Bilingual Cultural Exchange

The Bilingual Cultural Exchange program (BCE) connects classrooms with XO's with college and high school students who are from a different part of the world. The goal is to promote (as the name of the project suggests) a bilingual cultural exchange in the form of emails about each individual's respective communities.

Vision

Part of what is exciting about giving children laptops is the fact that it gives them a new type of access, access to different tools, and access to different information. What we would like to do is give children access to different people. Many children grow up with a very centralized understanding of what is their community. It includes the people they see, and the places they go, and has a relatively small radius. When a child receives an XO he or she is given an opportunity to participate in a much larger global community. As part of this participation BCE partners college and high school students with classrooms using XO computers. The older students act as an International Big Sib. The students then engage in an international conversation in the two native languages. They share pictures of their homes and communities and learn about different cultures though the exchange.

How can You get involved

If you are a high school or college student, please go to the International Big Sib page and follow the instructions there.

If you are a teacher or student in a classroom with XO's, please either get directly in touch with a student on the International Big Sib page, or contact me directly at user:femslade.

Current Work

There are some students signed up on the International Big Sib page, and Elise from Borderless Educations is in the process of getting them connected with classrooms in Peru.

If you have any problems please contact me at user:femslade