Whalesong

Post Global Classroom 1997-2002:

The primary goal of the Global Classroom Project, as stated in the original brief was;

to provide all Victorian school communities with the ability to utilise the vast educational opportunities of the Internet for the benefit of all young Victorians.

A key goal was to assist in incorporating the benefits of global telecommunications technology in to everyday teaching and learning.  In the original 1996 evaluation of the 100 "Pilot schools", the following responses were recorded;

• 87% of the teachers indicated that their willingness to continue to investigate and use the technology and related curriculum model has in fact IMPROVED because of their involvement in the project.
• When added to those teachers that indicated that their motivation and/or willingness to continue in such a project had at least stayed the same, the figure becomes an overwhelming 100%.
• 89% of respondents indicated that their level of morale had either remained the same or improved because of participation in the global classroom project.

 An executive summary of the original 1996 review can be found in the Research Archive, along with the follow-up two-year assessment, conducted by the University of Melbourne's Dr. Atkinson from the Centre for the Study of Higher Education.

In September of 1997, I began designing a simple survey set to begin interrogation of the original Phase 1, Phase 2 Phase 3 and Phase 4 schools of the Global Classroom project.

The four parts of my survey of the original 'global classroom' cohort are designed to test what, if any, aspects of the original project have been institutionalized in school planning and teaching practice.

I am hoping to conduct this research over a twelve year period, roughly divided in to three four year stages or phases. The survey below will complete the second phase.

Both quantitative and qualitative indicators have been used to draw conclusions on the extent and impact of the global classroom project.

I am hoping to be able to "map" the role of the 'global classroom project' is playing in the operation of the classrooms beyond the original project and to what extent learning outcomes for students are being improved.

Survey Introduction

Seymour Papert once said: "..we have never had classes called 'pencils', why do we have classes called 'computers'.

At present, one of my research interests lies with the 'next generation' of educators utilising online collaborative technologies.

The early (and current) challenges for educators of general online access, training, planning time and availability in 'normal' learning settings are by no means overcome, but with a proliferation of students and educators with what I consider to be ongoing and regular access to the means of electronic collaboration, it is now a valid time to see how and where traditional or historical teaching methodologies and notions of "school organization" are being modified to include the benefits of what in 1995 Chris Bigum from Deakin University in Victoria Australia termed, "enabling technologies".

I have launched the first of a number of my surveys and am calling on the hundreds of original Global Classroom participants to continue our understanding of the value and impact of the project by documenting their experiences in this online survey.

If you were an original participant or simply interested in what has happened over the last 3-5 years, then please follow the link below to the online survey:

Click here to enter the online survey

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