Contact:

 

Andrew Ezzell

941-924-0025 (voice)

941-921-8133 (fax)

media@gsbi.org

www.gsbi.org

 

 

 

NEW EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION LAUNCHES WEB-DESIGN CONTEST FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN WORLDWIDE

 

AT&T Grant Helps GSBI Revive Virtual Classroom

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2003

 

Sarasota, Fla. – Give Something Back International (GSBI) today announced the 2003/04 Global Virtual Classroom program, an online-collaboration and website-building contest for primary and secondary students from seven to 18 years of age, worldwide.

Originally known as the AT&T Virtual Classroom, program ownership was transferred this year from AT&T to GSBI, a 501(C)(3) nonprofit educational organization headquartered in Sarasota, Florida. The AT&T Foundation awarded GSBI a start-up grant to support the re-launch of both the annual website-design Contest and the program’s popular year-round Virtual Classroom Clubhouse.

The original AT&T Virtual Classroom program, developed in 1996, was very well-received by students and teachers around the world during its four years of operation.

“During its last year of operation, more than 19,000 students in more than 50 countries took part in the AT&T Virtual Classroom,” said JoAnn Patrick-Ezzell, a co-founder of GSBI who, as a former AT&T executive, drove the development of the original program. “The Virtual Classroom is a powerful way for students to learn about the Internet, and about collaboration, and how people in other cultures live, and think, and learn.”

This year, as many as 100 Global Virtual Classroom teams will use Internet technologies to communicate as they build websites together focused on topics of their choice. Each team will consist of three schools from three different countries. The winning website in 1999/2000 was created by a team of students from Canada, India and the United States.

Registration for the 2003/04 Global Virtual Classroom contest began September 8 and ends September 29, 2003. Team websites will be judged in March 2003 by a panel of VIP judges and awards presented in April 2004. Each grand-prize winning team will be awarded US $3,000. For more information, program guidelines, or to register for the Global Virtual Classroom, please visit www.virtualclassroom.org

The Global Virtual Classroom is a program of Give Something Back International (GSBI). GSBI is an international non-profit educational organization incorporated in Florida in 2002. GSBI’s goal is to provide life-changing, quality educational opportunities to children, young adults, and teachers around the world.

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FACT SHEET

 

GLOBAL VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

What is GVC?

The Global Virtual Classroom (GVC) project is a collection of free, on-line educational activities and resources. It aims to complement the efforts of governments and education departments around the world to integrate technology into their classrooms and curricula and to link their schools to the information superhighway.

What is GVC’s goal?

The GVC vision is to empower, enable and connect students around the world using Internet technology. It aims to teach students three essential skills they will need in the 21st century:

 

Cross-cultural communication: Overcoming language and cultural differences is a skill that must be learned in today's international environment. GVC offers a learning experience that we hope will put students on the road to being good global communicators.

 

Collaboration: GVC projects offer the chance to learn how to work and succeed as a team. These are valuable skills that are often hard to learn in school, yet are absolutely required in the working world. Students are rewarded by seeing their work as part of a greater effort, and by having the results posted on the World Wide Web for their communities to appreciate.

Computers: A fundamental understanding of technology is necessary for today's students -- tomorrow's leaders. GVC students learn not only how to navigate the Web, they learn how to use it to interact and communicate, to research and create. More importantly they learn to be confident and comfortable with technology.

To achieve these goals, Global Virtual Classroom provides a variety of free on-line activities suitable for a wide range of schools' technical capabilities and student abilities. One of these activities is right for your students. Sign up today and make the world your classroom!

Who is eligible to participate?

Any group that meets a few basic criteria:

• The group may be a classroom, extracurricular activity group, club or other teacher-led, school-sponsored student group. The group need not be all members of the same class, but it must be led by a teacher or a responsible adult who will supervise throughout GVC Contest 2003/04.
• It must have access to the Internet, and the teacher must have the basic skills needed to create and post simple Web pages.
• Groups must have 15-40 students between the ages of seven and 18.
  
  

When does the 2003/04 GVC Contest start and end? 

 

 

How do I contact GVC?

 

You can contact the program at gvc@gsbi.org. You can apply to participate in the Global Virtual Classroom program at www.virtualclassroom.org.