Educational Content & Tools

TIGed.org

As TIG's vibrant global community has evolved, educators inspired by its young members have sought to integrate its resources and focus on action-based learning into their teaching. This was made easier beginning in 2006, with the launch of the TakingITGlobal for Educators (TIGed) program. TIGed provides rich, interactive global learning experiences by allowing educators to leverage the resources of the world's most popular online community for youth who want to make a difference - TakingITGlobal.org - in ways that meet the needs of their learning environments.

Community

• A database of educators interested in partnering with other classrooms around the world, the collaboration registry facilitates international learning partnerships.
• The educator discussion forum connects teachers to each other, allowing them to share successes, challenges, strategies, and ideas with respect to integrating technology and global perspectives into the classroom.
• Regularly produced TIGed blogs and newsletters help teachers stay up to date on developments and events related to the TIGed community.

• Created by teachers for teachers, the activities database allows educators to search, add, adapt, and rate a growing number of standards-linked activities, lessons, and games developed for a wide range of subject areas and levels.
• Thematic classrooms are multi-lesson, multimedia resources developed in partnership with content-area experts to provide innovative ways of teaching about specific global issues.
• A guide to best practices in global education and collaborative technologies showcases how teachers around the world are utilizing TIGed to enhance both media literacy skills and global citizenship.
• A wealth of other resources, such as guides to action and teacher toolkits, are available to support globally-minded, action-oriented educators.

Recognizing both the power and the danger inherent in social and collaborative uses of online technology, TIGed offers teachers the ability to create and manage private virtual classrooms, through which students can take advantage of the benefits of web 2.0 tools without sacrificing security. Teachers choose which tools to integrate into their online classrooms, based on what is most appropriate for their students and projects. Available tools include: blogs, podcasts, maps, digital image galleries, discussion boards, live video chat, online file space, and more.

In addition, TakingITGlobal has been invited to share insights, best practices and spark innovation in the classroom and a number of the world's most important educational technology conferences, including the National Educational Computing Conference, and others in Australia, New Zealand, Slovakia and across North America.