The global reach of this community offers unprecedented personalised learning opportunities for students.

Rafi.ki is our latest and greatest venture. It's a not-for-profit online community designed just for schools. It uses cutting edge, yet simple to use technology funded by the DfES, DfID and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation to enable schools to work with each other simply and effectively across the world.

Rafi.ki provides a series of structured, cross-curricula projects that cover areas such as Slavery, Climate Change, Slavery, Conflict Prevention, Recycling, Modern Foreign Languages, Creative Writing and much more. Each project comes complete with lesson plans, expansion activities and additional resources such as videos, pictures and sound clips. Many projects also involve celebrity interviews where pupils can pose questions direct to prominent people. In 2006 alone there were 46 such hotseats ranging from Jay-Jay Okocha and Richard E Grant through to Cherie Blair and the Director General of the BBC.

In some projects there are also opportunities to meet politicians and express your classes views on particular topics. In 2005 pupils from Kenya, Malawi and England got the opportunity to present in person at the G8 Summit in Scotland. Others raised their concerns at a meeting at 10 Downing Street.

Rafi.ki contains a built in communications centre which allows for a number of different methods of asynchronous and synchronous communication. Each of which can be switched on and off depending on the needs of the school. Features contained within the communications centre include:

1. Instant messaging – this is a tool for synchronous (real-time) communication which users can use to find and communicate with other users online
2. Video conferencing – a tool which can be used for video conferencing using a PC and a basic web camera and microphone
3. Audio conferencing – a conferencing tool which can be used where video is not available
4. Email – internal, secure email system which can be used for asynchronous communication between users
5. Forums – online discussion forums which can be created by teachers to discuss work and other issues
6. Blogs – a drag and drop design tool which pupils can use to create media-rich and engaging web-logs and other web-pages

All of the above features are contained within a secure community and messages, posts and communication are mediated and contributed to by trained project facilitators.

Rafi.ki can be used for project based learning, providing an international dimension to all aspects of the curriculum. It is truly interactive, adding an extra dimension to the classroom. In our experience students are more engaged when there is a real audience with whom they can share their work, and as a result often achieve higher levels of learning. Using Rafi.ki, students are able to gather evidence from and share information with other students across the globe. Rafi.ki can be used for:

1. Sharing experiences, ideas and information between teachers
2. Learning about other cultures, values and beliefs around the world through interaction with peers in UK and abroad
3. Increasing motivation of students
4. Meeting curriculum targets in all subjects
5. Adding an international dimension across the curriculum

For more go to www.rafi.ki