Global Citizenship Resources to Support Schools in 2023

Making sense of the complexities and troubling nature of current affairs is hard enough for us adults, but what do our students make of it all? With so much news coming from the likes of Snapchat, Instagram, or even TikTok, who knows what rabbit holes they’re falling down!

And yet, if nothing else, education is about understanding the world beyond the school gates, affirming the significant role global citizenship has to play in combatting misinformation.

Thankfully, there’s a plethora of global citizenship solutions to support effective teaching of contemporary issues in the classroom. Let’s take a look at EdTech that provides a solid foundation to begin your own discussion, analysis, and processing of any contemporary situation, whether it’s global conflict, climate change, or pandemics.

Explaining Breaking News

First News iHub supports students’ engagement with global citizenship topics by implementing interactive activities involving main news stories around the world. The Bett award-winning iHub is an invaluable news and literacy platform focused on Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils that targets the development of core literacy skills and an understanding of global issues.

The online teaching tool is comprised of interactive weekly comprehensions, vocabulary puzzles, polls, and debates based on stories in First News. Activities are tailored to each pupil based on the reading level you assign them, giving them a personalised platform to grow their skills in the most applicable way.

Educators using First News will learn that teaching global issues in the classroom to students is possible (and can be made fun!).

First News iHub | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

Teaching Global Citizenship

SIMA Classroom is designed as a fast track to global citizenship education and social emotional learning. The online streaming platform harnesses the power of visual storytelling in service of 21st Century Education. 

Teachers and students can access a carefully curated collection of over 180 award-winning short documentaries and VR experiences sourced from over 140 countries around the globe, along with global citizenship teaching resources and global citizenship lesson plans that take students on a journey from empathy and critical thinking to action.

As one user explains, “As an English teacher, I use SIMA films to develop my students’ language skills, and also to start class discussion and motivate learners to become change agents.”

SIMA Classroom | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

“Comment is free, but facts are sacred.”

So goes the quotation by the now legendary Manchester Guardian editor CP Scott.

And for global citizenship resources rooted in trusted ethical and qualitative benchmarks, look no further than Britannica Schools. Updated daily by a team of 100 editors and spanning a range of media, including video, images, and audio content for all learning styles, the platform offers a wealth of knowledge.

It’s also aligned to the national curriculum for England, Scottish Standards, IB, and US Common Core. As well as rights-cleared content, they have also collaborated with trusted partners to deliver academic journals, primary source materials, and a collection of the internet’s most reliable websites.

Check out 55 reviews and 13 case studies here. 

Britannica School | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

An Introduction to Global Citizenship Through History

Conflict doesn’t just happen. Tensions bubble up over time. History classes will no doubt be teaching current affairs – such as the situation in Ukraine – through the prism of past conflicts. After all, the study of History helps explain things; it also offers some much-needed perspective on contemporary issues.

There are a range of EdTech solutions out there offering potted guides, as well as more in-depth studies. 

60 Second Histories, for example, contains hundreds of short film clips packed with key information. Their key strength is in their name. They provide pithy lesson openers to get discussion going. They also provide lesson plans, interactive quizzes, activities, and a safe ad-free platform to share films with students for home learning. 

You’ll find a good selection of their sample videos on YouTube.

60 Second Histories | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

If all that whets the appetite, Educake is also worth a try. As well as history, the award-winning online assessment and revision platform caters for English, Maths, Science, Geography, and Computer Science. It is best known for automatic marking and analytics that save teachers time. 

You’ll find 37 reviews and 6 case studies here. 

Educake | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

And here you can find 46 more history products featuring descriptions and reviews.

Best History Resources 2023 | Reviews & Comparison

Connecting Globally Across Continents

“Learn about the world with the world”

Global citizenship and technology go hand-in-hand when facing an educational context. After all, digital connectivity and communication are vital aspects of processing, understanding, and interpreting current affairs for students.

This is why educators are getting very excited about Belouga. Their strapline – “learn about the world with the world” – says it all. This digital platform enables teachers and students to connect, communicate and collaborate with their peers locally and globally. And it’s easy to home in on relevant topics, from “Food around the world” to “The human condition”. 

The platform is driven by interactive content that allows students to learn about the world with the world. Belouga uses an internal methodology known as CLAI (Curiosity, Learning, Action, Impact) to provide students and teachers with a wealth of real-world learning initiatives, sourced from global organizations and customized to their educational goals and curiosity. Follow-up action items then allow them to put their learnings to work in their own communities to create impact. 

Belouga | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

“Where learning meets the world”

Also adopting the global outlook, Encounter Edu, “where learning meets the world”, has made it its mission to provide a world-class global citizenship education for young people.

The platform features live broadcast lessons with experts and extreme locations, ranging from the awe-inspiring depths of the Arctic to vital local fieldwork. Teacher resources provide fully resourced lessons and units aligned to UK and US standards, and the multimedia section contains a host of videos, galleries, and interactive diagrams from projects and expeditions around the world.

Encounter Edu supports global citizenship lesson plans through bitesize chunks or fully-integrated programmes.

Encounter Edu | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

The incredible benefits of global collaboration are multi-fold. Belouga and Encounter Edu are exceptional resources for bringing these benefits to life.

Bringing Global Immersion Into Your Classroom

Lyfta is an award-winning teaching resource that demonstrates the enormous potential of combining global citizenship and technology within the classroom. The platform is made up of interactive 360° spaces and soundscapes of real homes, workplaces, and environments from around the world known as “storyworlds”. Students are invited to explore, unlock rich media content, and get to know real people through powerful and inspiring short films. 

Lyfta is ideal for broadening students’ horizons and teaching a range of subjects, skills and values and the UN SDGs. The 160+ ready-made lesson and assembly plans integrated into the platform cover a range of vital themes such as sustainability, wellbeing, human diversity, and compassion, and are ideal for nurturing skills and values such as empathy, resilience, and critical thinking.

Read 57 reviews of Lyfta here. 

Lyfta | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

Other Global Citizenship Resources

The EdTech industry is filled with global citizenship solutions to explore. Here are more amazing platforms to check out:

Rockerbox News, aimed at younger learners aged 8 – 13, allows learners to create individual profiles, and access fun and bite-sized non-fiction articles that have been curated according to their interests. It’s most impactful when used in short, sharp bursts, integrating into (rather than disrupting) daily routines. 

Rockerbox News | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

Aimed at a similar age group, Q-files is a kind of “Children’s Wikipedia”, but created, checked, and regularly updated by Q-files’ expert team of writers and academic consultants. It contains about 2000 pages, more than 2 million words, and tens of thousands of images. 

Students aged between 7 and 14 will find it fantastically useful for learning about ALL subjects, including history, geography, and science.

Q-files.com | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

Digital Archive Resources for Schools Brochure offers an embarrassment of riches, opening up access to over 1.3 million pages. Access the unique digital archives of the world’s leading illustrated magazines, including The Graphic, The Bystander, The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, The Illustrated War News, The Sketch, Britannia and Eve, The Sphere, The Tatler, and London Life.

Digital Archive Resources for Schools Brochure | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

And if you’re looking for superior video content…

MASSOLIT provides short, curriculum-mapped video lectures for GCSE and A Level. There are more than 3,000 lectures from world-leading academics across six subjects. Over the last twelve months, videos on MASSOLIT have been watched more than two million times by teachers and students from more than 350 schools in the UK and overseas.

MASSOLIT | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

Academy4SC prides itself on providing an accessible interdisciplinary civics education for all, with videos on the fundamental skills for becoming effective civic leaders: psychology, rhetoric, logic, reasoning, and economics. Academy4SC takes content from these disciplines and shows students how that knowledge can be used effectively in their daily lives.

Academy 4SC | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

And Boclips for Teachers has over 1 million high-quality videos and an array of standards-aligned resources. It’s perfect for educators hoping to enrich their lessons with video safely and affordably – in school or at home.

Boclips for Teachers | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

And, of course, you’ll be aware of ClickView. Now used in over 5,000 schools and colleges, the leading education video content resource has been around since 2003. It’s older than YouTube! ClickView ensures an ad-free experience and far less time lost to trawling substandard content. It’s also really easy to create your own video library and interactive question layers for formative assessment.

ClickView | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

If your pupils would like more of a voice, they may be interested that…

VotesforSchools provides weekly resources for teachers to support discussion on a challenging topical issue and the opportunity for children to vote and comment on a key question. With their permission, VotesforSchools then makes the data and comments public, hugely raising the profile of Student Voice. 

Influential people and organisations respond to the children so that they know they have been heard. Sample questions have included: Does the modern world make it harder for diseases to spread? Do young people know the signs of an abusive relationship? Should all toilets be gender neutral? Is being a bystander still bullying? Can sharing stories prevent extremism? Would you like to be a politician?

Along with working closely with government departments, VotesforSchools has also partnered with organisations such as UNICEF UK, The Counter Terrorism Police, the Place2B, Anti-bullying Alliance, Children’s Bureau, Youth Justice Board, Metropolitan police, The Times and Sunday Times, and Sky news.

VotesforSchools | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

And finally…

SOUK Ed is a bespoke learning E-portal that contains Shout Out UK’s award-winning Media Literacy and Political Literacy courses. There are three versions available: teacher, parent, or individual. 

Of particular relevance today are the Political Literacy courses for KS3, KS4 and KS5, as well as a Media Literacy Course teaching young people how to critically engage with the media.

The free version includes access to some Media Literacy resources and other materials. The paid version gives full access to all their courses and the innovative “student union” function that helps schools set up a student union, create polls, and carry out other democratic processes.

SOUK Ed E-portal | Reviews 2023: Features, Price, Alternatives

Closing thoughts

In today’s digital world, the widespread availability of information transcends age boundaries. Our young learners are both aware of, and engaging with, global issues.

As a teacher, therefore, providing guide is crucial. Empower your students to think critically about contemporary affairs by taking the initiative and incorporating important global citizenship resources into your teaching.

EdTech Impact aims to meet school buyer needs by connecting them with the world’s leading EdTech companies. Additionally, we set industry standards through our quality framework, and offer regular news content to assist school leaders in making informed decisions about their purchases.

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