KDES students finish second in international contest

From: Gallaudet - Jun 14, 2005

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Susan Flanigan
Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator
Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center
Susan.Flanigan@gallaudet.edu

KDES students finish second in international contest

WASHINGTON: Students from Kendall Demonstration Elementary School's (KDES) Team 6/7/8 placed second among 57 schools from around the world in this year's Global Virtual Classroom (GVC) contest.

This year's contest entries ranged in theme from natural disasters (inspired by the tsunami of December 2004), to cultural comparisons of countries, to space colonization.

The GVC project is a collection of free, online, educational activities and resources. It aims to complement the efforts of governments and education departments from around the world to integrate technology into the classroom and curricula and to link schools to the information superhighway. The GVC contest challenges schools to build websites that are judged on the quality of their content and presentation and on the collaboration.

The KDES students used the Internet to communicate and build a website with students from two other schools, Waitomo Caves School in Waitomo Caves, New Zealand, and Merton Elementary School in Cote St. Luc, Quebec, Canada.

In the introduction to their "Backyard Animals" website, one student describes the project: "Backyard animals include wild, tame, native and non-native animals living in our countries. Our project includes discovering the animal in us, researching our animal friends, and learning how pets go wild. These topics were selected in collaboration by the students from schools in Canada, New Zealand and the United States."

"It was a great experience to work with schools from other countries," said Rosemary Stifter, instructional technology specialist, who worked on the project with the students. "The students enjoyed seeing their work on the Internet and were very proud of what they accomplished. It is important to establish collaborative relationships with students around the world to broaden their learning experiences. We hope to develop international and national collaborations with hearing and deaf schools in the future."

The KDES students decided to use the $500 award money to purchase digital video equipment for the team. To visit their site, go to: http://gvc04.virtualclassroom.org/gvc04c06/.

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The Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, located on the campus of Gallaudet University, comprises two federally mandated demonstration schools, Kendall Demonstration Elementary School and the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, for students who are deaf and hard of hearing. In collaboration with professionals and programs throughout the country, Clerc Center professionals identify, develop, evaluate, and disseminate innovative curricula and materials, assess educational strategies and technologies for deaf and hard of hearing students, and provide training and technical assistance to families and programs throughout the United States.