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During the twelve months of the C3 World Teacher Professional Development Project, participating teachers have gained experience and developed diversity expertise for implementing international education curricular collaborations in their classroom teaching and learning.  Additionally, their experiences are also generating further interest for involvement in international education by colleagues in their schools, across their districts and at the state level.

In summary, C3 World Teachers have gained international education experience and expertise with:

1. Opportunities for teacher professional development in international education:

a. using the Internet to connect with teaching colleagues around the world

b. meeting face-to-face with global colleagues through participation in the iEARN International Teachers Conference

c. taking iEARN online courses, and

d. having a local collaborative community of teachers across a diversity of schools in their district with whom they can develop their expertise and support one anotherís teaching

2. Opportunities for their students to learn in collaboration with global peers around the world through technology in ways that not only support but also significantly enhance student learning in social studies, science, literacy, world languages
   
The C3 World Project teachers understand how active involvement in a network of teachers worldwide transforms their educational practice and purposes for education. They understand that their classroom becomes a dynamic place of learning for students, families, community and teachers through connections to the world. The C3 World Project teachers are actively communicating and teaching with worldwide colleagues with a commitment to connecting their students globally.  This commitment and global collaboration comes from experiencing and knowing first hand that:

a. when students learn with global peers using technology, they are motivated to work hard on skills and curricular concepts so that they can actively participate in iEARN project collaborations, and

b. students understand the importance of learning in school when they are given the opportunity to make a difference in their world locally and globally with the knowledge and communication they experience in collaboration with global peers 

At each of these 11 schools, there are now teachers who understand whatís possible in international education with new technologies. They know an internet and human relationship pathway for bringing their classrooms to the world and the world to their classrooms.

The experiences of these teachers are setting an example for their school communities. Increasingly, their teaching colleagues are asking about bringing international education with technology into their classrooms. Their principals, who have been following and supporting their C3 World teacher professional development, can now build on the experiences of these teachers to lead school-wide involvement in global curricular collaboration with technology.

School and district education technologists have now had experience in supporting teachersí uses of internet technologies to connect schools globally. Prior to the C3 World Project, teachers were primarily using only email in local, regional or national communication and accessing websites for information, not as a tool for interactive collaboration.  Now C3 World teachers are using email to collaborate with their colleagues worldwide.  The C3 teachers understand how classrooms, schools, and countries globally are using interactive websites, digital images, video and videoconferencing as tools for todayís teaching and learning.  Their C3 World project classroom teaching experiences are providing an example for school colleagues, principals, district technology leaders, parents and school communities on how international education with technology makes a difference in student learning.

As the C3 World teachers continue to share their experiences at school faculty meetings, district meetings, school wide events and state conferences such as the Coalition Summit and the Social Studies conference, they are generating interest in having international teaching and learning with technology become opportunities for all teachers and students.

The C3 World Project has demonstrated how teaching and learning in the classrooms can become transformed for todayís world.  As teachers and students connected their school work to the school work of teachers and students globally, they realized how they can be active participants in building understandings across continents and cultures. School no longer was business as usual ñ school became a place where learning takes place in the world of today and is preparation for the world of tomorrow.

V. Acknowledgements

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