Global Virtual Classroom
Organization Information:
Organization Name
Give Something Back International Foundation (www.gsbi.org)Organization's Mission Statement
The Mission of the Give Something Back International Foundation(GSBI) is "Education to Change Lives". The Global Virtual Classroom(GVC)is a project of GSBI, a public non-profit educational organization, devoted to providing educational opportunities to primary and secondary school students throughout the world.
Organization Website
http://www.VirtualClassroom.orgSubmission Information
Impact Essay
The Global Virtual Classroom(GVC), formerly the “AT&T Virtual Classroom”, is an international educational program that offers a variety of free, online educational activities and resources to primary and secondary school students worldwide. From 1996 to 2000, when AT&T launched the program, it earned the reputation as the premier online educational experience on the Internet. From 2003 to the present, the GSBI Foundation has continued and enhanced the program with new tools and resources.
The GVC is a collaborative website-building activity for multinational teams of students from 7 to 18 years of age. Using internet technologies to communicate, teams (consisting of three schools from different countries) have to collaboratively plan, design and build websites on topics of their choosing. Team websites are then judged by a panel of internet savvy VIP judges and the winning teams are awarded plaques and cash prizes of USD $3,000 (First Place); $1,500 (Second Place); and $750 (Third Place).
The GVC’s goal is to empower, enable and connect young people around the world using Internet technologies. It creates a stimulating environment where students can learn essential “21st century” information technology, globalization, and socialization skills such as:
- collaboration
- teamwork
- creativity
- cross-cultural communication
- project planning
- internet & information technology skills
- website design skills
The GVC's success in making learning both fun and relevant has earned the program support from education departments and leading IT teachers all over the world. The GVC programs are conducted completely online and are available free of charge to any school with an interested teacher, computers and internet access. It has successfully demonstrated the ability to integrate cross-cultural understanding and technology into classrooms and curriculum.
The website we submitted is one of the GVC team projects from three primary schools from Kansas City, MO; Lahore, Pakistan; and Ojai, CA
