The Global Village Project

In 1988 I came in contact with Tony Leigh in Dawlish School, Devon, England through the network. Tony was looking for partners to form an international group of schools to communicate through computers and we joined in. First the participating teachers wrote to each others to plan the project. It was decided that each of the schools should send essays about the school, the community and country to the others every second week. The name the project got was ‘The Global Village’ and besides us there were six schools from six different countries, eight schools in total. They were from Sweden, West-Germany, Austria, Japan, Canada and USA.
In our case the 8th and 9th classes took part, that is 13 and 14 years old. When we received letters from the others the pupils read them, translated them into Icelandic and discussed them. When our turn came to send we put the timetable more and less aside and the pupils worked on the project both home and in school. First we had to decide what to do and who should do what. It was no problem because everyone was eager to take part in this. What we decided to do was to write diaries, describe the homes, write about the schools in our community and a short fragment of Icelandic history. First the pubils wrote in Icelandic and then translated it into English. In many cases they had to go to books for information and of course they had to use dictionaries a lot.
It is no doubt in my mind that this connection with children in other countries did widen the children horizon and opened their eyes for the power of the computer communication. Their interest in the English language did increase and I noticed great improvement. This also helped them to see themselves as part of the inhabitants of the world ‘citizens of The Global Village’ and also to look at their own situation in comparison to others. It is hardly possible to get more contrasts than 50 children school in a rural area in Iceland and 1700 boys school in a big city in Japan. In this kind of work lies a strong motivation and responsibility. There is a great difference in responsibility in collecting information about ones country to keep it in a workbook or send it to someone in a far away country. It is also easy to see the difference in motivation when asking the pupils to write something about their school to send to other children in other countries or write an essay about the school “for the teacher”.

Miscellaneous Projects

Simultaneously to the Global Village project we were in informal contact with many other schools. These were all kinds of communication from penpals to giving and gaining information about each others countries and culture. By the end of the term the pupils in this little country school in the North-East of Iceland were much less isolated than many other schools in the cities. The computer communication had become a part of their every day life at the school.

Jón Jónasson 1992

Examples of the pupils work on the ‘Global Village’ project.

Iceland

Our country is a big mountainous island, in the North Atlantic ocean far from other countries. The size of it is 103.000 km². Our country is made of continual submarine volcanic action. The main species of rock are basalt.
Iceland is mostly highland. The highland is mostly barren and without vegetation. Most of the country is covered with lava, sand and glaciers. Vegetation is mostly around rivers and lakes and other places where the ground is wet. The highest mountains are constantly covered with ice and snow. Vatnajökull is the biggest glacier, 8400 m². In Vatnajökull is Öræfajökull, the highest peak of the country, 2119 m. Lowland is just one forth of the country.
In Iceland the weather is changeable, rainy and snowy, summers chilly but winters mild. The average temperature is about 1° C in the winter but 10° C in the summer. The absolute minimum is -44° C and the absolute maximum is 33° C. If we did not have the Gulf stream, then Iceland would probable be uninhabitable.
Vegetation is just a little part of the country, 25%. When the first settlers came here, about 874, 75% of Iceland was covered with vegetation and 25% with woodland. Nowadays woodland is only 1%.
The Icelandic fishing ground is one of the richest in the world. Water power and geotropism power are resources of the nature which are just partly used today.
Boy – 14 years
Boy – 13 years

The Schools

Litlulaugaskóli
Our school’s name is Litlulaugaskóli and the pupils are 45 from 6 to 14 years old. The school starts the 20th of September and is over the 10th of May. In the school we have 36 lessons in week. The subjects which we learn are Mathematics, Grammar, Biology, Physic, History of Iceland, Geography, Literature, Danish, English, Swimming, Gymnastic, Needlework, Woodwork, Art, Music, and the confirmees of the 7th class have a special lessons with our minister. Our school building is very good and the teachers too. The school is divided into 4 classes 6-8 years, 9-10 years, 11-12 years, and 13-14 years. When we have finished the last year we go to the Gymnasium which is here in our village. Those who have to go a long way to the school have lunch there.Music school
Here is also a Music School which is in the same house as our school. It has between 30 and 40 pupils who come from our school and grown from our community. There we can learn to play piano, guitar, keyboard, and recorder.

The Gymnasium of Laugar
In our village there is also the Gymnasium of Laugar. The students are about 130. In the Gymnasium there is the 10th class which is the last year of the compulsory education. In the Gymnasium you can choose three different subjects Sport, Literature and Business Studies.
Girl – 13 years

Diary

January 10th 1989
I woke up at 8 o’clock as usual. I had breakfast and went to school. My first lesson was woodwork. It was two lessons and I did not enjoy them very much so I was glad when they were over. I dropped in at home, (the woodwork is taught at the Gymnasium) picked up my school-bag and went up to the school. It is just two minutes walk to the school from my home. Next I had a music lesson and after that there was one of my favourite subject mother tongue. It was two lessons and after them I went home for lunch. I walked home with my sister and brother who are in 7th and 5th class. We didn’t have much time for lunch and soon we all ran. I was going to Physics, Mathematics and Danish but all these lessons we were writing this letters. It is a little bit difficult because my class has just learnt English for two years and the younger class for one year. At 4:00 o’clock the school was over. I ran home, got my sports-bag and went to the gymnasium. I was one hour in soccer and then I began training other sports. I got home at 7:00 o’clock and had dinner with my family. My mother, father, two sisters and one brother. After dinner I cleaned up in the kitchen and went to the swimming pool. I was there for one and a half hour with my friends and got home again 10 o’clock in the evening. I studied for an hour but then I went to bed. I was going to read a book but fell asleep five minutes later.
Girl – 14 years

January 11th 1989
I woke up at half past seven, dressed myself, washed my face and had breakfast. I went to school on the school bus and the school bus comes at ten past eight. In the first and second lessons we had Icelandic. Next we had a fifteen minutes break. Then we have an English lesson and after that lesson we had Biology and History of Iceland. At 12:15 we had a lunch break. I have my lunch in the school. 1:00 o’clock we had two lessons in Literature. Next we had two lessons in Mathematics. 4:00 o’clock the school finished today but at 4:15 there was a video club which is after school once a month. I came home at 5:45. I did my homework and so I helped my father in the cow-house and the sheep-house. There I fed the sheep with hay and helped my father milking the cows. At 7:30 we had supper and so I watched TV. At 10:50 I went to sleep.
Girl – 13 years