Around the World in 80 Clicks

Around the World in 80 Clicks was a collaborative project carried out by schools in four countries: the USA, Australia, Canada and Germany. It was an exciting, interesting and fun project that established an online learning community between the schools. The idea originated with the Technology Director in Australia who had done a small project of this nature with a grade 7 social studies class. After multiple discussions with her and the other teachers involved, we decided to take the idea and expand it to include students from all 4 countries, along with the assistance of the six educators who made up our group.

The slides that follow are comments and feedback from some of the students that participated in this project.

Will says: “This project was a fun way to learn about different countries. I now know a lot more then I used to know about foreign countries. I would like to visit Australia again. They have a lot of fun sites and things to do. I had a lot of fun with this project and it was beneficial. “

Nathan says: “I would like to visit Australia and see the opera house. It is very nice there and there are many cool animals.”

Jake says: “My favorite part of this project was getting the stamps. I liked getting the stamps because each of them is very unique to the country they came from. I also liked the countries we traveled to and someday I want to go to Australia.”

Coley says: “My favorite part about this project was learning about other countries. If I could go to any of the places we learned about I would go to Australia. I have never been there before and I would really like to go there.”

Nick says: “Throughout this project, I learned a lot about the other parts of the world. I really enjoyed searching and learning new things. I hope I will visit Europe and Australia soon. I think we should learn about Asia and South America.”

Lizzie says: “I’ve never traveled outside of the United States before this trip! It was interesting to learn about so many different countries, and to communicate with students around the world. I wish we could continue with the project next year!”

Connor says: “Around the Word in 80 clicks was a great project. It was really fun and helped me learn more about other countries such as Australia and Canada. The project broadened my horizons and next time I would like to do more countries than we did this year. After doing this project I now want to travel to Italy and other places in Europe. This was a very educational yet interesting project! ”

Colleen says: “I enjoyed traveling around the world! It was fun to surf the web for answers and learn about different countries. I liked learning about Europe and hope to visit there someday soon! In the future, it would be interesting to learn about the Caribbean.”

Alissa says: “I really enjoyed the car rally! I got to learn a lot of geography from different places around the world. I would like to visit Australia because through what I have learned it sounds fantastic! I really think we should do another car rally just maybe talking about another subject. Overall this was a great experience.”

James says: “I really liked the car rally and if I had to do it all over again I would. I enjoyed picking my car for it, too.... I thought the questions weren't too hard and weren't too easy, they were just right. I am not sure if it would be better competitive or not... It would be nice for others to experience what I experienced. I would recommend to do it again. I am not sure how much my opinions is worth, but I think other people would think similar to me. I think whoever was in charge of all this did a really good job. My favorite place would have to be Africa because I think it would be really interesting.”

Brittany says: “For next year I think that I would change a few things to make the Car Rally more interesting. I think that everyone would enjoy it more if it was more of a contest or race. Also, I think people would really have a good time if it was considered kind of like a road trip you have to plan out! You'd have to fill your car up with gas, make sure you eat, and maybe even something about keeping track of money. “

Sarah says: “These are some of my thoughts on the car rally. I was really excited about it when we were first told about it. When we started it and got the first questions which were about Canada, I was a little less excited. I hadn't thought that the rally was going to be all questions.... I think that this project would have been more interesting, and would have attracted more people if it had been more like a game than a quiz. There could have been more competition involved.... It would have been more fun if in the rally, you could actually drive your car. You could park it and get gas and go over bridges with it. Sort of like a video game, only with some educational, interesting stuff involved.”

Nora says: “This car rally was really fun at first, but then it just got to be somewhat of a chore to do. When we got the first questions it was ok and they were pretty easy. As we got onto the other countries some of the questions began to be a lot harder to find answers for. That made it not as much fun. All in all to make this car rally road trip a bit better and a bit more interesting, I would have made it more virtual, maybe put in some games, or more online quizzes. What I was expecting when I started this was for it to more of a virtual kind of thing, and for it to be more like a video game, where you had to take care of your car, and actually travel the roads. I think it would be a lot more fun this way and especially if it was made into more of a race, with more of an incentive.”

Chloe says: “Around the World in 80 Clicks is always lots of fun! I always enjoy answering interesting questions for my group.”

Beth says : “Around the World in 80 Clicks is so much fun!! I really enjoy making power-point presentations for my group. “

Darcy says: “I would like to go to Seattle because it sounded very interesting when we looked it up. I would not make any changes to around the world in 80 clicks. I learnt that Mt. St. Helens was a volcano. I think that we are very lucky to be in the around the world in 80 clicks.”

Alex says: “I’d like to go back to California because my grandma lives there. I liked visiting Canada. I learnt about maccas french fries.”

James says: “I would like to go to Seattle to see Mt. St. Helens. I learnt that the largest bird sanctuary is in Cape St. Mary’s. I am very lucky to be doing around the world in 80 clicks.”

Elizabeth says: “I am enjoying around the world in 80 clicks because it is all about team work and trying to work with people that you wouldn’t usually work with. I have learnt more about the computer and how to research things, and now I’m starting to enjoy working on the computer. “

David says: “When I started Around the World in 80 Clicks I didn’t know anything about the countries. But Around the World in 80 Clicks taught me lot. I think Around the World in 80 Clicks is a great team work activity that involves the whole group. I hope every one else enjoyed Around the World in 80 Clicks as much as I did.”

Chris says: “I have enjoyed doing Around the world in 80 clicks and I can not wait to do more. It has been fun answering questions with all my resources.”

Dom says: “I have immensely enjoyed the Around the World in 80 Clicks program. I believe that if you want to teach geography then here’s your program! I found a lot of information that in my point of view is very interesting, did you know Bellini’s serves Stuffed Quahogs!”

Jay says: “Hi I’m Jay. I’ve been fortunate enough to participate in Around the World in 80 Clicks. I think that it has taught me more than I’ve ever learnt because we as the kids have to find out and research the answers and mark it down on the computer and in a book.Two interesting facts that I’ve learnt are that the longest bridge in the world is the bean bridge & that the capital CITY of CANADA is Ottawa.”

Oliver says: “Hi there, my name’s Oliver and I’m from the Wesley Lions. There are two other teams- the Meercats and the Silver Jaguars. I have learnt a lot, for example the Wright bros learnt to fly in Kitty Hawk and a famous Canadian painter is Emily Carr.”

Justin says: “I like researching other Countries by the web. We’re in America so we’ve just pasted Canada. I can’t wait to get Africa( that’s where I’m from).”

Sophie says: “I enjoy Around the world in 80 clicks because I like researching all the information and surfing the web.I also like working in my group (THE MEERKATS).”