Go Global: addressing inequality through technology

Go Global will build the capacity of Southeast Asian and Australian students to be part of the global workforce of the future. Connecting students through build-it-yourself tablet computers will develop their STEM skills, digital literacy and global competence while facilitating cross-cultural understanding and friendships across the Asian region.

This generation requires new solutions to solve the world’s complex problems while achieving personal fulfilment and prosperity.  These solutions will require young people to be able to use, configure or build digital systems and have strong intercultural understanding skills to operate in a globalized world and workforce. 

For some, new technologies have revolutionized the classroom. However, millions of children across Southeast Asia are in danger of missing out on the opportunities that technologies and STEM bring to support their learning.  With little access to advanced technology, they risk falling behind the rest of the world.

IF AEF can deliver equipment and training in Southeast Asia and Australia THEN students will have the opportunity to develop STEM skills and digital literacy.  

IF students develop these skills THEN they will be equipped to use technology to enhance their intercultural understanding. 

IF students develop their STEM skills, digital literacy and intercultural understanding THEN they can participate in the global workforce of the future. 

IF we can measure this workforce preparedness THEN governments, private companies and philanthropists will be willing to fund and scale.

1)   Student’s STEM skills, digital literacy and global competency will grow:

• enabling students to learn programming through the build-it-yourself tablet computers and accompanying curriculum resources.
• equipping over 3,000 students across the region with workforce capabilities including digital literacy, innovative and collaborative problem solving and intercultural understanding.

2)    Over 100 teachers across Australia and Southeast Asia will be provided with professional learning through face-to-face and online workshops to support them to build the digital, STEM and intercultural understanding capabilities of their students. 

3)  A connected virtual global community of 100 schools across Australia and Southeast Asia will be established.

- OECD’s framework, Global competency for an inclusive world (2016)

- Number of tablets built by students as a result of the project

- Focus of student engagement in using the tablets to connect to peers in Australia/SE Asia. - Student STEM skills, digital literacy and global competency.

Teachers will be regularly surveyed to track their:

- Confidence and knowledge of key project components

- Global competence using the OECD Framework, Global competency for an inclusive world. - Teacher global competency and capability in implementing the project.

Teachers will be regularly surveyed to:

Track the frequency and focus of peer-to-peer engagement in Australia/SE Asia

- Share the outcomes of global curriculum collaborations

- Share the outcomes of activities undertaken to build and use the tablets. - Community, local and global

Go Global allows all students, especially those from emerging economies, to improve STEM skills, strengthen their digital literacy and global competency.  It demonstrates how embracing technology through authentic learning tasks can develop friendships and collaboration across different cultures.

The technology used to deliver this solution is the Fiftysix tablet.  These build-it-yourself tablets are low cost, WiFi enabled, highly mobile communication tools that enable easy, virtual human communication and connection.

Fiftysix was founded by young Australian entrepreneur, Taj Pabari, in 2013 when he was just 14. Fiftysix currently runs in-school workshops and has impacted the lives of over 100,000 children worldwide.

The tablet enables student interaction in ways that haven’t been possible in the past. It allows students to experience and learn from cultures beyond their lived experience by connecting them in a virtual context.

Go Global takes the technology and extends its potential and reach by offering structure and training to inform students’ cross-cultural interactions.

Maximizing the effect of Go Global and Fiftysix’s technology is the bringing together of teachers to co-develop digital and cross-cultural strategies that enable their students to engage in positive learning experiences.

The unassembled Fiftysix tablets will be provided to schools, with a larger number of tablets made available to schools in lower socio-economic areas.  

Teachers will then be trained to assemble the tablets in order to work with their students to build the tablets and start interacting with their partner school.   

Every three months, AEF will conduct an online seminar for teachers to ensure that they equipped to maximize the program’s benefits.

The AEF is a not-for-profit organisation that sources revenue from a range of education stakeholders including Australian Federal and State Governments, the private sector, philanthropy and program participants over 25 years.  

The majority of this revenue is secured through open submission, tender and competitive processes.  

In addition, The University of Melbourne provides AEF with offices and corporate services through the Asialink Centre.  

1) Introducing a program into a school without the curriculum framework in place. 

Addressed by developing a curriculum guide to support the assembly of the tablet.  This guide will be aligned to digital technologies and STEM curriculum areas.   

2) Teachers don’t necessarily have the expertise to support the building of tablets. 

Addressed by engaging a trainer from Fiftysix to run workshops to assist teachers in this process.

3) Prohibitive cost of this technology for schools.   

Addressed by the cost effectiveness of the Fiftysix tablet kit.

https://twitter.com/AsiaEducation

AEF would continue its mission to provide schools with interactive student programs, innovative global school partnerships, teacher professional learning, curriculum resources, leading-edge research and networks to educate a generation of globally competent young students.                                               

This would further support our goals to:

• Enable students to experience intercultural engagement
• Support active global school partnerships
• Provide teachers with high quality curriculum resources and opportunities to build their knowledge of Australia’s place in the world and intercultural understanding.

FiftySix

Fiftysix have developed a build-it-yourself tablet & creativity kit for kids. 

https://hellofiftysix.com/tablets  

The Australian Government

Go Global would draw on schools currently participating in the School BRIDGE program, which receives funding support from The Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

AEF is the only organisation in Australia and the Asia region with this capacity