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Global Snapshots connects youth at US and overseas schools, serving as a liaison to coordinate a year-long cross-cultural exchange project. Through the project, students examine and share their own lives and culture as they explore the lives and culture of their overseas partners. The project centers on the exchange of student photography and emails about subjects that are grounded in the school curriculum.  Participants use art and technology as the vehicles for self-expression and cross-cultural communication.

Global Snapshots is a new initiative connecting One World Classroom (OWC) and Photo Exchangers (PE). OWC is a nonprofit organization based in Haverhill - N. Andover, MA that builds learning partnerships between K-12 classrooms and schools from around the world.  Photo Exchangers is a cross-cultural multimedia exchange program based in Cambridge, MA that connects youth in Cambridge, MA and Tamale, Ghana partnered in long-term collaborative learning projects. Both organizations have collectively worked in the field of cross-cultural art and education for the past 10 years.

To foster cross-cultural understanding in the context of the K-12 curriculum by building bridges of learning between the classrooms of the world through the arts and technology.

Project goals offer an innovative program that:

1)     Reinforce the school curriculum

2)     Engage students after-school

3)     Provide students a creative means to examine and learn about their own lives/culture as they explore and learn about the lives/cultures of their partners

4)     Build cross-cultural understanding and awareness, and develop a sense of global citizenship in students

5)     Integrate the arts and technology (photography, art and music exchanges, email, web site, and culminating project)

6)     Provide staff development

Why need support:

In our globalized world today, it is critical that students gain skills, knowledge, and understanding that prepare them to be global citizens. US schools are looking for an opportunity to interact directly with schools overseas to bring to life the excitement of learning about the world and cultures. In our globalized world, the need to connect youth across cultures and continents that align with schools curriculums in a creative and fun setting is greatly needed.  This is an innovative program that is needed to provide a model that engages students and empowers teachers to replicate it on their own in the future.

Global Snapshots arranges partnership with overseas schools, serves as a liaison, integrates art/technology, fosters global citizenship, reinforces school curriculum in after school setting, and provides staff development. It is a unique, in-depth approach that reinforces what students are learning in the classroom by engaging them in an authentic cross-cultural experience.

Given Global Snapshots is a new program. In the following are examples of success from One World Classroom and Photo Exchangers programs:

One World Classroom-

Since 1999, OneWorld Classrooms has involved over 10,000  classrooms from around the world. In 2008/2009, over 2,000 students from 50+ schools in 30+ countries participated in OWC’s International Art Exchange, while another 2,000+ classrooms accessed OWC’s free online content. See http://www.oneworldclassrooms.org/teachtest.html for quotes.

Photo Exchangers-

In the direct words of a Photo Exchangers student, “The photography project is out to link children in Ghana to children in America...to help us learn new things in our area and culture so that to teach our friends in US...to foster unity among members in both clubs.”

From Photo Exchangers Evaluation Report 2005-2008:

Summary of Student Successes-

1.       Developed basic ethnography and fieldwork skills

2.       Learned basic computer/technology skills

3.       Experimented with different visual art forms

4.       Developed relationships with classmates and local community

5.       Established on-going cross-cultural communication between students from different countries

6.       Educated communities about local and global exchange project

7.       Gained critical awareness of themselves and their connections to their peers, local neighborhoods and global community

1. Students can become involved in OWC-Global Snapshot initiatives. Students can help to organize an art exchange with their school and a school abroad, or organize an event in their community to raise money to help youth in other countries have access to digital cameras and art materials needed to participate in the Global Snapshots program.

2. Pen-pal, email, chat, and/or connect via JChoice.org