Global Cooperation

Wow. global cooperation is the coolest thing since sliced bread. The idea behind working with students and teachers from around the world is an exciting thing to bring into the classroom. I feel that students will be really receptive to global projects because they are involved in something bigger than themselves. The two global cooperation sites that I like the best were The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education, CIESE, and Global School Net, GSN. CIESE is the one I would use in my classroom because it is science based. It had great projects that really have a meaning and purpose. Another great feature about this site is that for each project it gives the national curriculum standards and the New York State standards that each project correlates with. GSN was more diverse in the types of projects and areas of study that it offers. However for a variety of their projects they only offered one registration period, where as CIESE usually offered a Fall and Spring window for each project.
In my classroom I would probally be more inclined to use CIESE. CIESE has several projects which take students out of the classroom and into the community. One tool I could use in conjunction with a global cooperation project is flickr. I would love to start a flickr account to post pictures of the students collecting data and working on their project from start to end. At the end of a classroom project it would be a great way for the students to reflect on the work they did visually. I'm really excited about global cooperation and hope to the students will be as excited as I am.