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On March 20, 2015, over 400 students from five high schools across Canada, in partnership with the Centre for Global Citizenship Education, The Centre for Global Education and TakingITGlobal, came together to collaborate, through the use of technology, in a Virtual Town Hall to discuss the youth’s vision for Global Citizenship Education. From Alberta to Ontario, downtown Toronto to Yellowknife, the youth of Canada exchanged ideas, debated alternatives, and ultimately created a document that represents their voice on the relationship Canadians should have with the rest of the world. The Virtual Town Hall, an “archetype of grassroots democracy,” (Senator Grant Mitchell) was the culmination of over a month of online teamwork, 2000 hours of student collaboration, over 100 hours of teacher facilitation, and the passion of over 1000 youth to engage in a national conversation and have their voices heard.

In the month prior to the Virtual Town Hall, student leaders, systematically chosen from each school to represent Canada’s diverse geographic and demographic population, met on a weekly basis to exchange ideas, work with and listen to experts, and create a common framework. Concurrently, the students were trained to use an arsenal of Web 2.0 tools (YouTube, Twitter, cell phone voting, Google Docs, H.323 Video Conference, discussion boards, blogs, etc.) to collaborate, build consensus, and create community regardless of time or location.

Equipped with this knowledge and empowered through online technology, the student leaders facilitated a full-day virtual town hall. In the morning, 400 youth peers engaged in a dialogue with local and international experts. Following this session, the youth participated in breakout groups to address three critical questions:

1. What are our obligations as global citizens? What are the rights and responsibilities that we have?

2. To what extent can well-intentioned global citizenship initiatives reinforce or resist power inequities?

3. What types of policies/practices will enable/facilitate global citizenship?

The National Youth White Paper on Global Citizenship, written collaboratively by Canadian students, is the direct result of this full-day, interactive event. The evolution of the document involved equipping leaders with knowledge and technology, having those leaders facilitate a larger conversation among their peers, taking the data generated to their community at large for feedback and direction, and then synthesizing the results in the student white paper. It represents the voices of over one thousand youth, introduced to the complexities of global citizenship education, unified through the power of 21st century technology, and sharing a passion to contribute to the dialogue taking place on the future of Canada and its relationship to the rest of the world.