Global Goals Book Collection: How can global collaboration lead to solutions?

ISTE 2018 Experience

This summer I had a great experience at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference. I was selected as a speaker on a presentation I titled, "Skype + Global Goals + PBL = Powerful Learning". It was a chance for me to share with others how the Global Goals along with the connection of learners to others via Skype and project based learning could create a deep learning experience. In the presentation I Skyped in my fellow colleague, Dani Nyffler, who shared her experience with a project she did with her 6th grade students. I also shared the Global Goals Project Starter Kit I had created to help teachers get on a path toward committing to teaching the goals. A network of connected educators that is strong on Twitter is the #TeachSDGs hashtag. It is an area to learn and share with others. The ISTE presentation was exciting for me, but the relationship I have built with two individuals in the audience has been the most beneficial part of it all.

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making Connections

Before my presentation, two audience members came up to introduce themselves. Fran Siracusa and Connie Rensink explained that they were excited to hear the presentation as they also were deeply involved in the movement of the Global Goals. Fran is a co-founder of #TeachSDGs and the TeachSDGs Ambassador program. Connie and I are both members of Cohort 1 of the ambassador program. It is always amazing to meet someone in person from your professional learning network. After my session we had a brief chance to talk and we parted ways saying we should stay in touch to share ideas. 

A few weeks after ISTE, I needed them. A librarian in our district, Erin Solheim, wanted to take part in the Global Goals movement and expressed interest in working with me to create a book collection that teachers could use when teaching the Global Goals. She wanted to use her experience and talents as a librarian to curate the list, but knew it was a huge endeavor. I really don't have the broad knowledge of book titles to support with this. However, I knew with the connections Fran and Connie had we could make this work. Instead of it just being the work of Erin and myself, we needed to make this the work of many in our global community. I reached out to Connie and Fran with our idea, and they were excited to get started as they said there was a definite need for this from educators they worked with across the globe.

The Project

Fran, Connie, Erin, and I connected online for the first time July 30th. We muddled through the initial call settling into who would take notes, how would we collaborate as a team, what should the project look like and how to get started. We spent time on four more calls as we pulled on each of our strengths fueled by a common passion of finding a way to support the Global Goals. We shared ideas for a logo, a name for the project, determined the type of website the collection would be built on, designed sample tweets that could be shared, brainstormed ways to promote it via various social networks, conferences, and our professional learning networks. Fran pulled in a connection, Sarah Gloria-Harkin, that was willing to add submitted books to our final collection website. We planned our roll-out in weekly phases with an end goal of one big collective list of book titles that any educator could access as a resource to help teach their students about the specific Global Goal using literature to support their learning. We wanted it to be a growing collection by allowing anyone to submit a book as an option. We are excited to share the website:
The Global Goals Book Collection. 

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There are two ways to use the website we created.
1. Click on one of the goals to see a collection of book titles that connects to the goals. Some are still empty and others with several titles, but our hope is with the help of many across the globe the list will grow.
2. Click on the link at the bottom of the site "Book Collection Input" and submit a book title that you know will help another educator with one or more of the goals. We will review the submission and add it to our growing collection.

Global Collaboration

Beyond my interest in supporting the Global Goals, what I love about this project is the commitment that each of us has and what led us to each other. It is something I see as a vision for all students in our classrooms to be able to do in their lives. The ISTE Standards for Students lists one standard as a Global Collaborator. When I look at the list of attributes a global collaborator has, everything hits on the skills we needed to make this project possible. We used digital tools to connect and work collaboratively to explore a global issue and come up with a solution. It deepens my understanding to how important it is to provide these opportunities to students in our classrooms so they can see the ways they can work with others, even if they have never met them. It is an exciting time for us in society in the way technology connects us. Our opportunities are truly limitless!

Get Involved

New to the Global Goals? Maybe you already support the Global Goals and the #TeachSDGs movement. We need your help to share and spread the word of the Global Goals Book Collection. You can submit a book idea or share on your social network to add fuel to the project. We even made it easier by creating a collection of tweets you can copy/paste and use or check out the hashtags and retweet to your followers. Expand this effort by sharing in email, newsletters or retweeting our tweets, using the following hashtags: #GlobalGoals #BookCollection #TeachSDGs. We look forward to making this a joint effort and one we hope anyone in the #TeachSDGs movement will find as a useful resource. 

Sample Tweet

We invite you to copy/paste the below tweet with the above logo to share with your networks:
Join us in creating a Global Goals Book Collection. Suggest book titles on the form at the bottom of this webpage.
http://www.teachsdgs.org/globalgoalsbookcollection.html
Spread the work for our community to build a fabulous resource! #GlobalGoals #BookCollection #TeachSDGs