In a bustling library hall of Sinj-huang Junior High School, Taipei county, a Taiwanese teacher enthusiastically explains the geographical features of Taiwan to a group consisting of several Taiwanese and Vietnamese and a Thai student.

 "The highest peak in my country is Jade Mountain," the teacher says.The Vietnamese teacher thinks for a while before she gives the name of the highest mountain in Vietnam, which is Fansipan."Doi Inthanon is the highest mountain in Thailand," the Thai student says in turn. The rest of the group practised pronouncing the mountain's name a couple of times.

Taiwan ExpoAt the end of last month, the British Council, in collaboration with Taiwan's Ministry of Education, organised the Connecting Classrooms: International Education Expo (Expo) in Taipei.

The five-day event engaged nearly 450 students, teachers and policymakers from Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK and Vietnam. About 25 were teachers and students from six provinces in Thailand - Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Lop Buri, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Sukhothai and Surin.

The Expo was the culmination of months of online communication and activities that encouraged students and teachers from multiple countries to exchange ideas and to plan learning activities using the internet with participating schools ("the programme"). The Connecting Classrooms programme is designed to encourage the participants to think and interact globally.

The Expo included activities for participants and local schools, including exhibitions by students, conferences and workshops for teachers, and meetings and seminars for policymakers on how to develop an international curriculum.

Attendees at the Expo networked with their counterparts and peers from other countries. A key component of the Expo was the ability of international participants to strengthen their over-the-internet collaborations by meeting face to face.

Integrating cultures Thitimon Ruengcharas, a Mathayom 3 (Grade 9) student from Sainampeung School, Bangkok, says that it was the first time she has had an opportunity to interact with foreign students in an international environment.

As an avid tourist, Thitimon says: "When I travel to other countries, I definitely learn a bit of the local culture, but I never have a chance to talk with the local people. Mostly, I go with a tour agency and everyone speaks Thai throughout the trip, and so I never get a chance to practise my English."

"However, on this particular trip, I can really interact with people from many countries and also exchange cultures with local people. It's a lot more than just sightseeing," she says.On the second day, at Sinjhuang Junior High School, participants learned how to do calligraphy, how to create handicrafts from paper and beads and how to design and construct a solar-powered toy car.

Excursions Groups of students and teachers took excursions to six locations throughout Taiwan that were organised according to themes, such as tomorrow's world, sports and health, science and invention, global citizenship, and others.

Local schools in the area hosted the participants and invited them to perform theme-related activities outside the classroom, including cultural excursions."Our students learn how to communicate with people and express themselves, and how to introduce their own culture to others while learning about other people's culture," says Chen Haw Ran, principal of Jheng De Junior High School, one of the host schools.

Internet connectivityUsing a British Council dedicated web portal, students are encouraged to post comments on various topics, such as their respective cultures, foods and climate change.

The idea is that students from different countries should also post their comments in response and keep the interactive and inter-cultural dialogue going. A teacher website allows teachers to collaborate, plan curricula and activities together with their foreign counterparts.

"Before students can exchange their cultures with of other nationalities, they need to have some insight into their own culture. For example, students might never have had an interest in the traditions of their own communities, but after being given a task on their own culture, they have to pay more attention," says Benjalug Namfa, PhD, director of the Bureau of Academic Affairs and Educational Standards, Office of the Basic Education Commission, within Thailand's Ministry of Education. Dr Benjalug has given warm support to the programme since its inauguration in Thailand in 2008.

Each school set up its own activities and methods to promote the goals of the programme. Some schools and student work groups that had worked together for several months prior to the Expo had their own dedicated web page, which allowed them to communicate more efficiently.

Sawat Chantalay, a teacher at Yupparaj Wittayalai School in Chiang Mai province, explains that her school has an elective course called "Global Citizenship". The class uses the Connecting Classrooms module as a tool to encourage students to interact with students from other countries.

"The project really urges students to see the importance of themselves in relation to the global society," says Mrs Sawat, adding that the Cross-country Loy Kratong Festival, which was organised by 10 schools using the Connecting Classrooms approach in Chiang Mai, was one of the most successful.

Lai Chia Lin, an English teacher at Jheng De Junior High School (JDJ) in Taipei county, explained that students attend a British Council Connecting Classrooms club for two hours every Saturday.

Enhancements Currently, there are over 750 schools and 20,000 students in the UK and East Asia collaborating with each other. "In terms of embedding the programme and the activities in schools and communications with the schools in the UK and in East Asia, we've been more than pleased with the outcomes," says David Mathias, East Asia Regional School projects manager at the British Council.

"But we still have a lot of work to do to improve communications. For example, some countries with rigid curricula don't understand what we are trying to accomplish. We can probably achieve this through teacher and principal training that shows how an international dimension can be integrated into even a very rigid curriculum, because there is an aspect of every subject that connects to the world," he says.

During a teachers' conference at the Expo, students posted their requests to the policymakers: allot more time for practising Connecting Classrooms activities; embed more international content in the curricula, such as international news; and increase funding.

Thitimon and others echoed that there should be more than the seven countries participating. "That would tremendously widen my perspective," she says.Moving forward .It was also suggested by participants at the Expo that the International School Award (ISA) be given to schools that successfully integrate an international dimension into their curricula.

Currently, there are 64 schools in Thailand practising the Connecting Classrooms concept and the director wishes to use the idea in other schools to foster global citizenship awareness.

"In developing our schools, first, we would like to move them towards global standards; second, we wish to encourage the use of more ICT in the classrooms. Using ICT in this programme aids in student learning," Dr Benjalug comments.

"The best part of being [in Taiwan] is that we can meet our counterparts face to face and can learn what other schools are doing," says Mrs Sawat, adding that she has already made contact with teachers from Taiwan and Vietnam who are expected to collaborate with her on projects in the future.

Thitimon says, "I also want Thailand to host this event in the future so that people from other countries can learn about Thai culture," adding that she is ready to serve as a tour guide."I think that I've already become a global citizen, because I have learned the cultures of several countries and I understand the differences of the people of each country," she says.

In the future, when participants in a discussion group at Sinjhuang Junior High School are asked to name several significant mountains, instead of naming only mountains in Taiwan, they might say: Mount Everest in Nepal, Doi Inthanon in Thailand, Jade in Taiwan and Fansipan in Vietnam. Such examples of global thinking contributes to global citizenry