One World Project

The One World Project

Contacts

Management Board, One World Foundation

Richard Rowland rich@oneworldproject.org

Participating WA Catholic Schools

Teresa (Terri) VanZetten, St Mary's College, Broome vanzetten.teresa@cathednet.wa.edu.au

Claire Kelly, St Joseph's School, Wyndham kelly.claire@cathednet.wa.edu.au

Claire Barret-Lennard, St Joseph's Busselton barretlennard.claire@cathednet.wa.edu.au

Paula Joyce, St Dominic's School, Innaloo joyce.paula@cathednet.wa.edu.au

Madeleine Maloney, Luurnpa Catholic School, Balgo Hills maloney.madeleine@cathednet.wa.edu.au

Michael Rebeiro, Santa Maria College, Attadale rebeiro.michael@cathednet.wa.edu.au

Kathy Dawson, Head of Middle SchoolKearnan College, Manjimup dawson.kathy@cathednet.wa.edu.au

• ABOUT THE PROJECT
  
  The aim of the project is simple: to find out more about the different peoples, cultures and landscapes that are part of our world. To do this two teachers will set out on a journey around the world, modern day explorers. But, unlike explorers in days of old, these teachers will be able, via their unique interactive web site, to share, almost immediately, their discoveries with the rest of the world.

  
  Over this period the teacher explorers will spend time living among communities and civilisations in every country in the world and, by doing so, try to understand how these people live, the culture that is a part of their lives and the influences either natural or man-made which have contributed to, or stemmed from, that way of life. Every day these teachers will update their web site, meet up weekly with their followers through a chat facility and show pictures from wherever they are. TV and radio programmes and newspaper articles will, in time, complement the site. But there will be no vast entourage of researchers, cameramen and sound recordists; just 2 people making their own way around the world, backed by a support team and providing an experiential and immediate learning process to those who track their progress.

  
  The concept will allow the audience (our students and teachers) not only to share in the learning experience but also to gather information from a real and immediate factual source. The purpose of the project is not only to teach about other cultures but also to show how we can learn from these cultures by living among them and understanding how these people exist.

  
  The project will start in early 2005 with a journey through Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. In the following year the journey will take them to the Far East, tracing the ancestors of these people who first populated Oceania. Following this, in 2006, the 500th anniversary of the death of Christopher Columbus, the journey will take our explorers across the Atlantic to places where Spanish and Portuguese explorers first reached some 500 years ago.

  
  It was Proust who said that "the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes". The aim of the project is to raise the awareness, particularly among young people, of the lifestyles, habits, environment and culture of people around the world and begin to create links, which allow them to communicate with each other worldwide. It will investigate the lives, education, work, fears and hopes of ordinary people in all countries, allowing them to contribute to the findings. It will make gaining knowledge enjoyable and remove the feeling that all learning has to be structured and taught. Learning is not only about being taught. Learning is about asking why and having the chance to find the answers. The Project will provide some of these answers but also pose tantalising questions for the audience to find out more.

  
  Furthermore a part of the site will be created by young people across the world. With the lead taken by schools in both Poland and Australia, these young people will contribute to the picture of everyday life around the world and, at the same time, forge personal links, which may be carried through, into adult life.

  
  So, learning and gaining knowledge from the project can take several forms. You can simply follow a personal journey of two people and learn with them. You can read the information that will appear about each country as they visit it; information covering the country's past, its heritage and its physical attributes. Or you can see the world through the eyes of young people by joining in the special section created by schools and young people all over the world. It is in the development of cultural understanding that brings about a greater acceptance of different life styles.

  
  The One World project aims to bring the lives of ordinary people closer together, providing a greater understanding of our world and explore how we got to where we are today.

  
  Peter Carey, Catholic Education Office of WA carey.peter@cathednet.wa.edu.au