The Simón Bolívar United World College was opened in 1986 by the Prince of Wales and eminent agriculturalist Dr Luis Marcano Coello.

Situated at the base of the Venezuelan Andes, the 676 hectare farm is home to students mainly from the Caribbean and Latin America and is one of the few UWC colleges that does not follow the IB, as it has a vocational focus.

The aim is to equip its students with the skills they will need to turn their farming communities in their home countries into profitable, self-reliant enterprises with an emphasis on conserving natural resources. A major tenet at the college is “learning by doing,” and the students spend two thirds of their time doing practical work on the college’s farm.

They are currently facing a very difficult situation and we ask you to consider helping.

What is happening?

Due to various political changes in Venezuela, the future of this college is under threat. Funding has dried up and the land they operate the college on is being appropriated by the government.

Full details are available on the College’s website

Why is it urgent?

If the government takes the college’s 676 hectares of land, the college would be unable to operate its educational program.

In addition, the Venezuelan government had contributed almost 40% of the college’s annual income. A further 30% came from a government Multilateral Cooperation Agency agreement for students from Caribbean countries. Although the government has on a number of occasions given assurances about the resumption of its funding, those assurances have come to nothing and the college has had to cope with a 70% fall in its annual income. Furthermore, a change of law in 2010 means that the college is no longer able to rely on those commitments from the private sector that have enabled the college to survive in the intervening years.

How will a tweet help?

The FUNDACEA board believes that at this point it has only one option: to appeal directly to President Hugo Chavez. Our experience in Venezuela tells us that the most effective way of doing this will be to mobilise the UWC movement to bring the matter to his attention. We therefore invite you to join us in sending President Chavez a message via twitter @chavezcandanga.

If as many people as possible in the UWC movement bring Simón Bolívar UWC of Agriculture to his attention to request his URGENT help, we may succeed in removing the threat to the college. This is our last hope. President Chavez knows the SB UWC of Agriculture and on two occasions in the past he has spoken, including once publicly, in favour of the college and its mission. Your help now could make him aware of the widespread international support for the college.

What to tweet?

If you want to help, please send the following tweet:

@ChavezCandanga AYÚDENOS, instituto @SBUWC internacional de agricultura Barinas está en peligro #SOSFUNDACEA

The essence of the tweet is:

@chavezcandanga El Instituto SBUWC International of Agriculture in Barinas is under threat. Now only you can save this unique college

Remember that tweets cannot contain more than 140 characters and this is why we ask that you send it in this form, the name in the tweet is how SBUWC is known to President Chavez.

The college’s Twitter account is: http://twitter.com/UWC_IO

You can also find them on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/uwcio

When you think about what it is to be an IB student, volunteering your time to make things happen is one of the characteristics that comes to mind. A few months ago, we received an email from Peter Bryan, an IB student, who volunteered his time to develop the IB’s first public iPhone app. It remains to be seen if Peter’s app will make the world a better place, but as you can download the IB app for free from iTunes, it certainly can’t hurt! We think he’s done a great job and he says he will continue to make improvements when he has time. We’d love to hear what you think could be added in the future.

I sent Peter a few questions to answer, check them out below:

IB: How old are you? Were/Are you an IB student?

My name is Peter Bryan and I am currently a senior at George C. Marshall High School. I am 17 years old. I am an IB student and am pursuing the full diploma at my high school in Vienna, VA.

IB: What are your thoughts about the IB?

I think that the IB is a wonderful opportunity and that the courses produce well-rounded individuals that are prepared for careers in the real world. The classes teach students to be internationally-minded and I believe that the creativity and open-mindedness of the program have greatly enhanced my learning experience. I apply much of what I have learned and continue to learn in the IB when I code and throughout my life.

IB: Why did you develop the app?

I developed this iOS application as a community service project. I was not compensated for the production of the application and it is available for free download. I thought that I could use my talent in this area in order to help other students. Out of an appreciation for the program, I developed the application hoping that it would take away some of the anxiety that students may feel approaching the IB coursework for the first time.

IB: What do you have planned for the future?

I would like to continue expanding my understanding of programming in the future. Particularly interested in mobile application production, I plan to continue my education next year in college. I would like to develop more iOS applications in the future and am currently learning more about Android development.

IB: How can we keep in touch with you?

I can be contacted on Google +

Thanks for your time Peter, and we look forward to seeing where the future takes you!

iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users can download the IB app for free from iTunes.

The IB learner profile is “a set of ideals that can inspire, motivate and focus the work of schools and teachers”…but more succinctly, it represents our mission statement in action.

If you haven’t already acquainted yourself with the detail of what that means, why not visit the Learner profile page on the IB website and find out now?

We hope you find these videos useful, both in explaining what it means to be part of delivering or partaking in the International Baccalaureate’s programmes of education,  and in sharing the values that keep this organisation focused on its mission.

View all language versions on IBtv or visit the Learner profile page on the IB website.

To share these videos, view our instructions on How to embed and share IBtv videos.

For the past few months I’ve been heavily involved in the development of IB Answers

This project took a holistic view of the support offered by the IB not just to coordinators, but to parents, students and everyone else who makes up the IB community. This is breakthrough stuff for the IB and a genuine attempt to improve the way we communicate with, and offer support to, all the people who help make IB such a uniquely collaborative organisation.

For me, as the manager of the online media channels, it was enlightening to be able to review the full breadth and variety of questions that are responded to by our helpdesks around the world. It raised common themes and problems that we can now seek to resolve in a way that is far more informed that we’ve ever been before.

The first phase of the IB Answers project has delivered an online knowledge base and contact centre that enables you to create a support account that gives you more control over your enquiry. For anyone who has emailed the Web Team in the past, I’m sure you will see this as an improvement!

The future plans for IB Answers include the imminent launch of French and Spanish language versions, and the roll-out of more support, more of the time.

We’re tackling the challenge of  information overload head on, and we hope you like some of the results. There’s far more to come, including social network  integration with Twitter and Facebook in the very near future.

A little free something that you might like if you are working in an IB school or just a fan of the IB in general.

Visit the Firefox personas site to install it with a click.

If you haven’t already, make sure you join the IB Linkedin group – it’s now public and open to all. We also have a number of sub-groups that are moderated and require registration – great places to connect with others working in the IB community.

We will be writing up some of our thoughts about Linkedin and how it can help connect the IB community in the next few days. Stay tuned!

This is a guest post from Zein Odeh, English Junior School Coordinator and Grade 2 English Teacher at The Toronto French School. Just so you know, views represented are Zein’s own and do not represent those of the IB, nor do they represent any endorsement from the IB.

Zein reviews the way she uses a website called GoGoNews. They describe themselves as follows:

“GoGo scours the headlines so you don’t have to. GoGo filters the news so you don’t have to. GoGo publishes age appropriate stories that are funny and fascinating. GoGo features facts and figures and covers stories on science, art, government, politics, geography and much much more!”

Read more to see how GoGoNews might complement your own teaching, and let us know how you think this can be used in the classroom in connection with IB sites like the IB Virtual Community or Global Engage.

If you would like to submit your own review or case study, please contact us!

How do we teach students to become citizens of the world?

PYP teachers teach students to become citizens of the world. We need to prepare our students for life in a global community, for jobs that don’t exist today, and for problems we know nothing about yet.

All aspects of an IB education intend to achieve this goal. As a PYP educator, I have often been challenged as to how to expose my younger students to the world beyond their classroom, community or country in a relevant and interesting manner.

Last year I found a website called GoGoNews, essentially, a kid’s newspaper. I have tried different activities prior to introducing “GoGo” (as my students like to refer to it) in my classroom – most recently, I had my students bring in newspaper clippings on a topic they found interesting and we would conduct roundtable conversations as a class. All too often however, students brought in pictures of places ravaged by earthquake, riots or war. Coupled with the disturbing images was text well beyond their reading level. I would find myself standing alone in front of some twenty-two students trying to explain the devastation of the Haiti earthquakes in a sensitive manner, while at the same time, trying to think of appropriate questions to guide our classroom discussions.

I find that GoGoNews is written in a manner that is age appropriate, with language level that elementary students can comprehend and relate to.  Not only do they start to understand different subjects (environment, government, arts, history, sports) but they also get the chance to respond and post a personal comment! Yes, just like they see their parents wired up on their Blackberries, posting on Twitter and Facebook, my students eagerly write and post comments on the different articles that they read on GoGoNews. At times they even get a response from the GoGoNews editor and feel really empowered!

In my class we read GoGoNews daily. I use it as a tool to encourage my students to model different aspects of the I.B learner profile. My students have become aware of global issues and have found a vehicle to voice their questions and opinions GoGoNews can be deployed in media literacy centers, as class reading and as a core center for students to respond to questions after they have completed their work. For extra reading at home, I often ask students to pick an article and post an opinion.  We have practiced debates on some of the issues and enjoyed responding to the GoGo Language questions together as a class and in smaller work groups.

GoGoNews is inspiring my students to think globally, make connections and empathize with current dilemmas in our world They come into class and ask me: “Have you read YOUR GoGoNews?” and   ask if we can paint our roofs white to save energy, just as they did last summer in New York City!

GoGoNews is helping me achieve my goal of helping my students become more, internationally minded, actively involved, responsible citizens of the world. I have found the website fun and dynamic with no distractions. I hope that one day we will have a community of classrooms connected through GoGo discussing different points of view on the issues we face around the world – perhaps this is the beginning of a GoGo community?

Zein Odeh English Junior School Coordinator and Grade 2 English Teacher at The Toronto French School.

The ibo.org redesign has been live for a few weeks now and we’re happy with it. It looks good, we love the new Google search and the fact that the items you share on Facebook (using the ‘Share’ button at the bottom of the left-hand navigation) show up on the homepage.

Did you know we also added a script that detects if you’re using a hand-held device and optimises the layout for you? Check ibo.org on your phone and see how it looks.

We have heard of a few issues, and we have been fixing and improving things as soon as we are made aware of them. We already know that a lot of you are connecting on older browsers and behind restrictive networks, because our stats show us that. However, until you tell us we can’t be aware of everything so do get in touch.

Please also give us any feedback on the new design, including problems you are experiencing and we will do our best to remedy them immediately. For the longer term, we also want to hear your ideas about what an IB website should be doing to serve you better.

Some suggestions:

• Improved school search – search by postcode, refine school details
• Single sign-on to all IB sites
• More resources for schools, such as videos, graphics, downloads
• Other ideas?

Linkedin is a popular social networking site that assists you in creating your own personal professional network. This network typically includes the many people you work with on a day-to-day basis, but also enables you to add connections working in related fields and whom you may meet when working on projects that connect with other companies.

The Linkedin universe is one where most people choose to maintain a professional air. Whereas Facebook equates to leisure time, Linkedin is very much focused on work.

The IB recently created a group for anyone on Linkedin who has an interest in the IB. You can find the IB Linkedin group here. Feel free to join, whoever you are and whatever your interest in the IB, as long as you can abide by the group rules you’re welcome.

Remember too that Linkedin is a public, third-party website and as such it may not be the best place for certain aspects of collaboration with other teachers or for official advice and guidance. The IB’s Online Curriculum Centre (OCC) is the place for knowledge and best practice sharing between IB teachers, and the IB virtual community facilitates secure classroom to classroom interactions in a moderated environment.

EduDemic reported today on the winners of Google’s 10 to the 100 project, including the amazing Khan Academy which describes itself as ‘the free classroom for the World’.

As a ‘math-phobic’ (my own word!), I have to admit I don’t understand very much of the source material, but it’s an incredibly rich resource for anyone with an interest in the subject. The videos are simple, but well paced and engaging, relying on the skills of their creator Salman Khan rather than on graphical or musical flamboyance.

The Khan Academy is a very real indicator of the changing face of education and the ways in which technology can open up opportunities in learning to anyone with an internet connection. Couple this with the booming social aspects of the web, and who can predict what the online landscape will look like for schools and teachers in ten years time?

The IB, of course, is embracing this change and embarking on projects that seek to connect the members of the IB community in ways that contribute to our mission and values. If you’ve been involved in anything, and you’re an IB Alumni, you really should head over to their blog and tell them about it!

A few weeks ago we launched a new Facebook landing page for the IB.

It gave us a nice little boost in ‘Likes’ and new fans and as you can see from the snapshot below the upturn is fairly significant (we launched it late August and though it might not look like much on that graph, we’ve added over two thousand fans since it went live) and the trend is continuing rather than being a short-lived peak.

We have also seen an increase in referrals from Facebook to our other sites, so from a pure ‘return on investment’ perspective it was a job worth doing.

What can’t be measured so easily, is the impact a well designed landing page has on reputation and brand….but as the old saying goes, “first impressions count”!