How many students and classes do you think are taking part in this challenge?  If you guessed about 100 classes and 1300 students you were correct. In fact we are represented by 18 different countries of the world, so we are definitely going global.

This week’s activities relate to all things global – tracking widgets, maps, translators and other forms of global challenges.

Students

Activity 1How do you know where your visitors are coming from?

Do you have a widget tracking these visitors? If not,  then perhaps you could put one or more of these widgets on your blog.

Remember, if you have a free Edublogs blog, often you can’t embed widgets in your sidebar because of the coding.  Check if your teacher has a paid pro blog where they can then upgrade 50 student or teacher blogs, then you will be able to use code.

Can you recommend any other tracking widgets suitable for class or student blogs? Leave a comment if you can.

Activity 2 – How do you read a blog written in a language other than your mother tongue?

Natasa, a teacher of one of the class blogs, is located in Serbia and her blog is written in Serbian. How can you translate that page so you can read it in English or Spanish if that is your mother tongue? Do you leave a comment in English, your mother tongue or Serbian?

A visitor from Colombia has come across your blog and wants to read it in their mother tongue, how will they translate it?

A good idea would be for you to have a translator button or widget on your blog. Visit the widget box to find one that you think will do the job of translating your blog into another language. Add the widget the same as instructions for the flag counter.

Activity 3 – Write a post in another language

Most students around the world have to learn another language as part of their school curriculum. This might be a challenge for those who are just beginning their language learning but for students like Dominique, this should be a breeze. Make sure you have a translator widget on your blog to make it easier for your visitors to read the post.

Activity 4 – Write a post about a global activity you have taken part in

Have you taken part in :

  • World Maths or Spelling Day
  • World Water Day – this is happening on Tuesday, March 22 – theme is water for cities
  • Earth Hour – this is happening on Saturday, March 26 – see video in class section of challenge

These global events often have widgets or buttons you can embed on your blog.

Activity 5 – Leave a comment on ten blogs

Each blog must be from a different country of the world. Check out the list of students and classes taking part. Remember there are actually 18 countries represented – some have only one person taking part, so you might need to check carefully.

Classes

Activity 1 – Complete student activities 1, 2 and 4

What other types of global activities have you taken part in as a class? ePals, postcards from home, quadblogging – tell us about it in a great post with images if possible. Or write a post linking to other global activity posts you have already written about.

Activity 2 – Take part in Earth Hour this year and write a post about how students, teachers and families  spent that hour. Earth Hour began three years ago in Australia in one town – see how it has now grown to be a global activity.

Activity 3 – How many languages are spoken by the students in your class?

  • Is your class multicultural or is it predominantly a one language classroom?
  • What are some of the cultural activities you might celebrate in your classroom?
  • What do your students  celebrate at home?

Perhaps you could create a poll to put on your class blog and have parents and grand parents answer where they came from originally.

Perhaps one of them could write a post, with their child or grandchild, about a celebration from their country to put on your class blog.

Activity 4 – Visit at least ten blogs each from a different country

Remember when writing your posts to include a link back to this post.

Going global – Challenge 3-March 2011

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Original image: ‘3d person and globe
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40780016@N02/3915514240

Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial License

108 thoughts on “Going global – Challenge 3-March 2011

  1. I currently use Visitors Flags, Visitors Locations and 3D WORLD (Revolver Map). I find these widgets interesting, because I can see where people visiting my blog have come from.

    Bree

    1. G’day shb15,
      Have you or your class or your family taken part in an activity that relates to the world? eg you might have taken part in Earth Hour last night or perhaps your class has ePals? Did you take part in world maths day earlier in March? If you answered no to these then you probably can’t do activity 4.

  2. I finished week three challenges for week 3. I had fun doing this week’s challenges. Hope you come and visit my blog and see them.

    1. Sean,
      Why not take part in Earth Hour this Saturday night with your family, then write a post telling us what your family did when the lights were out in your house for that hour?

      1. I ahven’t participated in any global events, plus I may not be at my house this Saturday… adn I think I’d die without electricity and InuYasha for a whole hour…

  3. I can’t seem to find a translator widget that works in the Free Edublogs format. Perhaps I need to finally upgrade. Has anyone found a widget that works for the Free version of Edublog?

    1. Melissa,
      For some reason your post in Spanish is not appearing on your blog. Make sure you have actually published it and it is still not a draft in your dashboard.

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