Empowering Global Citizens

include increased interactions with host families (Schmidt—Rinehart, 2004),
the duration of the study—abroad program itself (Wikinson, 1998; Rivers,
1998), and students’ goals while studying abroad (Kitsantas, 2004). There
are also several methodological limitations to these studies, such as their
reliance on retrospective surveys (Norris 86 Gillespie, 2009), the lack of a
fair comparison group, and small sample sizes (Wilkinson, 1998; Williams,
2005). Given the weak evidence base concerning the impacts of study
abroad, specifically on school students, we must be cautious with regard to

the anticipated outcomes of such programs.

Connecticut has recently adopted eighty—five sister—school relationships
with schools in the Shandong province in China. This arrangement offers
teacher—, principal—, and student—exchange trips (Asia Society, 2008; Global
Washington, 201 1). States such as North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin
have also sent delegations of policy makers, business leaders, and educators
on trips to India, China, Mexico, Japan, Germany, Thailand, and France to
establish district education and school—to-school partnerships (Asia Society,
2008).

LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

The development of information technology has increased both the amount
of opportunities available for bringing the world into the classroom and the
“intensity of interconnectedness” (Fujikane, 2003, p. 144). For example, the
Global Scholars Program is an online global—awareness education initiative
that engages students between the ages of ten and thirteen in global cities
around the world in the study of a rigorous yearlong curriculum on topics

of global relevance.

To examine the efficacy of integrating technology into a social studies curricu-
lum, Johnson, Boyer, and Brown (2011) undertook an evaluation of GlobalEd,
a problem—based learning simulation based on real—world scenarios and prob—
lems that leverages technology to facilitate communications between groups of

middle and high school students in geographically diverse school locations. In

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