Website Review #3

Globalkids.org

Transforming Urban Youth into Successful Individuals

Intro:

Globalkids.org is a good site for teachers and students living within New York City.  I will be looking at the positive and negative aspects of this website while also reviewing it's availability outside of New York City.  When looking at today's youth, in the case of this website today's urban youth, they are comprised of a very diverse group.  Thus, teachers must find ways to engage them and prepare them for an ever changing globalized world.  As found in Negotiating a Teaching Identity: An African American's Struggle to Teach in Test-Drivin Contexts, education often focuses on the dominate "White" groups: "very often dominant groups in a society apply rather constant tests of the fluency of the dominant Discourses in which their power is symbolized; these tests become tests of natives or, at least fluent users of the Discourse, and gates to exclude non-natives.... Non-mainstream students and their teachers are in a bind" (Agee pp. 752).  In other words, we do not take advantage of the diverse groups of students available to us in a positive manor.  Globalkids is a group that has devoted themselves to helping close the gap for urban school children in New York City, helping groups that are underrepresented in United States universities, professional jobs, and decision making positions.  

Positive:

There are three noble things that globalkids focuses on accomplishing: 1. Taking advantage of the diverse group of students they have (students that have first hand experiences outside the United States), 2. Finding ways to engage this diverse group of students (developing their skills, educate them about international affairs, etc.), and 3. Relieving the lack of knowledge that hurts the United States security and future growth, helping students find an importance to becoming global citizens.  As Pablo Chavajay and Barbara Rogoff put it, young children by following the lead of elders, "place family and community well-being over self-gratification, with their sense of group responsibility fostering and being fostered by cooperative relations with others" (pp. 56).  This is the goal of globalkids, whey would like to see the urban youth, focus more on a global scale instead of themselves.  Students in this particular program will learn to interact with adults from all over the world, discussing world issues that effect each and everyone of them.  Globalkids has links to outside virtual worlds and games to also help explain their type of learning.  These are perfect opportunities for students to educate students in virtual worlds and teach themselves with an interactive game.  Personal learning is a great way for students to achieve better retention of pertinent material.  As discussed in Creating a Multicultural Classroom, students can create their own answers to problems, that they will never forget.  For example, in the article, it discusses allowing students to use mountains to describe pitch and volume (pp. 35-36).  This gives students a visual representation of sound waves, something they can attach their learning to.  These types of activities also help engage students in activities that they will never forget.  These games and virtual experiences are based around world issues and race, focusing on important issues that each of these students will face when they enter the world after high school.  Also, students are able to work in groups with students teaching students; rather then teachers giving directions all the time.  As we have learned more and more about other countries, they do not necessarily give direct instruction before an assignment is started.  "Japanese teachers often give students problems to work on that they have not seen before, believing that it is good for students to struggle with something they have not been taught, both to develop thinking skills and to prepare them for later instruction" (Stigler, Gallimore, and Hiebert pp. 88).  This type of teaching allows students to take ownership of their learning, devising their own plan of action to complete a task.  Globalkids uses this type of instruction often, not limiting correct and incorrect answers.  They simply give students a topic and ask them to explore it further, usually in groups, then they would ask students to report their findings back to the rest of the class.  This means there are not limitations on their research, plan of action, and no limits on their learning.

Negative:

There are a few negative to focus on when talking about the website globalkids.  Globalkids is basically limited to use in New York City, because that is where it is based and where it is being used currently.  With this limited access, teachers from around the country can not fully use it.  Also, with it being centered around urban youth, students in the rural setting may find it useless to them, even though many of the issues that globalkids focuses on will help all schools.  Schools outside of New York City may use the programs described by globalkids; however, you can only do so online, or visit one of their workshops.  With this program being located in New York City, it is not feasible for educators such as myself to attend their programs.  Finally, I found the use of the website to be very difficult.  Navigating from section to section or link to link was very difficult, making it's use unlikely for me.

Use in the Classroom:

I don't see the use of globalkids as being feasible in my classroom.  I would state that anyone in New York City may find it more applicable to them.  I like many of the issues that they raise and how they attack learning in many aspects; however, the use of the website is limited for me.  

Final Notes:

I think in principle this is a great tool for the teachers of New York City.  I would encourage it's use for individuals that have the ability to attend their workshops and incorporate this type of learning into their lessons.  However, as I stated before, it is geared to an urban environment and limited in it's use to teachers around the country.

Works Cited:

Agee, J.  (2004).  Negotiating Teaching Identity: An African American Teacher's Struggle to Teach in Test-Drivin Contexts.  Teachers College Record, Vol. 106, No. 4, pp. 747-774.

Chavajay, P., Rogoff, B.  (2002).  Schooling and Traditional Collaborative Social Organization of Problem Solving by Mayan Mothers and Children.  The American Psychological Association, Inc.  Developmental Psychology, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 55-66.

Stigler, J., Gallimore, R., & Hiebert, J.  (2000).  Using Video Surveys to Compare Classrooms and Teaching Across Cultures: Examples and Lessons From the TIMSS Video Studeis.  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.  Educational Psychologist, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 87-100.

Tabak.  (2005).  Creating Multicultural Classrooms: Part III.  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.  Multicultural Perspectives, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 33-38.