WHY CONNECT2LEARN?
In today’s complex world, understanding other people, their cultures and backgrounds, is both easy and extremely hard.
Easy – because everything you might possibly want to know about other cultures is available online: news, articles, guidebooks, professional and personal blogs, documentaries, videos, you name it – it’s within easy reach. It’s the 21st century!
Extremely hard – because this is all second-hand information. You’ve not exchanged a word with a real person from another culture until you travel or meet face to face. And travel is not always possible. Especially for a teenager at school!
That’s why Connect2Learn.education provides an innovative platform for students worldwide to interact with students from another class in another city, in a remote country, on another continent to develop intercultural understanding with real peers.
With Connect2Learn.education, teenagers can validate their own knowledge and gain a different perspective. Collaborating on a project on and offline, students practice working in a team, learn to negotiate task and time management, and familiarise themselves with various educational online tools they will need later in college or in life.
Most importantly, collaborating through Connect2Learn.education, students worldwide gain an understanding that
- with respect for other cultures
- through cooperation on a task
- with compromise and
- with genuine empathy
we can solve problems, make progress, and be proud of our collaborative achievements.
And this just might help save the world.
WHO'S BEHIND CONNECT2LEARN?
Connect2Learn.education is the brainchild of Beata Mirecka-Jakubowska, an experienced English and EAL Teacher at the secondary education level. She spent over three decades teaching and mentoring international students in various English Language and Literature courses in grades 9-12 at the Jakarta International School, now called Jakarta Intercultural School, in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Over the years, she has held positions of EAL Advisor, Head of Department, CAS and EE Supervisor, and Language Support Center designer and coordinator. She is passionate about lifelong learning and loves interacting with students, parents, and educators.
Beata has been teaching IB English B since 2008, and has been an IB Examiner since 2014. She is a passionate professional skilled in unit and lesson construction through Understanding by Design and course design using Blended Learning and Project-based Learning. You can learn more about her in her LinkedIn profile or on her educational blog in Polish Oczkiem w Edukację.