Annie Wendel, as part of the K-12 global learning series

Teachers of all disciplines can create meaningful learning opportunities that explore cross-cultural perspectives, draw from international examples, and encourage analytical thinking about global issues. However, for teachers to be globally competent, they must first be comfortable with globalizing their curriculum.

Below are online course opportunities focused on global education and created for educators interested in expanding their own global knowledge and skills.

Digital Promise Global

Digital Promise Global aims to spur innovation to improve the opportunity to learn around the world, through technology, research, and collaborative partnerships with global educators, researchers, and entrepreneurs. With its affiliate organization, Digital Promise, Digital Promise Global offers micro credentials, free for educators. The modules offer classroom-based videos, online courses, and educator-driven idea exchanges with the opportunity to earn digital badges.

Flat Connections

The Flat Connections Global Collaboration Primer is a 4-week course aimed to provide educators and administrators at all levels, across all school systems, resources and strategies to become global. It does this by providing 4 online webinars, a cohort discussion forum, and online related material for each module.

The Flat Connections Global Educator course content supports educators in the development of a PLN (personal learning network), as well as learning how to use social media effectively for collaboration and creation and examining effective global collaborative design in learning. Throughout the course the focus is on global learning, global education and becoming globally competent.

iEARN-USA

iEARN-USA’s co-facilitated online courses guide educators in evaluating and aligning global projects with curriculum standards as part of an integrated project plan. Educators develop a unique project plan for their own classroom, working alongside other course participants from several other countries. Customized onsite workshops and webinars also available.

IREX

Teachers for Global Classrooms Program (TGC) is a year-long professional development opportunity for U.S. elementary, middle, and high school teachers to become leaders in global education. The program includes an 8-week online graduate level course on globalizing classrooms and curriculum, networking in Washington, D.C., a short-term global immersion trip and support for creating a global education guide. Participation is free for TGC participants; an application is required.

TakingIT Global for Educators

TakingIT Global offers graduate level, accredited e-courses for educators looking to explore practical ways to implement global education in their classrooms. Each course is designed to support educators’ unique needs and curriculum requirements and is led by experienced educators. Topics include Global Citizenship, Environmental Stewardship, and Student Voice. Each course is 5-weeks in length and pricing is $250 per course for an individual with discounts available for groups.

NAFSA: Association of International Educators

E-Learning courses are offered in rolling sessions once or twice a month; each six-week course is divided into modules. Participants gain access to valuable resources, worksheets, and glossaries. Membership to NAFSA is required to access the e-learning courses.

NAIS

National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) features an Education for Social Innovation e-learning course. It is a three-part program offering NAIS schools the opportunity to support educators in professional growth and technology integration, as well as grow student engagement and leadership at both local and global levels. This blended learning course provides K-12 educators with a grasp of essential concepts and techniques in the areas of design thinking, student voice, and global citizenship. With a project-based learning approach, educators are guided through the process of developing a project to implement immediately in their classroom, co-created with their students and connected to the curriculum. Graduate credit available.

World Savvy

World Savvy works directly with schools to support the integration of global competence education into teaching, learning, and organizational culture. The partnership package with schools includes assessment and feedback, leadership development for global competence, workshops for teachers, facilitation of small group and professional learning communities.

The Global Competence Certificate (GCC) is a graduate-level certificate program in global competence education for teachers. Developed by leading experts in global education – Teachers College, Columbia University; World Savvy, and Asia Society – the GCC program is designed specifically for in-service educators who are interested in embedding global learning into their teaching practice and preparing their students for the global reality beyond the classroom. The program fee is $400/course and participants may earn 4 Continuing Education Units per course.

HEY!    This list was compiled as part of our K-12 global learning series. Dig it? Follow us on Twitter, sign-up for (rare!) email (right side of the page), or like us on Facebook to stay in the conversation! Have resources or comments to share? Please do so below, share with us on Twitter or Facebook, or propose a guest blog.

Series author Annie Wendel was recently accepted as a fellowship graduate student at Merrimack University to pursue an M.Ed. in Community Engagement. Due to a long-standing passion for global citizenship and social justice, coupled with critical questioning and hard-nosed analysis, Annie has long been a friend of globalsl.org, repeatedly interning for the network and moving our work forward. She is currently completing programming with the Wyman Teen Outreach Program in middle and high schools in the Greater New Haven area in Connecticut, implementing a positive youth development curriculum and organizing community service-learning opportunities for students. She has also learned and served elsewhere in the States, Nepal, South Africa, and the Solomon Islands. After graduate school, she hopes to continue to pursue global education through experiential models and service-learning programs.