Programs

BRIDGE vignettes

Bundaberg State High School, QLD

Partner school:

Phothisampan Pittayakan School, Chonburi

This partnership has used a range of technologies to communicate. Students have shared basic knowledge of each other’s country on Wikispaces. Partner teachers have created a number of videos and published them on Vimeo, including a documentary style montage that features some of the software programs (including Tellagami and Animoto) used by the partnership. Students and teachers from both schools have uploaded descriptions and photos of activities and events to build a picture of their lives and their local communities.

Both schools have reported that sharing these digital stories and other information has improved the levels of students’ cultural understanding.

Canberra Grammar, ACT

Partner school:

Yothinburana School, Bangkok

As in other BRIDGE Thailand partnerships, students from these schools have created Tellagamis about Australia and Thailand. But in addition, students have also used Tellagami to share the findings of science experiments and compared results with their school partners.

In 2014, 16 Canberra Grammar School students visited Yothinburana School whilst on a Thailand community service trip. Canberra Grammar intends to make this visit a permanent component of their community service trip.

The schools are in the formative stages of creating a memorandum of understanding to develop ongoing learning projects together. Topics under discussion include teachers and students sharing expertise and learning in the target subjects of Geography, History, Economics and the Performing Arts, using ICT and in-country visits.

​Cressy District High School, TAS

Partner school:

Pathumthep Wittayakarn School (PTK), Nong Khai

The connection to PTK through the BRIDGE Project has meant that instead of just learning about Thailand, students have been able to learn with and directly from students in Thailand.

In 2014, PTK contributed pages to the Australian school’s yearbook. This was made possible through the online application ‘Fusion Yearbooks’ meaning that the students at PTK were able to complete their pages in Thailand, but still contribute to the completed yearbook. PTK has also been writing articles about events at their school, such as their ‘Open Day’, to be placed in a shared weekly newsletter.

Doncaster Secondary College, VIC

Partner school:

Narinukun School, Ubon Ratchathan

Using their shared Wikispace, partner teachers have created digital knowledge hunts, photo stories and undertaken projects focused on being a tour guide in their local city for their classes to work on. Students in both countries designed avatars (digital representations) of their group members and these avatars were taken for a tour around the respective cities. Doncaster students visited the central business district of Melbourne and took photos of the city attractions including the city circle tram, local cuisine and the streetscape. Thai students visited Chiang Mai and took photos of themselves showcasing the local food and cultures. Facebook has also been used by students to keep in touch.

Doncaster has hosted a contingent of 37 Thai teachers and students, and recently Skyped with the Australia’s Ambassador to Thailand to update him on the partnership milestones to date.

John Paul College, QLD

Partner school:

Kanthalalakwittaya School

John Paul College and Kanthalalakwittaya, Sisaket have used a variety of ICT to connect their classrooms. Their shared Wikispace page has included information created by John Paul College students about traditional Australian and Indigenous cuisine. A student cultural trip to Thailand has been planned for 2015.

Manor Lakes P-12 College, VIC

Partner school:

Sapphawitthayakhom School, Mae Sot

Manor Lakes P-12 College and Sapphawitthayakhom School have connected in a variety of ways, using Edmodo, Google Hangouts and email as well as the shared Wikispace.

Students have created short digital stories using tellagami published on Edmodo to introduce themselves to each other. Year 8 students also shared information about their local environments and in particular the multiculturalism of both countries. Mae Sot is located on the Thai-Burmese borders. There are a number of ethnic groups in the region. Similarly, Manor Lakes is quite diverse with a predominantly ESL student population and a high proportion of refugee families.