next year, the exchange program … Continue reading
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Tagged culture, education, language, language acquisition, learning, life skills, teachers
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How to give to disaster relief in Japan
Making donations to help now in Japan (Save the Children, Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, etc.): Japan Disaster Relief: Where to Give Check whether your employer has a matching program. My favorite: the Donate Funds page of redcross.org. You can … Continue reading
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The U.S. must come out of its monocultural cocoon
There’s an old joke, commonly known among linguists: What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages?—Bilingual. 3 languages?—Trilingual. Only 1 language?—American. School taught me a lot about western civilization and local history, but not much about the rest of … Continue reading
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Tagged Africa, Asia, big media, blog, culture, education, foreign language, geopolitics, global economy, language, power of individuals, security, technology
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It’s Groundhog Day: recognizing cultural differences
Today is Groundhog Day. Have you seen the movie “Groundhog Day,” starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell? The French title is “Un jour sans fin” — ” A Never-ending Day.” Here in New England, we seem to be living through The … Continue reading
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Tagged cultural differences, culture, education, foreign language, fungibility, global economy, job prep, jobs, language, non-fungible work
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Fortune cookies: the relevance of education
Today, my husband and I ate at a Chinese restaurant. Here are our fortunes. “The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” Paulo Freire would certainly agree with that. He was a Brazilian educator who taught impoverished peasants … Continue reading
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Tagged education, education reform, education transformation, Freire, learning, memorization, memory, motivation, relevance, teaching, technology
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Hey, why did “they” do THAT to education?
I’m a parent, a teacher, and business person. I’m not blaming anyone for the problems of education, but with budget cuts, state-mandated testing, technology, and globalization, education will soon change dramatically. If you care about that, let’s discuss how we … Continue reading
Want to join the 21st-century coffeehouse for optimizing education?
“Chance favors the connected mind.” —Steven Johnson This blog is about the upcoming convergence of technology and globalization with education. The blog’s purposes are: To inform, provide resources, answer questions. To let people from different constituencies (teachers, students, parents, educational technology … Continue reading
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Tagged connected mind, education, education reform, education transformation, global economy, globalization, hunch, jobs, learner-centered design, learning, lifelong learning, opinion, optimization, optimizing education, schooling, student-centered design, teaching, technology, user-centered design, voice
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What the heck is usability, and why does education need it?
Usability is why we have smart phones instead of kludgy brick-like gizmos. Usability specialists are people who design the coolest products, that are simple to use, and everyone loves. Think iPod, IM, Wii, FB. Wanna see some cool stuff? http://www.ideo.com/work/ … Continue reading
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Tagged A.P. courses, cool products, credit recovery, design, Donald Norman, education needs usability, education reform, education transformation, games, human-computer interaction, innovation, learning through play, low-tech products, online courses, online learning, simple-to-use products, usability, Usability Professionals Association, user-friendly, virtual learning, World Usability Day
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The global economy is COMING… or is it HERE already?
Everyone knows that whatever is published on the Internet is available to virtually everyone, everywhere, all the time. And we communicate in many ways: via phone, text, webcam, social networks, instant messaging, etc. We do that already, and it’s easy. … Continue reading
How will we prepare students for the future?
Governments in many countries are trying to reform education. They are requiring schools to make lots of changes, prepare students for exams, and be accountable. Though teachers grow tired of the requirements that seem to change every year (the méthode … Continue reading
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Tagged civics, core subjects, deep learning, deep understanding, Did You Know?, education, education reform, exams, job prep, life skills, memorization, motivation, purpose, responsible citizens, right answer, state testing, test prep industry, testing, tests, think, video
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Welcome to Education Is Global!
This blog is for teachers, parents, students (at least 13 years old), usability specialists, and everyone who’s interested in improving the learning process. We’re living in an interesting time: education must integrate technology and become global. (I’ll explain why I … Continue reading
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Tagged Africa, Asia, blog, communication, education, Education Is Global, education reform, educationisglobal, English, ESL, foreign language, global, global economy, language, language acquisition, learning, literacy, reading, second language, student-centered design, students, teachers, teaching, technology, technology integration, usability, user-centered design, users
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