Chris Betcher

A friend sent me an email with this note in it.  I had a chuckle at the intended humour, and quickly realised just how close to the mark it really was.  I made a few minor modifications to it, but here it is…

Question: What is the truest definition of Globalization?

Answer: Princess Diana’s death.

You ask why? An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whisky followed closely by Italian Paparazzi on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines.

This is posted to an Australian blog site, using American technology, and you’re probably reading this on a computer that use Taiwanese chips and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant.

That, my friends –  is Globalization!

I realise there are probably a couple of liberties taken with the truth there, but on the whole it is amazing when you start to think about just how global the world has become in the last couple of decades.

The point is, how do we tap into that level of diversity in our schools?   The world has become one big village, and more and more people in the world of business and government seem to know how important is is to be able to share and collaborate together in that village.  The one environment where we still forget (or ignore) this global village concept seems to be in our school system, where working globally is still largely seen as a novel approach to teaching moreso than a necessity of a 21st century education.

Following on from the “Five Things” meme that floated through the edublogosphere recently, Kim Cofino’s blog had a nice little post about listing the places in the world she’s been to. I was impressed by her map, and thought I’d give it a go too. This website will let you highlight the places in the world you’ve been, and I thought it very cool.

I have to admit that mine probably looks a little more impressive than it really is… There are places I’ve been to that were short localised visits, but this tool highlights the whole country. So although I’ve only been to Hong Kong, the map shows all of China. Likewise, I certainly haven’t seen all that much of North America yet. And yes, I have been to a lot of islands throughout the Pacific, but it was with my parents when I was much, much younger, so really, I haven’t travelled nearly as much as I wish I had.

Not travelling more extensively is one of my biggest regrets in life actually, although I guess it’s never too late to make up for lost time. I’ll certainly be encouraging my own kids to see as much of the world as possible when they get older.

For what it’s worth, here is a breakdown of the US States… still plenty of room to explore there too!