IEARN LOCAL HISTORY

PROJECT AS A TOOL TO

DEVELOP THE 21ST

CENTURY SKILLS AND

ENHANCE CROSS

CULTURAL DIALOGUE

Nice to meet you

Rimma Zhukova – English teacher, Russia , IEARN Local History project

facilitator

Patty Wu – Computer software teacher, Taiwan , IEARN Local History project

member for 3 years

Hiba Kheirbeik– youth worker, Syria , IEARN Syria local history

project facilitator

LOCAL HISTORY-

it’s a history of the

place where we live

Family heritage

School

Local

communities

Famous sites of

local communities

Famous people Neighbourhood

Quotes

- If you want to understand today, you

have to search yesterday. - Pearl Buck

- If we forget our history, we lose the tight

contact with ancient roots.- Tomas

Jefferson

- The challenge of history is to recover the

past and introduce it to the present. -

David Thelen

The Local History Project is a teacher-

directed collaborative students project in

which students research the history of their

communities in social and cultural aspects

and share their findings with their global

peers.

The goal of the project

- To teach the students to care about the place they

live, appreciate historical and cultural environment,

to care and respect older generations, to understand

and appreciate a historical heritage of the past and the

present.

- To enhance awareness of the significance of local

history to students’ present lives.

- To develop research skills.

- To form and develop academic skills, thinking,

reasoning, teamwork skills and to enhance cross

cultural dialogue.

- To form and develop key foreign language

competences and skills.

- To develop ICT skills

The Local History Project

Timetable : September – June,15

Age/level of project participants: 7-18

Project/classroom activities: e-mail exchange; forum discussion; snail mail; diaries and essay writing, drawing pictures and collecting photos; videoconferences via Skype.

Outcomes/products: creating school sites; publishing booklets; making PowerPoint presentations , blogs and videos.

Project language(s): English, Russian

IEARN Local History project activities

1. Help to develop and enhance

foreign language competencies and

proficiency.

2. Help to develop 21st century

knowledge and skills.

3. Help to enhance global

awareness and cross cultural

dialogue.

4. Are important tools to keep

students motivated and interested in

learning core subjects .

5. Are important tools to teach

students to be understanding and

tolerant to their global peers.

.

• USA

• Taiwan

• Romania

• Syria

• Iran

• Tajikistan

• Belarus

• Surinam

• Nepal

Local History Project participants

• Pakistan

• Korea

• Ukraine

• Canada

• Uzbekistan

• Japan

• Azerbaijan

Local History in Deguang, Taiwan

Patty Wu (Tainan city)

computer software teacher

From 2011-2013

2011 (1) I co-work with a history teacher.

(2) method：web quest

(2)Students report to Rimma

(Facilitator) by skype meeting with e-

book

2012 Report to Facilitator with e-books

Skype and report to Rimma

What did the history teacher do?

• Students were divided to Team work

• Cooperate with my history teacher. She helped me

three things

– 1. Divided students to 9 group

– 2. Help students to find a topic about their life

and in the history textbook

– 3. Help to make sure that students’ group topic

are different

– 4. Make sure every member in the group have

his/her own branch topic

– 5. Give me back the plan of every group

Students’ group topic (11 Groups)

• We have 11 title about Taiwan's culture.

1. Expolrations of multiculturalism

2. The main religions in Taiwan

3. Confucianism

4. The influence of various cultures on Taiwan

5. The evolution of the examination system

6. Bopomofo and Chinese characters

7. Our nation father, flag, civil war

8. The political difference between Taiwan and

Russia (or Japan)

9. Architecture by different culture in Taiwan

10. Buddhism in China

11. New culture and new trend of though-new

culture movement

Make a e-book of every group

• Collect all members ppt image.

• Every student gave two-four slides.

• ICT tools : Zipot ebook software

Report to Facilitator Link 1m20s ebook ebook

2012 Exchange penpal with Japan

Group penpal communicate with pdf letter

and Skype meeting

Exchange introduction of group, school, city

between Mr. Haruo (Kyoto, Japan)

2012 Exchange penpal with Japan

2012 Exchange introduction of group, school,

city between Mr. Haruo (Kyoto, Japan) and

Patty (Tainan ,Taiwan) . Skype to each

other. There are 8 groups matched to each

other.

After 3-4 letters reply, we skype to each other

• From Japan

From Taiwan

From Taiwan

Video of skype between Japan and Taiwan

87% students love to communicate to foreign

students

81% students will take care what they express

62% students feel excited to communicate

with foreign students

75% students want to join in iEARN agian

Local History Project in Syria

The Syrian experience in local history project was

three projects:

From Lattakia with Love: a project that aims

to shed the light to different historical locations

in the city of Lattakia

Ugarit: a research made by students about the

ancient city of Ugarit the cradle of alphabet

Syrian Mythology: a research in the Syrian

Mythology and culture

Local history project help the Syrian Youth :

- To open their eyes widely to the history of

their country and introduced them to other

cultures.

- To enhance over culture dialogue.

- To develop researching skills.

- To develop their English language skills.

- To develop 21st century and ICT skills.

Local history project as a tool to enhance 21st

century skills

Creativity and critical

thinking

Collaboration and

communication

Local history project as a tool to build active

global citizens

Entrepreneurs innovators

Collaborative projects The positive change we want to see

Learning with the world…

Project website: http://collaborate.iearn.org/space-2/group-104

Rimma Zhukova : rimma_zhuk@yahoo.com

collaborate.iearn.org