While reading Chapter 4 of Julie Lindsay’s ‘The Global Educator’, Lindsay discusses multiple ways an educator, or any person in general, can make an impact on Global Learning. Some of the main ideas were: personal awareness, being a good role model, being ready for transformation, engagement, and open-mindedness. These are all impacts on students or educators when it comes to Global Learning.
Here is a video that further explains Global Learning!
To touch on what Global Learning consists of in a higher schooling, the Association of American Colleges and Universities support colleges and universities who create settings that allow students to help them better understand the intersection between their lives and global issues and their sense of responsibility as local and global citizens to benefit Global Learning.
Click here to visit their webpage!
I was able to personally apply myself to these impacts and see how I can relate to them. For example, being a young student in today’s society, both inside and outside of school, I have always believed that I am an open-minded person and I have always been able to use this trait in learning. I think that it can be almost impossible to learn anything if you are close-minded yet alone learning things on a global level. As a communication major, being open-minded, aware and ready for transformation is crucial.
That is another point the writer makes. ‘Transformation of Learning’ is the realization that learning can happen at any time, anywhere, according to Lindsay. This is important, as an educator, to be aware that things are changing constantly and that learning is constant. Therefore, implementing this awareness in lessons so that they are relevant on a larger scale and useful to all students, is a way to help impact Global Learning and your students.
Lastly, and what I believe to be one of the most important points, it being technologically savvy. The variety of digital tools that are available today is unbelievable. So, I think that it is very important to take advantage of these tools, especially if they can benefit students in their education. In the text, the writer states, “digital tools and the fluency needed to implement and manage them provide the bridge for students to learn about the frustration and excitement of communicating and co-creating with people who are different and far away”. I wanted to include this quote because it puts it very simply, that technology may be taking over the world and it may have negative connotations, but in the end, it allows people to make connections and broaden their knowledge on a massive scale.