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FAQThe Global Classroom Connection is open to all classes anywhere in the world with students between the ages of 5 and 19 years old. I am a student who wants to participate, what should I do? The Global Classroom Connection is designed to connect classrooms under the direction of their teacher. Students who are interested should inform their teacher about the Global Classroom Connection and encourage then to sign up. How do I sign up? Go to back to the Home page (www.classroom-connection.org) click on the I'm Interested in Participating! button and fill in the required information. When will I know the identity of the classroom I will be partnering with? The period for each classroom connection is preferably a full school year in order to make it possible to develop strong communications and relationships amongst the participants. Because school terms vary all over the world we will allow half-year connections when necessary. In the sign up form you will tell us the beginning, middle and ending dates of your school term so that we can properly match you up with an appropriate classroom. We will try to identify your classroom partner and provide you with the email address of the classrooms teacher within two weeks of your sign up. I registered my classroom but havent heard about my partner classroom yet? Because the Global Classroom Connection is just beginning to grow it sometimes takes longer than we would like to match appropriate classrooms. Please be patient and know that we are working on finding you the best possible partner. Also know that in order to be fair to all, classroom connections will be assigned in the order that they registered. Can I request a partner classroom from a specific country? The central mission of the Global Classroom Connection is to promote understanding amongst the many peoples of the world, and secondarily to assist with English language proficiency as a way of promoting this goal. Towards that end we try to assign a classroom in a non-native English speaking country to a classroom from a native English language speaking country. However, non-native English speaking countries may request partners in other non-native English speaking countries as well and we will attempt to honor those requests. Does it cost money to participate in the Global, Classroom Connection? We are currently in the Pilot phase of operating the Global Classroom Connection and during this phase there is no cost to participate. Once the pilot phase is complete (in September 2005), there will be a small administrative fee per classroom per year. How much will it cost to participate beginning in September of 2005? The Global Classroom Connection is a non-profit organization but must become self-sufficient in order to provide this service to as many students in the world as possible. Our goal is to make this program readily available to any classroom in the world that wants to participate. Every classroom will pay an annual administrative fee, however, the amount of that fee will vary depending on the medium annual income of the country involved. A fee schedule has not been completed formulated as of yet but our goal is to set annual fees at a level in each country that will not be a financial hindrance to participation. When can I begin participating? The Global Classroom Connection attempts to match sister classrooms at either beginning or the middle of each school year. Depending on the availability of an appropriate sister classroom, you will be notified of the identity of your sister classroom, provided a password access to your joint web site and given the email address of your sister classrooms teacher shortly before the next such period beings. I dont know much about computers, is it difficult to participate? The Global Classroom Connection has been designed to make it possible for people with very little technical experience to participate. We provide very simple to use web building software free of charge to all participants (see the Inroductory Manual in our resource section), a comprehensive and complete set of simple operating instructions and a growing library of examples of what to do for participants at different levels of technical ability. What language must we use to communicate with our partner classroom? Because English has become the international language for people of all countries to communicate, one goal of the Global Classroom Connection is to assist non-native English language speakers in the learning, practice and use of English. To that end, we try to match non-native English speaking countries with classrooms from native English speaking countries, however, an important part of multi national cultural exchange is sharing information about all aspects of ones culture including language, and we encourage non-native English speakers to share aspects of their language with their native English speaking partners. How can we participate if our English is not very good? One goal of the Global Classroom Connection is to assist non-native English language speakers in the learning, practice and use of English. That is why we try to match non-native English speaking countries with classrooms from native English speaking countries. Because this is a tool for learning, very Basic English is not an obstacle; it is simply a place to begin. Through the use of examples and templates available at our Resource Center we can make it possible for you to participate immediately and increase your English ability over time. We would like to participate but are not sure what to do? The Global Classroom Connection Resource Center will provide many examples and suggestions for things other classrooms have done and ways you can involve your classroom. I have no idea how to build a web page but I would like to participate. The Global Classroom Connection has been designed to make it possible for people with very little technical experience to participate. We provide very simple to use web building software free of charge to all participants, a comprehensive and complete set of simple operating instructions and a growing library of examples of what to do for participants at different levels of technical ability. Our school has very old computers; can we still participate? Yes. In order to make it possible for people of as many countries as possible to participate, we have designed the Global Classroom Connection so that it can be used with the simplest equipment. All one needs is a computer with the ability to access the Internet and either a digital camera or access to a scanner. Where will the Web Pages be hosted? The Web Pages created by participants in the Global Classroom Connection will be hosted on servers provided and maintained by the Global Classroom Connection. My school is concerned about having information about our student on Internet. Is there a way to satisfy this concern? Yes, different schools have different priorities. Some would like their work to be available over the Internet to all interested individuals; others prefer their web pages remain private between the two classrooms. The Global Classroom Connection will provide password-protected access to Web pages build by classroom who so request. If my classroom prefers a password protected Web page, will their parents be able to access their Web Pages? Yes, teachers will be given the necessary user names and passwords to access the classroom Web pages and the teacher can share that information with the students parents. |
