Global
Schoolhouse Project
In 1992, with a
grant from the National Science Foundation, GSN created its first web
site, called the "Global Schoolhouse," to showcase online
collaborative learning.
The mission of the
Global Schoolhouse was to provide a living curriculum that makes the
world a laboratory and promotes the quest for lifelong learning.
The original Global Schoolhouse Project involved schools in California, Virginia, Tennessee, and London.
Learning clusters were formed consisting of four to six schools who
worked as collaborative teams to study ground water pollution, solid
waste management, alternative energy sources, space exploration, natural
disasters and weather.
The Global
Schoolhouse Project was an outstanding example of government, business,
and the educational community working together to achieve a common goal.
On April 28, 1993 the Global Schoolhouse Project was introduced to the
world through an innovative demonstration of multipoint desktop
videoconferencing, as part of the National Science Foundation's National
Science and Technology Week. The Global Schoolhouse Project established
a global online network of educators who wanted to transform the way
students learn and interact with one another and their communities.
Collaborative
Learning is Shared Learning
Students in a collaborative learning
environment are active learners, who construct knowledge, rather than
passively absorb it.
Believing
that education is too important to be constrained by physical,
philosophical, or monetary barriers, Global SchoolNet continues to
support international
project-based educational experiences for students that
enable them to learn together on a reciprocal basis.
Each year, GSN
offers a range of free projects, activities and tools, such as
International
Schools CyberFair,
Doors to Diplomacy,
Mosaics of Life,
GeoGame,
Projects Registry and the
Collaborative
Learning Center.
Online Shared
Learning Teacher Awards
In 2000 Global
SchoolNet launched the “GSN
Online Shared Learning Teacher Award” program, to recognize
educators worldwide, who are champions and advocates of online
collaborative learning. GSN developed an innovative Web-based management
system that solicits 3rd-party nominations of qualified
teachers, obtains detailed narratives, and collects testimonials on
behalf of candidates. The system allows candidates to rank and
invalidate testimonials prior to judging. When the nomination process
ends judging begins and the system manages the collection and ranking of
evaluation scores. This process is completely Web managed, with no
collection or exchange of any paper documents. The result is a library
of exemplary stories and best practices from the world’s top
collaborative learning educators, and the top candidate is given a cash
award of $7,500 and flown to the National Education Computing
Conference.
Friendship Through
Education
Global SchoolNet is a
founding member of the White House initiated
Friendship Through Education
consortium, which was established in October 2001, to create
opportunities that facilitate online and offline interactions between
the youth of the world, in order to build a culture of peace in which
the dignity and rights of all human beings are respected.
