A Global Information Exchange (GIE) Project in a Graduate Course

Abstract

Graduate students who were enrolled in an introductory educational technology course that met face-to-face completed a Global Information Exchange (GIE) project. The goal of the project was to promote global awareness among the graduate students who were also classroom teachers, and by extension their K-12 students. The graduate students, who also were the participants in this study, implemented the GIE project by communicating and exchanging information with teachers in other countries. The study participants were provided with twenty questions that they could use as a guide to maintain journals regarding their thoughts and experiences related to their implementation of the GIE project. Because the study participants and teachers in other countries worked with their K-12 students, several such students were involved, albeit indirectly, in the GIE project. Seventeen journals maintained by the study participants were analyzed and the findings of the study are reported in this paper. The overall findings indicate that even though there were some initial issues associated with the GIE project, the project was successfully implemented by a majority of the study participants.