Launched in the summer of 2002 as the BRIDGE Program (Building Respect through Internet Dialogue and Global Education), Global Connections & Exchange (GCE) is focused on building links between students and teachers from countries with significant Muslim populations. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, US State Department has supported the program since the beginning. In the last six years, iEARN has built a GCE community of over 1,000 schools with nearly 16,000 students involved in collaborative thematic online project activities and exchange partnerships. Through GCE, iEARN has provided online and face-to-face professional development programs for educators, conducted a series of international conferences for teachers, provided an online space for students to participate in collaborative social action projects, and supported three-week exchanges.
Countries currently participating in GCE include: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Syria, UAE, the United States, and Uzbekistan. Teachers and students from Algeria, Bangladesh, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Yemen have been part of GCE funding in past years and continue to participate in the iEARN network.
