 Congratulations on your achievements throughout the EDUCOLS massive open online course. You have accomplished a lot and now you are ready to complete the last leg of your journey. I'm Shelly Sanchez-Tarrell and I will provide you some insights into the key ideas of Unit 5. By the end of this unit, you will have evaluated different global class projects and coordinated with peers to set up a student collaboration project. Many of our students use social networks and digital devices connect with peers in other cities and countries. But this doesn't mean they understand how to do this well with an open mind or respectfully. Teachers need to create opportunities for students to meet and learn with peers from other countries. The most popular way teachers connect their students with other classes is through video conferencing. Through video conferencing, students are able to communicate in real time synchronously. They can see each other on the video and observe different environments and styles. They also get to ask questions and introduce each other to their schools and communities. This requires both teachers to coordinate ahead of time to find a time and date that works for both classes. Another way teachers connect their classes is through blogging. Blogging is asynchronous communication and allows students to virtually learn from each other without having to find a place that works for both classes. This provides teachers with the opportunity to connect with classes anywhere in the world. Teachers who already have their students blogging will connect with another class of student bloggers. Each class will read the other class blogs and leave comments with insights and follow up questions. Global collaboration meetups and projects expose students to different cultures and customs. At first, these differences will seem strange and unfamiliar and challenge students perspectives, beliefs and opinions. As the communication exchanges continue, students will find common interests, likes and topics to form bonds. Students will also learn how to tolerate and respect different types of thinking, lifestyles, fashion, education, accents, religions and beliefs. These are important traits students need to develop as they mature and make decisions about the world. Teachers also need to support students in developing the skills needed to collaborate and problem-solvely appears worldwide because many of our students will work on global teams online as part of their profession. Students will need to develop skills for effective teamwork. These skills include knowing how to be a team player, be flexible, manage conflict, communicate effectively and meet project deadlines. When working on a global team, students will also need to know how to be culturally sensitive, deal with cultural misunderstandings, coordinate real-time meetings with members on different time zones and be able to communicate effectively and respectfully when faced with different accents and forms of English. To help our students develop these skills, we need to go beyond students meeting up with peers from other countries and set up a global collaboration project. Students need real-world experience collaborating and problem-solving with peers worldwide. This way, students learn how to deal with these issues with their teachers as their guides. Participating in the Education Goals Move has helped you develop the skills to communicate and collaborate with peers worldwide and you can pass on this knowledge to your students. You understand the difficulties you first had when beginning this course and with each unit you have discovered better ways to communicate and collaborate with your peers to accomplish tasks. This invaluable experience will help you guide your students. Students will also need experience in using web tools, apps to effectively collaborate, communicate and problem-solve with peers synchronously and asynchronously. Many companies require employees to use messaging apps and the cloud to work on documents, spreadsheets, presentations and other digital content. Many companies use platforms which allow all team members to share, store and edit the same files asynchronously and synchronously. The files and content are saved to the platform servers which is called the cloud. Teachers can design collaborative projects that get students to use free web tools and apps that support collaboration in the cloud. Congratulations on all your hard work and accomplishments throughout the Education Goals massive open online course. We hope you have achieved many instructional goals and are ready to inspire students to accomplish their own learning goals. We are excited to read your reflections in your portfolios about your learning journey throughout this course and the goals you have achieved to transform your instructional practice. We are also looking forward to exploring the student collaboration project you and your peers have designed.