The Great Global Project Challenge

Educators are interested in engaging in project-based learning with other classrooms around the world. Often they embark on time consuming journeys to identify potential deep learning opportunities and project partners. And, it is sometimes difficult for educators who design projects to find active participants. The Great Global Project Challenge is an initiative designed to collate projects and connect interested collaborators.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) recently revised its standards for students. ISTE calls for students to become empowered learners, digital citizens, knowledge constructors, innovative designers, computational thinkers, creative communicators, and most notably, global collaborators. The Great Global Project Challenge will help educators provide authentic learning opportunities for students to meet these standards.

Between now and December 1, 2016, global educators will design collaborative projects in which other students and teachers may participate during the course of the 2016-2017 school year. The objective is to create and present as many globally connective projects for students and educators as possible. Let’s see how many teachers and students we can engage in globally connected learning opportunities during the course of the next year!

Any teacher, school, nonprofit, or company can participate in this challenge and have their project listed on the Global Collaboration Day website. There will be a grant available to educators from non-profit accredited Pre-K-12 schools, thanks to sponsors VIF International Education and the Partnership for 21st Century Learning.

Grants of $1,500 (US dollars) will be issued to the the top ten projects that are designed and successfully implemented between now and April 1, 2017. The project design teams for grant-eligible projects must be made up solely of educators employed by non-profit accredited schools and can come from any country. If projects are to be conducted in a language other than English, proposals must be submitted twice. One submission needs to be in the home language; a duplicate needs to be in English. Grant details are available here: http://www.globalcollaborationday.org/the-great-global-project-chal...

These grants must be used for professional development, classroom equipment, or other resources that will facilitate future globally connected project-based learning. Recipients will be required to submit a plan for use of the grant monies and will be required to present at the online 2017 Global Education Conference.

A committee comprised of leading global educators and organizations will serve on the evaluation team for the Great Global Project Challenge Grant. This group will design an evaluation rubric for scoring these projects.

1. Please join the Global Education Conference Network in order to receive updates from us.
2. Make sure to review the proposal form in its entirety. We suggest that you plan your project in a document first before submitting via our form.
3. Note that you are in charge of deciding the digital platform, digital tools and activities for your project. Many tools and platforms are listed on our website.
4. Be sure to complete the form thoroughly and to provide sufficient details in order to insure the success of your project.
5. Submit your project here by September 11, 2016 if you want to also participate in Global Collaboration Day and pitch your project. Otherwise, the final deadline is December 1, 2016.
6. A form for reflection and feedback will be sent to you at the end of your project. This form must be filled out by April 10, 2017.

You will need to provide the following information:

• Name, email address, institution for the project's lead or leads
  
• Project title
  
• URL to a public page for your project
• Project objectives
  
• Project description
  
• Grade levels and number of students or classes allowed to participate
  
• Standards addressed
  
• Registration instructions including starting and ending dates
  
• Subject areas covered in the project
  
• Digital platform to be used for the project's homebase
  
• Digital tools to be used in the project
  
• Culminating activity or project details
  
• Feedback mechanism for participants
  

Here are the rules for Great Global Project Challenge entries:

• Any student, teacher, non-profit, or company from around the world can design a project and submit it to our directory.
• Multiple project submissions are welcome although individuals can only serve on one winning team.
• Project designers should read and take into consideration our suggestions.
• Only educators from accredited non-profit PreK-12 schools will be eligible for the Great Global Project Challenge grant.
• 10 grants of $1500 each will be awarded. The currency of the awards will be US dollars.
• Projects can run for any length of time and can take place synchronously or asynchronously. The deadline for project evaluation for the GGPC grant is April 15, 2017.
• Projects can be hosted on any digital platform using a variety of digital tools of your choosing. Ideally, participation should not be dependent on a single type of technology device.
• Project designers should consider designing projects around commonly taught concepts and subjects.
• Projects should be open to a significant amount of participants.
• Every project must have a digital space (web page, wiki, Facebook group, Google group, etc.) where participants and potential participants can access project information.
• Digital tools used in projects ideally should be free of charge and ideally device neutral. Alternatively, various tools are presented as that have similar functionality and participants will have a choice of which tools are implemented.
• Existing and/or long running projects can be submitted to the Great Global Project Challenge Directory. Individuals and organizations do not necessarily need to reinvent the wheel by creating new projects.
• Project designers need to include an evaluation method to gather participant feedback. For example, feedback can be collected through a Google Form survey created by the project designer.
• Project designers will need to report back on their progress via an evaluation form at the completion of their project. This form will be sent to project leads and will need to be completed by April 15, 2017. Grants will not be awarded to project designers who do not follow this step.
• There will be a final form submission required of awardees that requests information on how grant monies are spent. This form will need to be completed by December 1, 2017.
• Grant awardees will be required to present online at the 2017 Global Education Conference next November.

• These projects can take place anytime between now and April 1, 2017. The deadline for registering projects in a directory managed by the Global Education Conference Network is December 1, 2016. Projects will then be listed on a webpage which educators can browse. The Global Education Conference Network will publicize this directory to its members and beyond through social media.

  
  

  • December 1, 2016 - FINAL DEADLINE FOR PROJECTS TO BE LISTED ON OUR SITE.
  • September 11, 2016 - April 1, 2017 - Projects must take place during this time frame.
  • April 15, 2017 - Final project evaluations and reflections must be submitted in order to be eligible for the GGPC Challenge grant.
  • May 1, 2017 - Grant awardees of the Great Global Project Challenge grant will be notified.
  • November 1, 2017 - Grant awardees must submit documentation on how they’ve used their grant monies.
  • November 12-15, 2017 - Grant awardees must give a presentation at the online 2017 Global Education Conference about their grant winning project.
  • December 1, 2017 - Grant awardees will need to submit information

    on the dissemination of grant monies.
    

1. We will place your project's information into our project directory. This directory will be posted on the Global Collaboration Day website as projects are submitted.
   
2. Potential participants will browse the directory and will contact you if they are interested in joining your project.
3. On Global Collaboration Day (September 15th), you should prepare a simple brief activity to promote your project or to kickoff your project. This event could be a Twitter chat, a webinar, a Hangout on Air or whatever type of activity that you think is best for your project and its participants. Register this activity here.
4. You should also be promoting your project via social media and within the Global Education Conference Network if you need more project participants. Make sure to use the hashtag #globaled16 when posting to sites such as Twitter and Instagram.
5. Registered projects will take place between September 11, 2016 and April 1, 2017. Some projects may only take a day; others may take place over a longer period of time.
6. We will send you a feedback form in by April 2017 asking for details on how your project fared. For contest participants, completing this form will be mandatory.
   

   
   

The Global Education Conference Network is a collaborative, world-wide community involving students, educators, and organizations at all levels. It is designed to significantly increase opportunities for building education-related connections around the globe while supporting cultural awareness, recognition of diversity, and educational access for all.

The conference and its network seek to present ideas, examples, and projects related to connecting educators and classrooms with a strong emphasis on promoting global awareness, fostering global competency, and inspiring action towards solving real–world problems. It is our hope that those who participate in our events will challenge themselves and others to become more active citizens of the world. Let us learn, question, create, and engage in meaningful, authentic opportunities within a global context!

Lucy Gray and Steve Hargadon are the co-chairs of the Global Education Conference Network.

Email: lucy@globaledevents.com
Website: http://globaledevents.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/globaledcon/
Twitter: @GlobalEdCon