What is a Rotary Scholar?
For over half a century, the Rotary Foundation has sent qualified scholars, college students and young professionals, overseas to serve as goodwill ambassadors in order to gain new insights in international understanding. In order to be a Rotary Global WebFriend, Scholars agree to communicate their international experiences to a North Carolina classroom via email. Rotary Scholars are in every region of the globe with stays ranging from three months to two years.
Click on the map to view where our current Rotary Scholars are living and studying overseas.
How Does my Classroom Benefit?
A Rotary Global WebFriend provides unique insights into everyday life abroad. North Carolina classrooms can communicate regularly with their WebFriend allowing students to engage in inquiry, dialog, and action , the cornerstones of global education. Teachers can also use their WebFriend's first-hand
experiences to reflect concepts and curriculum supported by the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.
Inquiry: gathering data, asking questions, searching for variety, comparing and contrasting, exploring, developing critical thinking skills.
Dialogue: connecting to others, stating a position, considering different perspectives, identifying differences, creating agreements, broadening areas of acceptance.
Action: corresponding with epals, hosting international students, service learning, travel for the purpose of study, take an action-based position.
Next Steps
In order to create the best Rotary Global WebFriend connection for your classroom, please fill out and submit the classroom participation form below. Along with your WebFriend's profile and contact information, you will receive a profile of his/her host country.
1. Fill out and return: Classroom Participation Form
2. Receive *WebFriend's contact information from Rotary Global WebFriend Coordinator
3. Read through
the Communication Strategies link (see menu link)
4. Initiate contact with WebFriend
*based on Global WebFriend availability
Rotary Global WebFriend Resources
--10 Lesson Plan Links to support your e-correspondence!--
Peace Corps World Wise: Cross-Cultural Understanding (by subject and country)
Children's Literature from Around the World
Teaching Global Issues
Understanding Kids Around the World
Outreach World
(interdisciplinary global lesson plans)
National Geographic's My Wonderful World
Newseum: The Interactive Museum of News
Heifer International's Educator Kits (registration necessary)
UNC's Culture Kit Lending Library (free!)
United Nation's Cyber Schoolbus (curriculum guides)
-- Country Profiles Links--
World Factbook
UNICEF Information By Country
Country Timezones
BBC Country Profiles
US Department of State for Youth
Children of Diplomats
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Technology Tools
Discover new mediums of communication with your WebFriend abroad. The following links introduce you to free communication tools. Many programs include a form of audio or audiovisual communication. The world is now smaller than you think. Take a chance, and see your students learning come alive!
Free and Easy to Download!
VoiceThread
VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to leave comments in 5 ways - using voice, text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Participants can share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.
www.voicethread.com
Elluminate
Elluminate is a provider of live Web conferencing and eLearning solutions. Users can expand the boundaries of the physical classroom with remote guest speakers, connect students from other classrooms around the world for combined lessons, and record content for students who miss a class or need help preparing for exams. In addition to the software, all that is needed is a computer, a hardwire connection to the internet, and a web cam.
www.elluminate.com
WiziQ
Teachers and students anywhere in the world can connect and meet live in the virtual classroom for an online interactive class. The collaborative web conferencing environment enables you to communicate synchronously using video and audio or through text chat, and to share presentations, documents and images on an interactive whiteboard.
www.wiziq.com
Skype
Skype is a software application downloaded onto your computer that lets you talk over the Internet to other people using Skype, anywhere in the world for free.
www.skype.com/
PBWiki
PB Wiki allows you to create a website that can be edited and collaborated with others. Teachers can mark their wiki public or private allowing only their students to have editing access to the page when necessary.
www.pbwiki.com/edu.wiki
Blogs
Short for “web log”, a blog is a web page that serves as an individual's public personal journal. Typically updated regularly, blogs often reflect the personality of the author and allow users to interact with different audiences.
www.blogger.com
Rotary Scholar At-Large Blog
Follow the daily life a particular WebFriend abroad. This WebFriend has agreed to share his/her experiences abroad to all classrooms via a public one year blog (web log). Even if you already have a classroom WebFriend, you are welcome to have your students post questions and comments.
Follow this link to visit the latest Scholar At-Large Blog. Destination: Argentina.
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For more information regarding the Global WebFriends program, please contact:
Carina Cordero Brossy
World View
Assistant Director for Curriculum
919/843-7793
cbrossy@unc.edu
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