Sharing the Dream Webcast Series
Students and teachers in BC, across Canada and around the world are invited to join us on November 12, 2008, for the first Sharing the Dream interactive webcast, featuring 2008 Olympic gold medalist Carol Huynh. Born in the small community of Hazelton, BC, Carol is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees who emigrated to Canada in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Carol’s inspirational story speaks to the multicultural nature of Canadian society, as well as the Olympic values of excellence and universality. The web address for the webcast hosting site and additional details will be released shortly on www.sharingthedream.gov.bc.ca. The Sharing the Dream webcast series will consist of 6 student‐led webcast interviews related to the components of the Vancouver 2010 Education Program: Culture, Sustainability, Sports and Healthy Living, Olympism and Paralympism, as well as the overarching theme of global citizenship. The webcast series is being produced by the British Columbia Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the British Columbia Education Leadership Council (BCELC), TakingITGlobal and VANOC. The goal of each webcast is not only to inform students about a topic, but also to give them ideas and strategies about how they can take action in their communities on these topics. In keeping with the goals of the Olympic Movement, the intention is to give students the ability to contribute to building a peaceful and better world and to make a difference in their communities. The ministry is working with the British Columbia Education Leadership Council and its youth leadership group to set up and deliver the webcasts, which will be spread over the 2008‐2009 and 2009‐2010 school years. Each webcast will be held in a BC secondary school and senior students will take part in producing the webcasts. The youth leadership group will help select themes and guests for each upcoming webcast. The interviews are studio‐based and set up as one‐way webcasts, with the possibility for viewers to e‐mail questions to the guest speaker. The webcasts will be archived and available for teachers and students to access at any time to allow for re‐ viewing and to accommodate viewers who cannot view the live webcast due to time zone differences or school scheduling. A program guide will offer a number of suggested curriculum‐linked lessons, activities and assignments to be used before and after the webcasts. Each webcast will end with a number of open‐ended questions for reflection and discussion. Following each webcast, students will be able to discuss and organize activities on the TakingITGlobal website (www.takingitglobal.com) through a theme‐based online discussion forum. The benefit of the TakingITGlobal platform is that allows students from Canada to connect with students from around the world in a safe, online forum and truly promote the idea of global citizenship.