Title:

Global Chatmates: Teens Connect Across Borders

Short description:

This project aims to promote English language skills via video chats which involving teenagers from 5 high schools in 5 different countries and 3 continents: Greece, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Peru and Jordan. At the same time, it will provide the opportunity to acquire cultural, geographical, social and digital skills, as well as overcome stereotypes and gain a wider understanding of the international community, gaining a sense of global citizenship.

Languages:

English

Pupils:

Number                                  Ages                         

 30-50                                     15-17

Subjects related to the Project:

Citizenship                 Foreign Languages                 Design and Technology            Geography                 Social Studies/Sociology

Key competences:

Citizenship                  Digital             Literacy          

          Cultural Awareness and Expressions

Aims:

1. Improved Language Skills: One of the primary outcomes could be improved language skills, particularly in English, as teenagers from these diverse countries communicate with each other in a shared language. Participants can develop better speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills.
2. Cultural Understanding: The project can foster cultural understanding and awareness among participants, especially considering that the teenagers come from 5 countries in 3 different continents. The long geographical distance between the 5 countries ensures a wide cultural diversity and the chance to talk with peers from a variety of cultural backgrounds. That way, the teenagers will learn about the customs, traditions, and ways of life in other countries, which can promote tolerance and empathy. At the same time, the teens will become more aware of their own personal, cultural and linguistic identity and will feel proud and open to share it with their chat pals.
3. Enhanced Digital Literacy: Through online communication tools and platforms, participants can develop digital literacy skills. This way, they will become more adept at using technology for communication and collaboration.
4. Global Perspective: Teenagers will gain a global perspective by interacting with peers from different parts of the world. This can broaden their horizons and encourage them to think more globally.
5. Friendships and Connections: Participants may form meaningful friendships and connections with peers from other countries. These connections can extend beyond the project's duration and lead to ongoing communication and collaboration.
6. Project-Based Learning Skills: The project can encourage project-based learning, where participants plan, execute, and evaluate their activities. They'll develop skills in teamwork, problem-solving, and project management.
7. Increased Motivation for Learning: Engaging in a project with real-world communication goals can increase teenagers' motivation for learning. They may be more eager to improve their language skills when they have a practical context for doing so.
8. Cultural Exchange: The project can include activities such as sharing traditional recipes, music, or stories from each country. This cultural exchange can be a creative way to showcase and celebrate the diversity of the participating countries.
9. Increased Confidence: As teenagers engage in cross-cultural communication, they can gain confidence in their ability to communicate effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.
10. Increased Interest in International Affairs: Some participants may become more interested in international affairs, travelling, diplomacy, or global issues as a result of their interactions in the project.
11. Impact on Teachers: The project can also have a positive impact on participating teachers, helping them develop their teaching strategies and expand their international networks.

Work process:

The project will be organized with shared responsibilities between the English language teachers of 5 different high schools in Croatia, Greece, Kyrgyzstan, Peru and Jordan. It is well-worth mentioning that the aforementioned teachers were all recipients of the USA Fulbright/State Department Scholarship SUSI, which promotes friendship among international secondary educators. As such, they spent the 5 weeks of the program working together in the USA in the summer of 2023.

The students will be given a written form of parental consent to be signed by their parents, agreeing on their children’s activities and sharing of personal data as described in the project. Also, the students will agree on the first virtual meeting on a set of netiquette rules to be followed by all and this Code of Conduct will be shared on TwinSpace.  Students will be also directed to respect Intellectual Property rights and they will commit to all of the above by signing.

The students will answer some introductory questions on Google forms and will be assigned one or two partners each. This way 20-25 small chat groups will be formed comprising students of different nationalities. Then, the students will be given a detailed list of instructions and tasks to follow with deadlines allocated for each task. Also, the students of the European participants (Greece and Croatia) will be invited to join TwinSpace and will post there on behalf of their chatmates from other countries.

The teachers have already prepared a program of Conversation Topics and Tasks, along with detailed instructions to give to the students, each of whom has been assigned one or two “global chatmates” to meet and converse with. The program expands over 6 months (November 2023 to April 2024), with a 1-hour meeting to take place between the members of each chat-group. The deadlines given to students for the completion of tasks allow plenty of time (one meeting/task per month), taking in mind their age and demanding academic duties at the final 3 years of school.

Activities and chat topics derive from curricular objectives and contents on different subjects.Namely, the program will involve the following topics:

1. Introduction: the teens introduce themselves and talk about their families, hometown, hobbies and common interest in an attempt to break the ice and establish familiarity. (November 2023)
2. My country: the teens are invited to present their countries, population, tourist attractions, history, landscape and weather, generating interest in and knowledge of international geography. (December/January 2023)
3. Education: the teens are called upon to describe their schools and the educational system, talk about similarities and diferences, favourite subjects and their aims for the future, giving them the opportunity to share their life, concerns and dreams with peers from another country. (February 2024)
4. Festivals and holidays: considering the variety of cultural background, this topic would allow students a useful insight into the way different societies celebrate or worship, establishing cultural awareness and understanding at the same time. (March 2024)
5. Food and music: with these two topics being popular among people worldwide, our students will enjoy talking about things they like and share with their peers new genres and products, possibly unheard of in their own country. (April 2024)

The video-chats will be taking place among the pre-arranged small groups (2-3) of students via Zoom without the presence of teachers, at times and days agreed upon by the students themselves. The students will have to have prepared before each chat. This independent way of working will provide them with the opportunity to have autonomy, show initiative, be responsible and enjoy the talk without the stress of being watched over by tutors. However, these video-chats will have to be recorded and uploaded later by the students on a cloud storage platform. This way, the teachers will be able to monitor the process, draw useful conclusions and provide feedback. At the end of every meeting, the students will also be required to fill in a short worksheet to record their progress, the knowledge acquired and their feelings on each globe-chat. This self-evaluation and recording of main points discussed during the chat will then provide the data for a class presentation of their experience at the end of the project.

Finally, all the students will meet at the beginning and end of the project to greet each other, co-decide, vote on ideas and logos, share their experiences. These will be interactive meetingd with digital tools and gamification techniques used to engage the students and trigger their active participation. During the duration of the project, they will contribute ideas, do peer-assessment and presentations in a Padlet and will use a What’s Up group to converse with everyone, communicate and share ideas, questions and suggestions with their peers and teachers.

Meanwhile, the teachers will train the students to use the ICT (Information Communication Technology) tools necessary and Intellectual Property Rights related to files, images and videos. Also, they will discreetly monitor the students’ work, encourage and advise them on any need they may have. They will also hold monthly meetings to discuss progress, deal with issues that may arise, share good practices and gain from each other’s experience.

Expected results:

1. Final personal projects: Each participant will prepare a short presentation (Power Point, Video or other) reflecting their experience, gained knowledge and feelings to present to their class/school at the end of the project.
2. Final collaborative projects: Participants will collaborate on joint projects in small groups of 2-3 within their globe-chat, such as creating multimedia presentations, artwork or videos that reflect their understanding of each other's cultures or tackle global issues.The aim is the creation of multidisciplinary products that can take different forms (song, poem, story, drawing, poster, video clip, experiment etc.).
3. Ebook to include all collaborative projects and be published in TwinSpace.
4. Multimedia Gallery: The results of the project can also be showcased in a gallery of multimedia content, which may include photos, videos, and audio recordings related to the project's activities and outcomes and hosted in a public TwinSpace.
5. Collaborative scientific article presenting data written by the five teachers of respective countries (Croatia, Greece, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan and Peru) to disseminate the shared experience. The aim is to present the results, good practices and overall benefits gained from the project to the school’s webpage, colleagues but also at national level by presentation to national conventions of educators or scientific publications.