Teenage Global Citizens Putting Ideas into Action toward the SDGs

If a visitor walked into to this week’s Live Classes (December 2018), they would never have suspected that these students were strangers just three months ago. Teenagers spoke to one another over Zoom with the diction and poise of informed specialists, engaging in a friendly dialogue that demonstrated deep respect and cultural understanding in both parties.

After this fall semester courses integrated with IVECA, students from the US and Korea demonstrated that the collaborative work of intercultural communication is worth the effort and can create powerful relationships built on mutual respect and cooperation.

Students from Ohio and Gongju brainstormed solutions for local and international issues and shared their proposals with each other for evaluation. Students tackled potential answers to the issues raised in the #SDG’s set by the UN agenda of 2030. As Korea and the US shared their solutions, a rich conversation was created where each country was able to provide feedback on the solutions proposed and offer guidance in how to amend their responses so that each response is strengthened and better informed.

Over the course of three live class sessions, students from Butler Tech High School in Ohio and Hanil High School in Korea presented their semester’s work and research on solutions for Sustainable Development Goals 7, 13, and 15. These SDGs represent the UN’s commitment to finding answers to affordable and clean energy, climate action, and life on land, respectively. Students spoke intelligently and eloquently about ways these problems manifest in their daily lives, through things like deforestation, the rise of invasive species, problems of overconsumption, and the debate over renewable energies.

Debate naturally took place over the proposed solutions and challenges that arise in implementing them globally. Rather than arguing over their differences, the students’ dialogue demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of complex issues. As one student stated, “Having discussions and preparing projects on SDGs were, though a quite tough job to do, we could both inspire ourselves on global problems and widen the spectrum of our perspectives on global issues.” Students realized that intense serious discourse and questioning is necessary to create the most intelligent, scientifically-advanced solutions for our global problems.

A student representative from Korea put it plainly: “through these dialogues, we could understand each other more, established a close relationship between two different countries and become one ‘family,’ crossing the border of ‘friends.’” With stronger relationships built on respect and intercultural competence, there was nothing hindering nothing was hindering the final, inspired message – “It’s up to us to put these ideas into action!”

#Ed4GlobalCitizenship, #InterculturalComeptence, #SDGs, #IVECA#21stSkills

Together, Brazilian and Korean Students Introduce Virtually Shared Global Schooling

Through the IVECA intercultural virtual exchange program, Brazilian and Korean students from Formozinho Ribeiro Public School and Taegwang High School had their first Live Class on October 18, 2018. Brazilian TV Channel ”Band Cidade” reported the event sharing the experiences of the Brazilian teachers and students.

‘’Our students have the opportunity to learn about other cultures while using a foreign language [English] as an instrument of communication’’, said Ms. Renata Orsco, the main teacher who was helping the students throughout their IVECA intercultural exchange journey.

A number of actors contributed to the success of the ‘’Brazil-Korea’’ partnership including the principal of the school and other teachers. ‘’The department of English Instruction in our school had a fundamental part in this project, and so did the Social Studies department. I, for example [History teacher], collaborated in this project by promoting the awareness of global citizenship. Through IVECA our students could understand global citizenship and assume their roles in society’’, added Mr. Marcos Delgadinho who was of great help in the program.

During the final Live Class on December 13, 2018, those students arranged a live meeting to discuss serious phenomena caused by urbanization and impacting many parts of the world.

Students introduced cities in their country that have experienced urbanization. They identified the positive and negative consequences of urbanization these cities are facing. Furthermore, students also exchanged creative ideas about solutions to reduce the negative consequences and new ways to design cities that ensure the sustainability of people’s living condition.

After their presentations to each other, students realized that these challenges do not only happen in their own countries. It is a phenomenon that many countries are facing and that they should work together to overcome the problems. This is exactly what global citizenship is about: working locally for common global goals to contribute to the well-being of people around the world.

Ms. Renata, one of the collaborating teachers from Brazil reflects:

“Moments like those we had today endorse I had chosen the right path and the most special co-workers ever! When I feel integrated into promoting intercultural competence and global collaborative learning, in a safe and respectful language environment, helping students share their cultural aspects and thoughts together in a collaborative way with intercultural dialogues between people from other countries, I can see how we are able to expand our global perspective and international relations. This project is something to be proud of! Thank you very much to allow us to make part of it!”

#Ed4GlobalCitizenship, #InterculturalCompetence, #LiveTogether, #IVECA, #SDG11, #SDG4.7, #GCED, #ESD

High School Kids Urge the World to Take Overconsumption Issues Seriously

Monterrey, Mexico and Seoul, South Korea – The enthusiasm of Centro Varones and Hanil High School students literally filled both classrooms with high energy. Teachers and administrators were watching the interaction among students closely. As presenters make their way through the web camera, the insight on everyone’s minds was “how to remediate the impacts of over-consumption around the world in a sustainable way.”

Over-consumption is a significant issue facing local communities, whole nations, and the entire world. Over-consumption drains natural resources, generates waste and hampers the development of people. Often, this consumption has tremendous negative impacts on human health and natural environment that need to be addressed immediately.

In the IVECA program, Centro Varones and Hanil High School students took a moment to reflect on things we consume every day. How much is necessary for a healthy life? How much can be deemed excess and where does it go? What can be done as alternatives? All of these questions are addressed in the live discussion.

Overconsumption—commonly referred to as an intangible problem—pose an unusual issue for these high school students from Mexico and Korea. Since the beginning of November until mid-December, these ideas have been in brainstorm mode. Apart from the regular school work, these participants are largely hopeful about what they could do for the issue. However, the task was not easy — creating a campaign to combat the causes and impacts of over-consumption.

“Think about your long-term goals. The purchases you make today… will it bring the happiness and security of tomorrow?”, asked students from Centro Acadêmico Varones, Mexico. Approaching a more self-analytic mode, Cheong Sang’s group from Hanil School shared data gathered during the IVECA program explaining that from 2006 to 2016 the electricity usage of major advanced countries had dropped, but that of South Korea had increased by 41 percent. The group then displayed their solution for energy overconsumption of their country.

Through the activities, students could be naturally guided to think critically for the real-world problem-solving, which is a required high-level skill for the 21st century. By constantly exchanging their perspectives with partners from different countries, students were able to improve their intercultural competence of global citizens who would make a better future.

#Ed4GlobalCitizenship, #InterculturalComeptence, #SDG12, #IVECA#21stSkills