International Education & Resource Network

Since 1988 iEARN has enabled young people to use the Internet and other new technologies to engage in collaborative educational projects. These projects both enhance learning and address issues of global importance. iEARN currently links 400,000 participants in over 95 countries in 29 languages through a unique project- based learning network. As part of the educational process participants in iEARN are asked to reflect on how their project work will affect the quality of life on the planet

Web site: www.iearn.org
Contact: iearn@us.iearn.org

Activities

There are four main ways you can communicate within the iEARN network:

Snail Mail - Letter, pictures, photographs, essays and cultural artifacts can be exchanged through snail mail to your partners around the world. The Global Arts: A sense of caring and Comfort Quilts projects are two projects you and your students can be involved in right now.

• Comfort Quilts
  The project was created in response to the caring needs of children receiving medical hospital or clinic care, devastating effects of natural disasters and in transition, crisis or displacement from their homes. Each participating school/class or organization makes one or more quilts using fabric squares on which they have drawn smiling faces. Many schools are currently creating quilts for victims of the September 11th attacks.
   
• Global Art
  A sense of caring brings together the power of visual arts, literacy/communication, and action to honor inspire, and be inspired by the caring of the children and youth from local to global contexts. Participating students create and exchange artwork and writing with several other participating schools on the theme �A Sense of Caringæ. Each participating school/class/organization will receive artwork from some of the other participating schools. A website is maintained by the project coordinator to show artwork with descriptive writing e-mail communication from all participating schools

E-mail - There are an estimated 5000 elementary and secondary schools and youth organizations in 95 countries involved in iEARN on a daily basis. The network supports classroom-to-classroom or student-to-student project related e-mail exchanges. IEARN has a membership database for teachers, making it easy to find country contacts and project partners. Interaction in iEARN is password-protected to insure security and a global sense of community.

Online projects - All iEARN projects are designed and facilitated by participants to fit their curriculum and classroom needs. After selecting a project participants meet through the secure online interactive forums. Each project has a final product or exhibition of learning that as taken place as part of the collaboration. Examples of project products have included websites, creative writing anthologies, letter-writing campaigns, fundraising events, reports to government officials and many more. There are over 100 projects within iEARN. For a list of iEARN online projects visit  www.iearn.org/projects.

• The Laws of Life
  This project invites young people to express in their own words what they value most in life. Participants submit essays in which they describe the rules, ideals, and principles by which they live, and explain the sources of their laws of life, and respond to each other's essays and interact with each other electronically. They are also encouraged to use what they learned about values to initiate action projects. A teacher's guide is available in the project languages from iEARN. (This project is the result of a three-year collaboration between iEARN and the John Templeton Foundation, who conducts a Laws of Life essay contest in the United states).
   
• Lewin
  Lewin is an anthology of student writing coordinated and published by a group of students and teachers in Australia and Pakistan. Participants are invited to submit writing in any format and on any topic, and read and respond to the writing of others in the project as it is posted on the online forum. Each year, a publication is produced of student writing, and distributed to all schools with published student work.
   
• Feeding Minds Fighting Hunger
  Feeding Minds Fighting Hunger is a global education initiative designed to help youth discuss and understand issues of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and food security, and to stimulate them to participate in activities to create a world free from hunger. A CD-ROM and teacheràs manual is available. On World Food Day, October 16th - and throughout the year - students and teachers from 150 countries will come together to discuss lesson plans and look at ways in which they can participate in activities and raise awareness in their local communities and around the world.

Exchanges

Student and teacher exchanges are another way iEARN connects participants worldwide. iEARN currently conducts exchange programs between U.S. schools and schools in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria and Tunisia (YES), (BRIDGE); and schools in Uzbekistan.

International meetings are another way that iEARN participants are able to meet face-to-face and have exchange experiences. For the past five years, iEARN youth from around the world organize and host the iEARN International Youth Summit, and have participated in many regional camps in Central Europe. Some on-line projects such as YouthCaN, an environmental project where students interact on issues facing their communities during the year, also have international meetings in New York City each April.

Resources

Project database
Currently, over 250 projects underway and completed are included in the iEARN Project database, enabling teachers to learn from each other and immediately join what others have developed over the past 13 years.

Teachers Guide to International Collaboration on the Internet
A resource created by iEARN-USA teachers and staff for the US Department of Education's International Education Initiative

Language Resources
Network support participation in native languages. Participants are currently communicating in Arabic, French, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Spanish, and Dutch among others.

Handbook
An online and printable guide on how to integrate iEARN collaborative projects into your classroom.

Online Professional Development Courses
Curriculum specific online courses for educators in the United States and abroad who wish to globalize their curriculum through the integration of online projects that meet state/local/national educational standards.