Global LYNCs Daegu District Victorian Partner Schools Survey 2017

Number of school responses: 16

Range of Year Levels involved: Years 1-10

Numbers of students involved at each school ranged from (10-15) to (More than 25 – where multiple classes were involved)

The usual class size was (20-25)

Benefits to students

RESPONSES–
–
Building 21st Century skills 61.54 % / 61.54%
8
–
Improving cultural understandings 100% / 100.00%
13
–
Presentation and oral skill building to diverse audiences 84.62% / 84.62%
11
–
Appreciation of telecommunications for global communication 61.54% / 61.54%
8
–
Establishing understanding of communication where English is a second language 76.92% / 76.92%
10
–
Deeper understanding of Australia's identity as part of the Asian Region 23.08% / 23.08%
3
–
Collaboration with international peers on shared curriculum69.23% / 69.23%
9

How did the project build your capacity as a teacher?

–
Improved understanding of the use of telecommunications84.62%
–
An avenue to meet the FISO standards in Global Community building at our school 38.46%
–
Provision of a reliable partnership arrangement with another teacher in South Korea61.54%
–
Increased my exploration of pedagogical approaches 38.48%
–
Deepened my understanding of working in a global classroom84.62%

Most useful project strategies

Visit from Professor Ku during her short time in Victoria / 30.77%
–
Having a point of contact in Victoria if issues arose / 53.85%
–
Having an occasional offer of support for resources / 46.15%
–
The blog / 30.77%
–
The newsletter / 38.46%
–
Tapping into the annual DET ROK UNESCO program to facilitate a visit to experience first hand Korean schools / 23.08%
–
Having a Korean/English translator and overseer dialed in to each linkup / 30.77%
–
Being able to demonstrate usage of the Polycom unit in your school / 7.69%
–
Korea initiating the classroom links via a direct email link to ZOOM / 76.92%

Comments for new teachers/ schools

  • Jump in and give it a go. It is not as hard or scary as it seems. Great fun and great benefit to students
  • Do it! Your class will absolutely love being involved in this.
  • The students really enjoy meeting their overseas peers. Students focus on presentation skills when they have an audience of peers. Global links opened another culture to these students
  • This project can be seen as a purposeful learning activity for students. They can benefit by sharing their learning of inquiry topics.
  • This is a great opportunity for students to develop citizenship, collaboration and communication skills in a global context.
  • It's an effort but the students love it.
  • My students really enjoyed being part of the project. We all learnt a lot about Sth Korea and were thrilled to have a visit from our Sth Korean teacher and her colleagues.
  • This program allows students to explore the world beyond their school community.
  • It is a great opportunity for both teachers and students to build relationship with Korean schools. We can learn and share so many great ideas from each other. It is a great way to teach both language and cultural understanding.
  • Use a smaller segment of a class as disengaged students can pose management problems
  • I think the program is an excellent way to meet FISO model, develop literacy and ICT skills for staff and students as well as enriching cultural understanding. It is a brilliant initiative on so many levels.
  • It does help a lot on cultural understanding and diversity.
  • I think it is a fantastic project. I would recommend coming up with a fairly solid plan for the year ahead, book in your sessions as early as possible and have a simple, clear focus for each lesson.

How did the project build your teaching capacity?

Improved understanding of the use of telecommunications / 84.62%
–
An avenue to meet the FISO standards in Global Community building at our school / 38.46%
–
Provision of a reliable partnership arrangement with another teacher in South Korea / 61.54%
–
Increased my exploration of pedagogical approaches / 38.46%
–
Deepened my understanding of working in a global classroom / 84.62%

Will you be involved next year?

We will continue involvement and I will be the teacher or one of the teachers / 53.85%
–
We are unsure at this stage and would appreciate you following up with us early in 2018 / 30.77%
–
We would like to expand the opportunity to some other classes in our school and will provide details as soon as possible / 15.38%
–
I am no longer going to be at this school but I would like to explore connecting from my new school / 0.00%

How can we best support your involvement in 2018?

  • Assistance with communication between partners. Some teachers had difficulty communicating and organising sessions.
  • Reminder emails
  • More of the same
  • A planner made and agreed at the start of the year. Making a schedule of the work program from both ends and informing them at the start of the project will allow the window for the teachers to prepare the lesson, plan integrating activities that aligns with the curriculum and prepare the students to get the most out of the program.
  • Focusing on topics that more closely align with the Geography curriculum at Level 5/6: Content description - Location of the major countries of the Asian region in relation to Australia and the geographical diversity within the region Elaborations - Identifying the geographical divisions of Asia, including North-East, South-East, South Asia and West Asia (the Middle East) - Exploring the diversity of environments and types of settlement, in the Asia region, or in part of the region, or in a country in either North-East, South-East or South Asia and discussing any patterns - Describing the location of places in countries of the Asia region in absolute terms using latitude and longitude
  • I won't be on LSL next year so things should be more focused.
  • Keep in contact
  • Provide any information on next years program
  • We need more support with our ICT and cultural resources. Annual PD or meeting with the teachers will be helpful.
  • Continuing to improve communication
  • The support we recieve from Professor Ku and Joanne Tate works well for us.
  • Linking up with two schools were quite efficient especially when the other school was very hard to fit into their schedules. Managing the schedule was a hard part for me.
  • I think a planning document or template perhaps? Some suggested focus areas etc?

Any other comments?

  • Only a few sessions this year. But thanks again for the support. It was great to have the opportunity to visit my partner school this year!
  • No
  • It has been a highlight
  • Both teachers and students feel that it would be better if they had to interact only with one school each year. We also feel that there is not enough time to prepare or be creative if the lessons are exchanged just one week earlier. At least the broader idea of each lesson needs to be planned in advance to cater term and weekly planning.
  • We have really enjoyed participating in the Global LYNCs initiative again this year. Thank you Jo and Professor Ku for all of your support!
  • My class learnt to sing Waltzing Matilda to the Korean class it was a great experience for my students. They really enjoyed it.
  • Thank you
  • Students 'We love meeting students from Korea and learning about their life'
  • Students absolutely love web-cam classes. We have a practical use of our second language learning and there are still a lot more variety ways to enjoy web-cam lessons next year such as exploring other curriculum area together (Art, Science, PE lessons)
  • 1This experience has broadened the world view of my students.
  • Our students love the program, it gives our Australian Korean speaking students experience as translaters which in turn gives them confidence. It is a great literacy tool for English and EAL students.
  • The students love this experience and they kept asking me when would be the next link up. We exchange cards or gifts often and this helped us build up positive relationship with students over in Korea!
  • My students found the sessions valuable, we had difficulty with getting a good microphone to use - have ended up using a speaker and the cordless mics suggested by the program, but they aren't ideal. I think this year has been a bit difficult becuase of the difference in pedagogy between our school and the school in Daegu - my students are used to having ownership over their lessons and creating and delivering them, whereas the korean students are quite compliant and so it was a little difficult this year. They have really enjoyed the experience though.