Technology in Education: Linking Students with Their World: A Good Day in French Class

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Linking Students with Their World:
A Good Day in French Class

by Nancy A. Bacon

You know it is a good day
And a great world
When in places far
Your voice is heard
In a different language
Besides your own
By technology and the computer
And not just the phone.

- "A Good Day," by Foster High School student Pam Opel,
written in preparation for the video conference

Friday, April 13, 2001, was a good day. French language students at Foster High School in Tukwila, Washington, used the power of video-conferencing technology to speak face-to-face with students of the Thierno Saïdou Tall High School in Dakar, Senegal. At the count of three, students launched the conference with the Wolof greeting, "Asalaam Malekuum," to which the Senegalese students cheerfully replied "Malekuum Salaam." It is one exchange that proves that French class is no longer intended to teach the lingua franca of the world's cultural elite but instead provides an invitation to explore real world issues and cross-cultural exchange that prepares young people to be the peacemakers and ambassadors of tomorrow.

Debates around school reform and standards often relegate electives such as foreign language classes as icing on the educational cake, options for highly motivated, college preparatory students. Certainly many would argue that funding for a video-conference would be better spent on reading and math programs. At Foster High School, however, French class means connecting students with the world around them and has become a basic ingredient in preparing our young people for future success.

Building connections for students

The connection between Foster High School and Senegal began in 1996 when returned Peace Corps volunteer and Tukwila School Board member Mary Fertakis visited Sue Pike's French class to talk about life in Senegal. A sister-school relationship resulted when Foster students sent school supplies to Thillagrand, Mary's adopted village in Senegal. The Peace Corps supported a teleconference between Thillagrand and Tukwila students in 1999, and in 2000, the Digital Blackboard Foundation funded the Tukwila School District together with the World Affairs Council of Seattle and the Puget Sound Educational Service District (ESD) to develop the first video-conference with Senegal, this time with the Thierno Saïdou Tall High School in Dakar.

Walking down the halls of Foster resembles a stroll through the United Nations, with Somali girls wearing long dark headscarves, the children of Bosnian refugees sharing stories about sports practice, and newly arrived students from Mexico, Russia, and the Congo learning about American culture in ESL class. Eighteen-percent of Foster High School students speak English as their second language, their native tongues ranging over twenty-eight different languages. Foster is a small school, affirming of diverse cultures and open to new opportunities to build connections with people they otherwise could only read about in a book.

This year's conference took place at Foster High School using equipment borrowed from the ESD, and it featured Powerpoint presentations and video clips produced and delivered during the conference entirely by Foster students. The Senegalese students sat in a World Bank-funded Global Distance Learning Center in Dakar, and World Links covered the cost of the phone connection. The conference began at 9:00am Pacific Standard Time (5:00pm in Dakar) and lasted for over an hour and a half. Sixty-three Foster students and over fifty Senegalese students participated in the exchange.

Creating purposeful learning

Political rhetoric on education focuses on raising the bar, bringing all students up to a baseline standard in subjects deemed as fundamental skills, most notably reading and math. At the same time, however, definitions for basic education respect the importance of subject matter outside of reading and math in the development of well-rounded individuals. The Washington State "Education Reform and Assessment Laws," for example, state that the basic goal of education is "to provide students with the opportunity to become responsible citizens, to contribute to their own economic well-being and to that of their families and communities, and to enjoy productive and satisfying lives."

Traditionally, elective courses such as French would be thought to support the third of these goals, with only the academic elite making the case that foreign language class contributed to citizenship or economic well-being. New realities have changed that. Washington State, for example, is now the most trade-dependent state in the nation, ranking seventh nationally in net immigration, and Seattle serves both as a center for global philanthropy as well as the whipping boy for debates on economic globalization. Core knowledge about the world and cross-cultural skills are critical in today's world and therefore critical elements in evolving definitions of what makes for a basic education. A student's involvement in French language class (or any other language class for that matter) does make him or her a better citizen in our nation's increasingly diverse society, more able to take advantage of the surprisingly many jobs tied to trade, and better able to enjoy productive and satisfying lives. Good schools provide their students with opportunities to link their knowledge with skills so that they are better prepared for the realities of life in the 21st century, and global interdependence is a reality our young people must face.

Using technology to support learning

Students prepared for the video-conference by researching each other's country and collaborating on a list of ten questions to ask the other school. Interdependence and citizenship were threads woven by the students into their questions of each other. Questions asked by the two sides included:

From students at Lycée Thierno Saïdou Nourou Tall in Dakar, Senegal:
· Do communities try to find solutions to the increasing violence in schools?
· Can you speak about a true American culture if you consider the different ethnic groups who make up the population?
· Don't you think that the attitude of the USA toward China may be the beginning of a new cold war?
· How do you feel about the Bush presidency?

From students at Foster High School in Tukwila, Washington:
· How do you feel about the spread of AIDS and other diseases?
· If there were a civil war which broke out in Senegal, to which country would you go and why?
· If you had the chance to visit the USA, where would you like to go and what would you like to visit?
· What do you worry about?

Students on both sides answered honestly in both English and French, demonstrating poised public speaking skills and celebrating their affection for each other with frequent applause. John Reeg, the ESD technology director, mentored students in the use of technology and trained them in advanced video-streaming and delivery skills to make the conference truly a student-created event. In a post-program discussion, Foster High School students cited their increased interest in school because of the project, an outcome that supports general education goals of raising student commitment to achievement.

Similarly, students in Senegal attested to the power of an hour-and-a-half of conversation to bring real world lessons home. One Senegalese student was interviewed by a national news reporter in Dakar: "I believe that this was a really great project because we are in one world where all the people and all the governments and all the presidents are trying to make the world into a global village. Exchanges like this are the best way to lead us to the establishment of a global village."

The video-conference provided an avenue through which students could engage in thoughtful inquiry into such critical world issues as democracy-building, HIV/AIDS, and the role of family in school violence. Every student involved in the project developed a personal relationship with students living on another continent, challenging the mystique and overwhelming stereotypes that both sets of students held for the other's country and culture. The legacy of the day will continue as students remain in contact via email, adopt each other's countries on projects as Foster High School did during a recent Model United Nations conference, and eventually visit each other as plans for student exchanges become reality. Citizen-to-citizen diplomacy makes our world a more peaceful place; Foster High School and Lycée Thierno Saïdou Tall now boast more ambassadors than the U.N.

French & the changing face of education

School reformers have focused attention on whether limited resources should be spent on electives such as foreign language, and it certainly could be argued that the staff time and connection costs that went into the video-conference could have been more efficiently spent on basic skills. Yet if we keep focused on the greater goal of school-- to prepare students with the content knowledge and tested skills they need to be economically-sufficient, responsible citizens who lead productive and satisfying lives in a globally interconnected world-- we must offer creative, authentic learning experiences that connect students with their global community. The direct cost of the program, approximately $1,500 to cover the connectivity costs and technical support, seems slight when one considers how much the students gained from speaking with students in another continent in French using and demonstrating cutting edge technology.

Two cornerstones of excellence in education are entrepreneurial innovation and community involvement, and often our elective classes have the latitude to expose a diverse cross section of students to technology, interdisciplinary fields, and possible career opportunities. Standards and testing mandates didn't limit Sue Pike, Foster's French teacher, allowing her to collaborate with the ESD and World Affairs Council in piloting the project. Sue Pike has similarly been able to excite her students about language through a French-language poetry project through the University of Michigan-a project that now includes Lycée Thierno Saïdou Tall. The most unlikely of students now try their hand at poetry, and several students shared their work during the video-conference.

While many organizations are implementing video-conferencing technology, we could find only a handful of other programs that had linked students in the United States with students abroad (many programs link students domestically or connect students with policy experts). Programs such as World Links, affiliated with the World Bank, are on the cutting edge of educational video conferencing, and yet widespread use is still around the corner. If the number of community members attending this year's video-conference is any measure, however, new international video-conferencing ventures will certainly be implemented in the next two years, many within the curriculum of language, health, or other elective classes.

A technology glitch prevented students in Dakar from operating their Powerpoint presentation during the conference, and yet ingenuity prevailed as the camera showed a buzz of action in the Dakar conference room. Students raised a metal bowl to the camera, and a rich meal of fried rice, a national dish of Senegal, projected onto the wall in the Foster library. The girl pointed out each ingredient in slow, melodic French, which Foster students repeated, some in French and some in English. Samba Guisse, the project coordinator in Senegal, remarked regretfully that technology could not transfer the perfume of the food, and yet we all were savoring the moment when two cultures were able to come together, laugh, talk, and make plans for the future. French language class never seemed more of a core subject than at that moment. It was a good day.

About the Author:

Nancy A. Bacon is Director of Educational Programs at the World Affairs Council of Seattle and Tacoma, 2200 Alaskan Way, Suite 450, Seattle, WA 98121; nbacon@world-affairs.org. For more information about the video-conference, visit www.world-affairs.org.

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