GVC Contest Registration Open

New in the 2013 contest, the primary division will use GVC's Google Sites as the default program, the secondary division will be given server space and design their own site.  In each division, if all three schools on a a team agree, that team may request the other division's website creation method. 

Register soon! http://p0.vresp.com/89Q57e

Malaysian Students Awards

School principal and senior assistants pose for a photo with winning student participants in the GVC contest. Students collaborated with Spain and the USA to create a website on teen health and nutrition. See their work and that of other contestants from the GVC 2012-13 contest.

District 97 Wins top Awards

Oak Park Elementary School District in Illinois has been a participant in the GVC contest for many years.  With eight elementary schools and two middle schools, the district's schools have a wide range of participation across grade levels.  Attached here are details in a blog post by Chris Jasculca, the district's communications person.

2013-2014 Web Contest Registration Opens

2012-13 Secondary Team from St Marks, Meera Bagh, New Delhi

The Global Virtual Classroom Web Contest registration opens today.  Your school could be on a winning team.  Three schools are teamed by GVC into a single team.  That team works together to create a website about a world issue that they have chosen collaboratively. This is a full year commitment which involves knowing how to create a website. Schools also need strong collaboration skills, as the 3 schools in each team are separated geographically, but need to work together as one.

Why register early?  You'll be able to request partners, so it helps if you get to know other schools!

Additional information can be found on our wiki at: http://gvc13-teachers-lounge.wikispaces.com/Home 

GVC Contest Awards Announced

GLOBAL VIRTUAL CLASSROOM
2012/2013 AWARD WINNING WEBSITES ANNOUNCED

May 13, 2013 – The Give Something Back International Foundation (GSBI) has announced the winners of the 2012/2013 Global Virtual Classroom Contest (GVC) -- a free online collaborative learning project that fosters creativity, cross cultural understanding, helping others and teaches IT and website design skills amongst students working together from around the world.

Sponsored by GSBI, the GVC program provides an opportunity for primary and secondary school students from different countries to work with and learn from students in other countries, as they collaboratively design a website on a topic of their choosing. Teams are comprised of either three primary or three secondary schools from different countries. A panel of international judges evaluates the final work and determines the winners.

Contest participants virtually collaborated with students in other countries to build and submit websites designed around a provocative theme. As such, the contest aims to enhance abilities required for the 21st century such as: cross-cultural communication, collaboration and technology skills. This year the contest had participants from 17 countries including participants from India, Kenya, Malaysia, Russia, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Spain, Nigeria, Greece, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Cote d'Ivoire, Hungary, Pakistan and the USA. A map of participants is available at http://goo.gl/maps/Ezmed.

Their efforts were judged for content, presentation, collaboration, and a helping focus. The helping focus encourages students to also demonstrate achievement of a helpful objective such as personal, social and/or environmental responsibility or support for a worthy cause.

JoAnn Patrick-Ezzell, the Chairman and one of the co-founders of the Give Something Back International Foundation said, “Beyond the impressive accomplishments of the website projects, we are so pleased that the teams found a myriad of ways to give back to their schools, their communities, and to others around the world in very meaningful ways. This years winners represent wonderful diversity from around the world. "

This year’s Grand Prize winner for the primary school category is the “Heal the World” website created and built by students from Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park, Illinois; USA, the Primary School Balatonboglár, Balatonboglár, Hungary; and St Mark's Senior Secondary School, Meera Bagh, New Delhi, India. The website highlights the importance of making a personal commitment to making a difference in the world.  Topics cover social and environmental issues as well as personal well being.

The Second Place winner in the primary school category is the “Innovation and Invention” website designed by Sih-Wei Primary School, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan and Harper McCaughan Elementary, Long Beach, Mississippi, USA.

In Third Place of the primary school category is “A Look into Technology” website presented by Tainan Municipal Haidong Elementary School, Tainan, Taiwan; Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, Oak Park,  Illinois, USA; and the International Magnet School, East Hartford,  Connecticut, USA.

The secondary school category’s Grand Prize winner is the “True Heroes and Heroines” website presented by students at St Mark's Senior Secondary School, Meera Bagh, New Delhi, India and Littleton High School, Littleton, Colorado, USA.   The website highlights what it means to be a true hero.  In the students' own words, "a true hero is a person who dedicates his life for the benefit of others, who is humble, who spreads love wherever he goes and possesses the following qualities: leadership, honesty, discipline, punctuality, compassion, and an optimistic attitude."

The Second Place winner for the secondary school category is the “Teenage Health” website developed by La Salle-Virgen del Mar,  Almería, Spain; SMJK  POI  LAM, Perak, Malaysia; and Menchville High School, Newport News, Virginia, USA.

In Third Place of the secondary school category is the “School Dinners = Nutrition + Healthy Eating” website created by St. Paul Lutheran High School, Farmington, Missouri, USA; Riverside Senior High School, Prague, Czech Republic;  and Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park, Illinois, USA.

Certificates of participation are awarded to all students. Plaques and cash awards are presented to the schools of the winning teams. The Grand Prize award is $1,500 for the winning primary school team and $1,500 for the secondary school team. The second place award is $750 for each winning team and the third place award is $250 to each team. Special Merit awards are also presented for exceptional academic merit, for significant helping focus accomplishments, for creativity, for collaboration, and for the innovative use of multimedia. Merit award winners receive software from Tech4Learning.com.

To view the winning websites visit www.VirtualClassroom.org.

Online applications for the 2013/14 program are also available on the site. Contest sign-up begins each June. There is no cost for participation. The contest runs from late October until April 1, with results announced in May.

The international website contest is made possible by Give Something Back International (GSBI), a nonprofit educational foundation headquartered in Sarasota, Florida. GSBI’s goal is to provide lifechanging, quality educational opportunities to children, young adults, and teachers around the world.

“GSBI is dedicated to empowering, enabling and connecting students around the world using Internet technologies,” said their President Andrew Ezzell. “It is enormously gratifying to watch kids learn to use technology to reach out to each other across great distances, and we’re delighted to see the Global Virtual Classroom contest facilitate that kind of cross-cultural collaboration.”

The contest is now seeking a new sponsor for the event. Interested parties should contact Andrew Ezzell at ezzell@gsbi.org for additional information.

Earth Hour

Issue 163 of the Ipoh Echo is available for viewing at:  http://www.ipohecho.com.my
Click image to read article

Submitted by Veronica Woo, GVC team 1212

Malaysia GVC Team on World Walking Day

GVC Team Malaysia participated in the World Walking Day on 28 October, 2012.This event was organized by Nestle Malaysia in conjunction with their 100 year anniversary celebration globally.With a record high of more than 4,000 participants, this event was definitely a success. As for SMJK Poi Lam Team Malaysia, World Walking Day was a very good way to help promote walking as a healthy form of exercise to help prevent or overcome obesity.And this in turn aptly fits in with the theme of our Global Virtual Classroom (GVC) ‘Teenage Health’ Website Design Project.Our participation in Nestle’s World Walking Day was published in two local Chinese dailies wherebyiEARN Global Virtual Classroom and our two project partner schools i.e. Menchville High School, USA and La Salle, Almeria, Spain werementioned and given much publicity.
Submitted by Teacher Veronica Woo, SMJK Poi Lam Ipoh, Malaysia.

Holocaust Remembrance

The GVC Clubhouse and GlobalDreamers are launching this year's Holocaust Remembrance project with the theme chosen by the UN: “Rescue during the Holocaust: The Courage to Care”; honouring those who risked their own lives to save tens of thousands of Jews, Roma and Sinti and others from near certain death under the Nazi regime during the Second World War in Europe. 

The project is at: http://gvc-clubhouse.wikispaces.com/The+Courage+to+Care
You can add your own page and it will automatically show up in the items on this main page if you add the tag:
care
when creating the page.

On our resources page:http://www.globaldreamers.org/13holocaust/resources.html you can find a link to the movie: Safe Haven - the Warsaw Zoo. It is a short movie and can spark great discussions. Also appropriate for all age levels.

Marsha will also do group sessions talking about her mother, a holocaust survivor. This year we are using Google Hangout to be able to include more than one school at a time and to record so that those who were unable to attend can view it. The first one (held on January 22) can be viewed here: http://gvc-clubhouse.wikispaces.com/InternationalHolocaustRemembrance
There are /were a few technical problems, but we are grateful to the fine group of educators and students who participated and helped us work through the problems.

We hope all of you will join us and most of all we hope all of you will always remember the lessons of the Holocaust and always have the "courage to care" when you see injustice in the world.

Marsha Goren - marsha@gsbi.org
Janet Barnstable - jbarnstable@gsbi.org