Connecting Classrooms Online

What is Connecting Classrooms Online?  Connecting Classrooms Online (CCO) provides a single, over-arching framework for effective uses of ICT to support collaborative school partnerships internationally  CCO aims to enable large numbers of schools to become involved in exciting international school partnerships with schools across the globe  CCO provides teachers and educators with unique professional development and networking opportunities with peers worldwide

The main elements of CCO are …  A central portal, with access to ICT tools for finding and working with partner schools in other countries  A support package offering both online and (in-country) face to face support to participating schools  Networks of Connecting Classrooms Ambassadors drawn from practitioners and other education professionals with experience in successful, creative uses of ICT for international collaborative school partnerships  Dedicated British Council CCO staff in each participating region

What are the benefits?

What are the benefits of CCO? A potentially powerful means for Ministries to build capacity as part of education reform initiatives where the development of ICT skills is a focus A meaningful context for developing teachers and their students’ ICT skills within the framework of international school partnership work Involvement in Connecting Classrooms Online can provide schools with a means to both seek funding opportunities for international school partnership and to support applications for such funding through evidence of the online collaborative work they will have done through working in this way Connecting Classrooms Online provides structured joint curriculum projects through its forums and partners’ project spaces as well as access to online training materials and resources directly related to developing a global dimension in teaching and learning Schools can be involved in CCO for as short or as long a time as they wish, and will be guaranteed access to the support offered by the programme as long as they are involved Connecting Classrooms Online provides professional development and networking opportunities both online and face-to-face through the development of its British Council Ambassador network

Building the Network

Who will be involved? British Council Regional CCO Coordinator will liaise with countries in your region and lead on the management of CCO programmes and trainings British Council Country CCO Coordinators will be the main point of communication for ambassadors and schools involved CCO Ambassadors in each country involved will coordinate small clusters of schools and communicate with British Council CCO Country Coordinators Equivalent teams operating in the UK and an overseas’ global support team based in East Asia will coordinate the communication between new schools in the UK and overseas and schools in your region and country to ensure new partners for your schools participating in CCO

What will British Council CCO Coordinators be doing to ensure your full participation? Developing a group of Ambassadors ensure teachers have identified an ambassador & a BC officer in their country as a point of contact and support and know their address ensure that teachers have their own accounts or mobile phone numbers (for SMS where internet not available) and know how to log in to CCO, pick up etc. help teachers to meet Ambassadors inform and prepare teachers about what is expected from a partnership and what is a project help select schools with which to work and to ensure correct forms of communication are chosen for the context of each school encourage these schools enroll trusted teachers who want to do projects and know how to communicate and collaborate in a structured and beneficial way to all work with CCO UK & overseas teams to ensure optimum partner-finding & projects facilitation is on offer for all schools and teachers involved is kept at a balance so that partnerships are usefully formed Research & Develop opportunities for collaboration or partnership with external organisations

Next steps

What actions will be required for effectively delivering CCO as a programme in your region? Organisation and management of first Ambassadors meeting and training on CCO platform, CCO programme and communications strategy with regional CCO team (regionally or by country) Subsequent organisation, management and joint delivery with Ambassadors of in-country school cluster training on CCO platform, CCO programmes and communications strategy Regular communications and online meetings between Ambassadors & CCO Team. Implementation of joint curriculum projects with partner schools and ongoing support and communication with schools Monitoring and evaluation of CCO programme and communications to successful partnerships on current and future opportunities within Connecting Classrooms and other school programmes

Support

What support can British Council offer to Regions through CCO? Set-up and operational costs of CCO web platform BC Staff costs & operational costs In-country costs of setting up and holding scoping meetings and Ambassador- led professional development workshops. Costs of BC staff & Ambassadors attending regionally centric Ambassadors training & meetings Cost of IT hardware for a limited number of basic ‘Lead School’ school partnership ‘ICT Kits’ for schools where communicating online is presented as a challenge Cost of running UK & overseas’ global support teams

Connecting Classrooms Online