by Sarah Betteridge, February 2017

Living in Perth in western Australia could be isolating and restrictive to teachers and students alike. Perth, 2,104 km (or 1,307 miles) away from Adelaide, its nearest Australian neighbor of over one million people, is considered one of the most isolated cities in the world. It has the Indian Ocean as its western border and the vast hinterland of Australia to its east. However, like many 21^st-century educators all over the world, I am now connected as a school librarian by the wonders of modern technology to like-minded educators and library professionals all over the globe! Technology literally opens the world to us and our students and can be used in so many ways within our school libraries to broaden student perspectives and learning, and to connect them with other students, educators, authors, and community members world-wide. There are so many global projects that educators and library professionals all over the world can use to teach globally and to connect themselves and their students to the rest of the world. Here are six ways that librarians and educators can go global in their schools and libraries.

1. Get Connected and Make Connections—Use Social Media Professionally

For those of us living connected lives, this first step might seem obvious, but I am aware that there are still many hesitant to take the step towards professional connectedness—and I am not talking about 20th-century "old-school" email connectedness. In April 2014, I decided to join the world of Twitter and discovered that it is here that education and library connections truly happen! I know that Twitter can seem overwhelming and it can seem daunting to condense your thoughts into 140 characters, but Twitter is truly transformational for educators wanting to connect beyond their school and classroom walls.

Having joined Twitter, it is important to take the next step and make connections with other educators, library professionals, and authors. The best way to connect with like-minded people is to search through #hashtags [#word]. Laura Fleming's article "The Power of a School Library Hashtag" (https://www.edutopia.org/article/power-of-school-library-hashtag-laura-fleming) posted on the Edutopia website on September 27, 2016, really drives home the importance that the hashtag has reached for Twitter users, as well as users of other social media for professional connections. A simple hashtag search will help you to connect with people who have similar interests and professional goals. Once you have found a few people to follow on Twitter, you can also search those that they follow to build your Personal Learning Network (PLN). Two useful hashtags for global connection around education are #GlobalEd and #GlobalEdchat. For libraries "down under," we use #ausTL in Australia and #slanza in New Zealand. For more general education topics, #aussieED and #whatisschool are great hashtags to follow.

Once you are familiar with Twitter, a library Twitter account is a great way to promote all the work you do in your school library, both locally and globally. You can check out my ORSHS Library Twitter account at https://twitter.com/orshslibrary and Lucas Maxwell, high school librarian in the United Kingdom, has a very lively account for Glenthorne Library at https://twitter.com/glenthornelrc. It is also fun to follow a couple of Twitter Chats, though the speed of these can be daunting. It is okay to "lurk" and perhaps just introduce yourself and follow the discussion. Re-tweeting a few tweets that you support will soon build your Twitter connections. I recommend starting with a few of these useful Librarian Twitter chats (https://magic.piktochart.com/output/2617218-library-twitter-chats-2) and Education Chats (https://sites.google.com/site/twittereducationchats/education-chat-calendar).

For those still hesitant to take the Twitter step, you should definitely search and join some of the many Facebook groups for library professionals. These groups, whether public or closed, are a great way to communicate globally with other librarians and to share ideas about library activities and events as well as library teaching program ideas. It is also worthwhile to join some general education/teaching groups to make connections with educators not based in the library. There are so many Facebook groups now that a search of your interests will bring up a plethora. Here are a few global Facebook groups to look at to broaden your connections:

ALA Think Tank https://www.facebook.com/groups/ALAthinkTANK/

Future Ready Librarians https://www.facebook.com/groups/573023046218945/

Int'l School Library Connection https://www.facebook.com/groups/SLAsia/

Libraries and Social Media https://www.facebook.com/groups/LibrarySocial/

The power of connecting through social media is demonstrated in a tweet I received from a librarian wanting to connect her class in Beaverton, Oregon, with a class in western Australia for a Mystery Skype session through Skype:

@SJBetteridge Looking for Perth k-8 Ss to play Mystery Skype with Ss in Beaverton Oregon 8:45-9am (AU time) this Friday 5/27. Can you help?

And here's feedback from a principal in rural western Australia after I was able to connect them to each other to do a Mystery Skype session:

Was fortunate enough to have our Yr3/4 class Mystery Skype with a class in Beaverton, Oregon USA today...an amazing experience for our students. Mapping, time zones, cultural experience, problem solving and massive engagement. If you get a chance to do it...jump feet first! Thank you Twitter PLN for the hook up!

Craig Kemp (https://twitter.com/mrkempnz), a Kiwi teaching in Singapore and exemplar extraordinaire of how to teach beyond the classroom walls, has blogged about Mystery Skype (https://t.co/ZCBgwsbE7C) and how to get started. You can find more information at the Microsoft Mystery Skype website (https://education.microsoft.com/skype-in-the-classroom/mystery-skype).

2. Share Your Library Events and Activities

Besides Twitter and Facebook, another great place to share your library displays, events, and activities and to connect globally is Instagram. If you already have a private Instagram account, consider setting up a library account too. It is such a great place to connect with other library professionals, authors, and people crazy about books and reading in a very visual way. Instagram sharing led to an author's offer to visit the school earlier this year, which our students loved!

School librarian Lucas Maxwell (https://twitter.com/lucasjmaxwell) recently initiated the #BookDropLife hashtag on Instagram and Twitter for global sharing by librarians of their book returns as a way to connect with other library professionals and also to share what their users are reading. Librarians from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Australia are already sharing their "book drops" at this hashtag. Lucas blogged about this initiative on August 31, 2016, in the post "Share your book returns with #bookdroplife!" (http://glenthornelrc.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/share-your-book-returns-with.html).

3. Connect Your Students with Authors Virtually

Skype is something I intend to explore now that public schools in our state finally have access to it on our networks. The world of Skype and Google Hangouts literally opens up endless possibilities for connecting our students to the outside world and the perfect place to start in a library is to Skype an author both locally and internationally!

The Skype an Author Network (http://skypeanauthor.wikifoundry.com/) aims to "provide K-12 teachers and librarians with a way to connect authors, books, and young readers through virtual visits," thereby allowing readers to chat to authors either before, during, or after reading their books. A list of authors who Skype with classes and book clubs for free (http://www.katemessner.com/authors-who-skype-with-classes-book-clubs-for-free/) is a good starting point to find authors available to Skype your students. Alternatively, try connecting with authors on Twitter and Instagram.

4. Connect Your Students with other Readers through a Global Book Club

On September 28, 2016, Jennifer Casa-Todd (@JCasaTodd) tweeted the following message:

Meeting with my Ss this week to determine which books we'll read! Join our High School Global Book Club! #tlchat.

I immediately connected with Jennifer, a teacher and literacy consultant who recently started in a teacher librarian role. In her blog post of September 24, 2016, "Rethinking the Traditional High School Book Club #HSGBC" (http://jcasatodd.com/?p=1712), Jennifer discusses her idea for a global high school book club to "help kids to share their love of reading with others." The goals of the High School Global Book Club include fostering a love of reading, having students respond to their reading in a variety of ways, building community both within the school and with other schools, and considering the perspectives of other students from other school communities by conversing about books.

This is such a great global project for high schools all around the world to get involved in and something that I will be following up with my school book club members as we begin our final school term of 2016. Anyone in any doubt about the need to connect your students globally should read Jennifer's August 10, 2015, blog post "The Connected Student" (http://jcasatodd.com/?p=445), which is full of ideas for global connection with many suggested links and projects.

5. Challenge Your Students with a Global Project

A great way to engage your students and have them connect globally with other students and educators would be to challenge them with a global project. Join the Global Education Conference Network (http://www.globaleducationconference.com/) to find out about the Great Global Project Challenge. Alternatively, take a look at the Global Classroom Project site (https://theglobalclassroomproject.org/) to find out about current Global Classroom projects and the #globalclassroom Twitter chats.

Another wonderful initiative from the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) is the International School Library Month (http://www.iasl-online.org/advocacy/islm/index.html) every October. Participating school libraries can choose to Skype around the World, and there is the Bookmark Exchange Project that I recently learned about from a colleague. Participating schools are matched and make homemade bookmarks which they then exchange with each other. This activity can involve so much more than the simple process of making bookmarks. Students can also share information about their cultures and different ways of life, and investigate each other's localities. Another great project for both primary and high school students is The Peace Crane Project (https://peacecraneproject.org/) to celebrate the United Nations International Day of Peace. Take a look at their wonderful promotional video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V3c59mPBsQ.

6. Participate in a Global Activity for a Day

For educators and library professionals wanting to test the waters and not commit to a longer global project, a global activity for a day is another option. Some examples are #GlobalMakerDay, Global Day of Design, International Dot Day, World Read Aloud Day and Global Collaboration Day. These events can be found in Shannon Miller's calendar of Library Celebrations & Reading Promotions Throughout the Year (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L3sraee-1sYbMxbMzjIslUsGJsRQcdvUyVSbr66QK04/edit) and are a few of many activities to celebrate literacy, making, design, and collaboration globally as well as locally.

These are just a few ways for you to connect yourself and your students globally. If you have not already begun, I challenge you to make the change and begin now! We live in a connected world and we owe it to ourselves and our students to go beyond the classroom walls.

Additional Resources

Connected Educator Month. http://www.connectededucators.org/

"Fostering Understanding, Empathy, and Dialogue in Our Students." Edweb. http://home.edweb.net/webinar/fostering-understanding-empathy-dialogue-students/

Global Day of Design http://globaldayofdesign.com/

Global Collaboration Day. http://www.globalcollaborationday.org/

Globalmakerspaces. http://edcampglobal.wixsite.com/globalmakerspaces

Global Read Aloud. https://theglobalreadaloud.com/

International Dot Day. http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/

World Read Aloud Day." Litworld. http://www.litworld.org/wrad/