Classrooms Connect

TRR's Classrooms Connect program is currently in the initial stages of development. Ultimately, this program will serve as a means of connecting students from inner-city Cleveland with students in refugee camps in Western Thailand through interactive media. Simultaneously, the program will seek to provide the students in these camps with basic computer skills and English language training. These students will be provided the opportunity to experience a world outside the only one they know, while the students in Cleveland will be made aware of the situation faced by many their own age in different parts of the world. Details on Classrooms Connect are outlined below.

The Need

• Most Burmese refugee students in camps do not have access to computers or the Internet and are effectively isolated from the outside world
• Students in Cleveland schools are often unaware of other peoples, places and cultures and lack the resources to expand learning beyond the classroom
• Both populations are challenged in acquiring technological proficiency 

Project Terms

• Connect an inner city classroom with a refugee classroom via the Internet through online chats, video discussions, pictures, and emails
• Students can create or write their own video diaries/blogs and share them, based on a theme. (i.e. Daily Life, Arts, Sports, etc.) 
• A minimum of two classrooms from schools in Cleveland, St. Martin de Porres and Urban Community, will be connected to students at Pu Dooplaya School in the Nu Po refugee camp for one school year

Goals

• Develop virtual cross-cultural experience between Burmese refugee students and students in Cleveland schools with limited access to resources
• Minimize digital divide among underserved students in Cleveland and Burmese refugee camps
• Increase global awareness for both populations and encourage global citizenry
• Leverage technology for the social benefit of both communities
• Expose students in camps to American culture and way of life to prepare them for potential resettlement in the United States and in turn demonstrate to students in Cleveland that other children experience hardship and struggle

Objectives

• To provide ten computers to the Pu Dooplaya School in Nu Po refugee Nu Po refugee camp in Western Thailand, who currently have no computer access
• Place one foreign ESOL instructor, trained in computer technology, at the Pu Dooplaya School in Nu Po refugee camp for one school year
• Provide basic computer skills and maintenance training to ten refugee students
• Connect refugee students to a classrooms at schools in Cleveland with access to computers and the Internet
• Develop projects in the areas of science, technology (Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, etc.), art, history, math and language arts that enhance cultural awareness
• Encourage students to use technology as a practical, vocational tool by mastering specific software programs
• Empower students to use technology as a medium of self-expression

Methods

• One online collaboration each week
• Burmese students from Pu Dooplaya School in Nu Po refugee camp in Western Thailand; Cleveland students are in middle school at Urban Community School and high school at St. Martin De Porres