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Change, a small word but has a huge impact but what brings change? what is that one thing you think is important to bring about change without which it would be impossible for the change to occur, was the question i came looking for here.
My journey started when I was in 6th grade and logged in the iearn website, I instantly knew there was another world out there, the world we always imagined,where peple from all over the world celebrated differences and shared their cultures, appreciated efforts and all this happened in our very own classrooms.I loved the way doing projects, with other countries became a part of the teaching syllabus.I was glad that teachers from all over the world were realising the importance of global education, because all my life I had been frustrated with my teachers and their ways of teaching.They were limited to an extremeley restricted world and wanted us to be within those boundaries too, they did not wish for us to explore the new possible ways or new ideas, which they were scared of, im not sure.
After my very first Daniel Pearl iearn project and learning a little about journalism,I became to think if change really is possible, as a young child it looked too hard. It was discouraging to see that I never saw any change around me, people were still suffering,hungry,ill and uneducated. I started thinking like the people around me saying 'nothings ever going to change around here'. I did teach students in the school, put my efforts but only half heartedly, thinking once my summer camp is going to end and their school starts they will go back to the learning habbits their teachers taught them. I didnt see anything happening, I didnt know what brought about a change or was it ever possible, if my little efforts made any difference at all and how many drops we would need to change the whole entire ocean.With so much discouragement around me i slowly and gradually started to give up.
Then something amazing happened. I got a chance to come here, the iearn conference here at Canada. This is my first iearn conference and it has changed my perspective entirely. People from all over the world, speaking different languages belonging to different cultures had gathered at one place, teachers and students like a one big classroom. I pondered over the reason for quite a few days as to why. I thought maybe its the excitement of being at a new place or it was because its free traveling for a few of us or to have a good summer break. Its not until I saw them all like one big family, coming year after year, meeting so warmly that I found my answers to be a little un-settling, not quite correct. The answer had to be a little more deeper than that. Further in the days, after the cultural night, that I realised that I knew the answer from the very beginning but just did not want to acknowledge it.It was because all these people around me cared, to bring about a change, it was the virtual iearn world come to life, people sharing their experiences and learning form each other.Now I have friends from all over the world who care and are passionate about the same issues as me. All the workshops I attended revolved around the same idea,using technology to bring people together and helping them create a change in their societies and in the result making the world a better place to live in, which helped me to think in a more positive way.
After attending the conference and creating memories of life time, I found the answer to my very first question, what is the one thing that is important to bring about a change, it is HOPE!!! If you lose hope you lose all incenitives and think only like a cynic. If you have hope all the rest follows. You can involve people in bringing about a change and your determination and faith will take you far. I hope you all had a life changing experience like me. Good luck to you all.