Virtual Learning Exchanges

Connecting with others through the Internet

Essential to a TVS Education are multinational online learning exchanges. Through these mediums, we are able to connect entire grades and classes with people from different cultures via blogs, live conversations, and recorded video exchanges. Since the Global Education Program began in the summer of 2011, students in the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools have used these technologies to learn together about a variety of topics with students from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, Greenland, Hungary, Indonesia, Japan, Mauritania, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, & Turkey, and we are always seeking new connections with new schools.

• Kindergarteners Video-chat live annually and often do letter and book exchanges every spring with children in England to share their cultures;
• First graders video-chatted live with kids in Hawaii to learn about school-life and life in the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Second graders have exchanged videos and blogged about school and life with students in South Korea, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia & most recently they did book exchanges and live video chats with students in England;
• Third graders blogged with students in Indonesia and video-chatted online with students in England and Canada;
• Fourth graders exchanged videos with students practicing their English at an after-school program in Taiwan and an elementary school in Japan and Skyped with students in Scotland;
• Fifth graders blogged with students in Denmark to learn about major holidays and share their cultures, culminating in a live online chat with the entire grade at both schools;
• Sixth graders blogged with students in Greenland; made Epals in 10 different countries; and--annually--exchange videos about school life and our culture with Japanese students;
• Fifth and sixth graders practiced their Spanish online with students in Spain and Skyped and exchanged videos about local animals with students in Scotland;
• Seventh graders used video exchanges to learn about Mexico-Texas relations around the time of Texas' independence with students in Mexico and they shared school cultures with students in Germany and Denmark; 
• Eighth graders annually blog with students in Scotland (topics have included poetry, issues of discrimination, immigration, Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, and cultural similarities and differences);
• Ninth graders did a Q&A blog with TVS alumni who were Peace Corps Volunteers in Burkina Faso and Zambia and live video-chatted and blogged with Dutch students to learn about each other's schools and daily lives and more recently they carried out a online chat for several months that ended with a live conversation with students at a school in Switzerland;
• Upper School Spanish II students practiced their Spanish skills (written, spoken, and listening) with students in Spain online;
• Upper School French students shared audio files to practice listening and speaking skills with student in France;
• Other Upper School students Skyped with the U.S. Ambassador to Mauritania (a TVS alumnus); debated various topics with students in Mexico via Skype; made an English language video for Danish students; Skyped and blogged with students in the Netherlands; blogged about or exchanged videos about topics such as the environment, chemistry, poetry, religion, leadership, early European exploration/imperialism, and Catholic-Protestant conflicts in 1960s Northern Ireland with students in Argentina, Mexico, Hungary, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Sweden.

We are always looking for new connections to bring students and teachers from around the world together through virtual academic and social exchanges. Please contact Dr. Roemer if you would like to join us. All K-12 students and teachers are invited!

Global friendships start here.