Teaching a Global Classroom

Educating globally is of great interest to me and I’m amazed at how the move away from the confines of a physical classroom can be such an enriching experience. I’ve had a long time teaching classes inside a classroom where the pattern of one-way direction of information -- from teacher to students - was a well established one - even with the arrival of new technology.

I’ve been an A level  English Language and Literature examiner with Cambridge International for some years and  very much enjoy hearing the local ‘voices’ of the candidates as they write about their own experiences  on the questions  about their own life and culture.  A student from Nepal who is looking out at the Himalayas; one from Zimbabwe who is describing   their impressions of the Victoria Falls or a New Zealander  debating the impact of the Christchurch earthquake, are examples of individual  topics  which  broaden my  interests and knowledge.

The quantum leap however, has arrived with online teaching at Interhigh. The global classrooms are always lively and so enriching for us all and this is one of the many benefits of this method of learning. I remember my first Year Eight History class where I asked the students whether they lived nar any historical monuments: ‘The Pyramids’ came the first jaw- droppingly amazing reply!

In Geography, we can all look out of the window at the local weather conditions; for some the tropical monsoon is about to break; others have not seen rainfall in months and others are able to discuss the idea of global warming with reference to the vegetation of the African Savannah.  So that now, in these classes, knowledge is very much a flow of information amongst all of us. My classes know my IT trials and error- how reassuring to me that there some technical experts at Interhigh sitting right in my classroom!

Of course I have a responsibility as the teacher to organise and direct the shape of the lesson but this new teaching style seems altogether more collaborative and democratic than the traditional Socratic Method where knowledge was handed down from one source. Listening to my worldwide classes read Shakespeare or discuss the shopping facilities in their local towns in different continents, it seems that in the words of the poem, we have all slipped the surly bonds of Earth (John Gillespie Magee ‘High Flight’) as this shared knowledge travels instantly across the globe.

AS a relatively ‘new kid on the block’ with on line teaching, I do not assume to discuss well known  points  about the values of  this style of learning in this brave new digital world. But what is evident to me however, is that, at the stage of my teaching where I might be expected to have a reasonable store of knowledge to disseminate to those I teach, the medium of the global classroom is revolutionising the concept of teaching and learning.
 have so much to learn!

Marilyn Rankin

InterHigh Teacher