Hello from a snowy England! Schools closed and transportation non-existent! Despite the weather and the travel disruption I have been out and about and had the opportunity to meet with Henry Warren who runs a not for profit educational charity called Gemin-i. Amongst the tools and applications which Gemin-i offer, on a global basis, is an online community called Rafi.ki.

Rafi.ki enables schools, from across the world, to work with each other simply and effectively. It brings teachers and pupils from a diverse range of countries together, and enables them to find partner schools around the world. It covers all areas of the curriculum, offers a wide range of projects as well as the opportunity for teachers and pupils to discuss a range of real life and cultural issues,

During the recent BETT show the Rafi.ki team undertook a series of live video conferencing sessions with learners from UK schools discussing, amongst other things, Fair Trade with learners in Ghana, French language with learners from Morocco and an all girls school from Kurdistan talking about their history and culture. This really demonstrated the power and effectiveness of the community.

Rafi.ki has facilities that enable teachers and pupils to do instant messaging, video and audio conferencing, email as well as being able to post on forums and write blogs. The great thing about Rafi.ki is that it is free to any school outside the UK. So well worth checking it out!

Currently Rafi.ki has more than 900 school members from across 94 countries who are collaborating on cross curricular projects. So it is providing a truly global, secure, online learning world.