Issues In Global Education - Global Connections

Global Connections

Issue No. 148, 1998

Introduction
by Andrew F. Smith

For some students, the world is a distant, abstract concept. For others it is confusing and filled with threat. For most students the world is peopled with colorful natives inhabiting exotic places.

Activity 1
Your Community
and the World

The students’ local community has vast linkages to the world. However, students (and other residents) are often unaware of these linkages and fail to recognize how much they are influenced by and are dependent upon foreign countries.

Activity 2
Historic Parallels

Comparing nations or world areas is difficult; more challenging still when comparing highly technologically-developed nations like the United States with nations that have not as yet achieved equal levels of wealth or technology.

Activity 3
The Global Economy

One of the services that banks perform in today’s global economy is to facilitate international monetary transfers. These often involve currency exchange. This activity focuses on foreign currency exchange in the global economy.

Activity 4
The World in Your Closet

The growing importance of international trade in our economy is reflected in the origins of many of the everyday items we buy and consume, such as clothing. For example, most firms that produce jeans, a distinctly American product, now manufacture their product outside the U.S.

Resources for Understanding Global Connections

Alger, Chadwick, Perceiving, Understanding and Coping with World Relations in Everyday Life. New York: The American Forum for Global Education, 1993.