Empower Your Students to Become Informed Global Citizens with My World: Global Curriculum

Today, there are as many news outlets as there are opinions about these outlets and their “agendas.” As the media plays an ever-increasing role in forming our worldview, media literacy is becoming an even more important skill for the next generation of leaders, creators, innovators, and citizens. That’s why Infobase is proud to partner with BBC Learning to provide educators and their students with My World Global Curriculum, a suite of current events, news videos, viewing guides, and prompts produced for classrooms by BBC Learning, along with episodes produced by the BBC World Service and executive producer Angelina Jolie.

Produced for classrooms by BBC Learning, based on the series from BBC World Service and executive producer Angelina Jolie, My World: Global Curriculum explores timely issues that impact young people today. Averaging twenty-minutes in length, each student-friendly global news program consists of a suite of current events, news videos, viewing guides, and prompts to help build media literacy skills that students will draw on throughout their lives when faced with challenging issues, spirited discussions, and diverse perspectives.

Topics Are Drawn from Today’s Headlines from Around the World

Like a traditional consumer news program, each long-form episode includes a variety of current themes and topics pulled directly from local, national, and global headlines that are impacting young people today, including student activism, climate change, human rights, youth perseverance, global connections, youth empowerment, and social media. The long-form episodes are ideal for use when educators have a full classroom period to spend on the material. 

Educators looking to explore multiple videos around a single theme, such as youth activism, climate change, or religious freedom, can turn to our shorter three-to-five minute topic-based segments. These shorter segments allow users to access all of the relevant segments in a particular category or use one or multiple segments of their choosing tied to that topic. 

Embedded Prompts Facilitate Engagement

Whether you are using the long-form episodes or the shorter, topic-based segments, a unique feature included in ALL of the My World Global Curriculum, videos is the embedded video prompts that allow educators to pause along the way, check for understanding, engage students in a variety of discussion questions, ask students to analyze how the content “could” be viewed from different perspectives, and encourage healthy and respectful debate among their peers. Given the diverse range of themes and topics in each full episode, educators can learn about what issues matter most to their students and use the cues and discussion questions in the guide to deepen exploration, either as a full class or through small-group work. 

In addition, the modular format is compatible with both in-classroom or remote learning to teach students about the importance of being a responsible and thoughtful global citizen. 

Get Two New Episodes a Week—for FREE!

Each episode (which, like a news program, encompasses a variety of topics) includes embedded video prompts, a standards-aligned viewing and discussion guide, and worksheets. 

Episode 1: Youth Activism 

Includes a historical and contemporary examination of youth activism, global calls for gender equality, professional journalist standards on reporting protests, an interview with Olympic-bound skateboarder Sky Brown, and an exploration of the vital role trees play in reducing Earth’s carbon emissions and global temperature.

Episode 2: Deadly Wildfires and Resilient Lives 

Features a look at the causes and global impact of wildfires in Australia, an interview with WWE wrestler Roman Reigns, a brief history of space science and the possibility of life beyond our galaxy, an examination of deep fakes, and how an Indonesian teenager with severe physical challenges remains positive and empathetic.

Episode 3: Youth Perseverance Around the World 

Includes a look at education in Afghanistan, a country that has been in a state of war since the 1970s; an innovative sci-fi movie company run by Nigerian teenagers; how journalists can responsibly use citizen reporters’ social media videos; lifting the curtain on the “hermit kingdom,” North Korea; and children in Palau fighting to preserve their country’s natural beauty.

Episode 4: Boxed In and Thinking Outside the Box 

Features a close examination of the lives children in prisons and immigration detentions across the globe, a comparison of social media and traditional journalist outlets, an interview with Olympic champion Simone Biles, the difficulties of enacting and enforcing cigarette bans, and one teen’s mission to provide women with affordable, accessible menstrual products.

Episode 5: Amazon Special—Can the Amazon Survive? 

Presents a special investigation into the threats facing the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Changes in government policy have led to an alarming trend of forest fires, with an unprecedented increase in 2019. BBC My World journalist Nomia Iqbal travels through Brazil to investigate the impact of the fires, visiting both indigenous youth and ranching families, and asks the clear question: “Can the Amazon survive?”

Episode 6: From Journalists to Kobe Bryant 

Questions whether exams are the best way to test students; investigates the large-scale detention of Uighur Muslims by the Chinese government, and how journalists uncovered the truth behind the arrest and detainment of one million Uighurs in Xinjiang; and explores the global influence of Kobe Bryant and the impact that his death had on global youth.

Episode 7: Youth Empowerment for the Future 

Examines whether the voting age should be lowered, how journalists determine whether information comes from trusted sources, the experience of two Syrian refugees who rap about their lives, why biodiversity matters, efforts to destigmatize mental health in Nigeria and New Zealand, and innovations by futurists to respond to the problems of tomorrow.

Episode 8: Women: The Fights to Lead and the Struggle to Live 

Investigates the violence women face in Brazil, and the legacy of murdered Brazilian leader Marielle Franco; how news organizations can avoid spreading misinformation; Fadumo Dayib’s path from refugee camp to Somali presidential candidate; a global snapshot of women in politics; and China’s “left behind children,” growing up far from their parents working in urban centers.

Episode 9: TikTok: Its Popularity and Concerns 

Features the growing popularity of eSports; the critical role of oceans and the population of great whales as a defense against climate change; an interview with Pakistani actress Mehwish Hayat; youth protest in Russia and its citizens’ relationship with Vladimir Putin; a tour of Harare, Zimbabwe, led by an entrepreneurial teenager; and the explosive growth of TikTok and potential user privacy concerns.

Episode 10: Coronavirus Special 

The series culminates with a special episode about COVID-19, showcasing issues and topics surrounding the virus as the world understood them in late March 2020. These include the experiences of teens in lockdown, coping with feelings of anxiety, a scientific explanation of a virus, how vaccines work and how they are developed, tips to wash hands and phones effectively, and inspiring moments from early lockdowns around the world.

Enhance Your Classroom Viewing Experience with Learn360 and Classroom Video On Demand

The complete My World: Global Curriculum series—along with 191,000+ additional media assets, including 3,000+ videos from BBC—is part of Learn360, the premier streaming media platform for schools and districts, and our award-winning Classroom Video On Demand.

With your Learn360 or Classroom Video On Demand subscription, you will have access to all of the My World: Global Curriculum segments, PLUS these additional features:

• Thousands of titles across all subjects and grades
• From Learn360: A variety of multimedia content (not just videos), including interactive STEM lessons, worksheets, and much more
• Embed quizzes right into the videos
• Pre-made segments, closed-captioning, and interactive transcripts
• Share to Google Classroom and other LMSs and easily add content to lesson plans
• Add your own video intro to any playlist—add a recording of yourself speaking directly to your students to point out what’s important in the playlist, give context, and more!
• Search by educational standards including Common Core, state, national, and more
• Add your own video content and Web channels
• Dynamic citations
• And much more!

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For a limited time, we are offering instant trial access to Learn360, Classroom Video On Demand, and other selected cross-curricular resources—check it out today!

See also:

• Infobase’ Instructional Strategies Toolkit: Effective Teaching Strategies and Resources to Help You Better Engage Your Students
• Digital Learning Ideas for Your Elementary or Middle School Classroom
• Hundreds of PBS Titles Added to Our K–12 Streaming Video Resources