Dive Brief:

• Jill Armstrong, a 12th-grade world history teacher at Greenup County High School in rural Kentucky, is using video technology to connect her students to teenagers in the City School in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and the Emrawah Secondary School for Girls in Ramtha, Jordan.
• The project, part of nonprofit Global Nomads Group's efforts to help foster collaboration between a million students across 60 countries, equips Armstrong to use email, Google Hangouts and Skype to work with her Pakistani and Jordanian counterparts, according to District Administration. 
• Over the course of up to 12 weeks, students in all three classrooms present ideas for solving a given problem at community gatherings, including school board meetings.

Dive Insight:

Projects like the one facilitated by Global Nomads Group for Armstrong's rural classroom highlight one of the primary benefits of having more technology in classrooms. Students are no longer sequestered to their part of the world now that they have the ability to easily communicate with peers around the world in real-time.

As schools and districts are increasingly under pressure to prepare students for college and career, this kind of experience is invaluable as it acclimates students to working together with people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. For rural students in particular, it can alleviate isolation from a variety of opportunities and provide cultural exchange experiences that may otherwise be inaccessible.