Because I am linked to Global 10, I have over the years touched on Global Literacy. However, I am weak in Global Literacy, and cannot envision myself EVER "switching fluently between local and global perspectives." As Megan said, I would have to consider baby steps to be successes.
Last year, I had what I thought was a great idea for the students to advise President Obama on issues around the world as part of an "advisory team" of bloggers. Each team chose (from a list) two diverse countries in the same part of the world (e.g., China/Japan or Israel/Syria). The plan was for each group to research topics of interest to their part of the world, and report the perspectives of their two countries. I intended for them to read many articles from each country and "advise" the President through their blogs. They would be learning all about their countries and world issues, plus working on effective writing. I had hoped to have a "summit" at the end of the year, where students would "meet with the President" to discuss a current topic from the view of each country.
As is often the case, the plan turned out to need considerably more background than I planned on, and we never got past the initial stages. We spent a lot of time working on the basic information about the countries (type of government, geography, leaders' names, etc.) and never got to the meatier stuff. It wasn't as engaging as I had envisioned, and I felt I spent too much time on it for limited benefit. I did not try it again this year, but now I am feeling guilty for giving up!
If I do it again, I will use a resource Mrs. Olson shared with me, newspapermap.com, which has links to newspapers all over the world. (Even if I don't do the Presidential Advisory Blog, I will be using this resource.)
Even though that lesson did not turn out the way that you had pictured, it sounds like the students where exposed to global literacy as they learned about the countries. Like many things that we have talked about with technology, it would be interesting to see if all of that foundational background work would be required, or take as much time, if global literacy was a more regular part of a student's learning throughout their time in school.
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