Learning Resources
Out of Eden Learn Project To Expand to 70,000 Students
With
the help of a new commitment from the
Clinton
Global Initiative, the Out
of Eden Learn (OOEL) project will be able to
expand beyond the 10,000 students around the world already involved.
Since
2013, journalist Paul Salopek has been on a
walking journey tracking the migratory paths of the earliest humans
from
Ethiopia to Tierra del Fuego, Chile. The
Abundance Project and Harvard Graduate
School of Education's Project Zero have created an
online platform that allows
students to follow Salopek's path, interact with other students around
the
world and conduct activities relevant to lessons he creates for them.
With
the commitment from the Clinton Global
Initiative, the OOEL project will be able to increase access to the
platform
for more non-English speakers, enable a low-bandwidth option for
students in
areas with scant resources, create an online discussion forum for
participants
and develop public art installations to explore themes of the walk.
New
lessons are available on the platform every
two weeks that students and their teachers can use to learn about other
parts
of the world. Assignments include interacting with other students in
other
parts of the world as well as activities that involve, for instance,
creating
maps of students' neighborhoods and sharing them, via the platform,
with other
students.
"Students
are invited to slow down, look
carefully at the world, exchange stories with other young people, and
reflect
on how our individual lives connect to bigger human stories," Salopek
said.
With
the commitment from the Clinton initiative,
the project is expected to expand to 70,000 students and 3,500 teachers
in 50
countries.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.