So today a colleague asked me, “How could you use Kiva in the classroom?”

I have been involved with Kiva for a couple years now, volunteering to translate budding entrepreneur loans from Spanish to English so multitudes of Kiva users can make loans. Over the last 12 months I have volunteered as a Team Leader, serving as a point of contact for a team of volunteer translators.  So in brainstorming how Kiva could be used in the classroom, the following ideas came to mind!

• lending groups – students can form groups, fundraise locally, and support entrepreneurs abroad
• volunteer translating – although the translating would be from the target language to English when you are a native English speaker, translating would be a way to connect to the global community, perform community service, and it is an interesting way to learn localized vocabulary while providing a service
• use the pictures as writing prompts
• use the pictures for cultural visuals
• capture several loan photos and descriptions – mix and match pictures and narrative descriptions of loans
• read the loan and hypothesize as to what the photo reflect or create a visual to accompany the description
• view the photo and hypothesize what the lender is seeking funding for
• compare loans for the same service/product across countries – compare cost, loan use, etc.
• analyze the loans – discover the trends by country, gender, loan category, etc.
• look at group loans vs individual loans – compare use, gender, group size, country, within and between group demographics
• read the loan journals at http://www.kiva.org/journals – “follow-ups” are posted regarding some of the loans – so students could read the loan as well as the follow-up posting to track the loan
• Kiva Fellows blog postings – http://fellowsblog.kiva.org – are interesting because they almost always deal with cultural issues that can lead to rich, comparative discussions
• Kiva Fellows have a YouTube channel – http://www.youtube.com/user/kivafellows#p/a/u/0/WZTwiUmDEl8 – access authentic video rich in cultural content
• use Google maps to geotag the loans
• compare the loan percentage rates across sectors, countries, microlending organizations; calculate the total amount to be repaid
• Kiva app gallery – http://www.kiva.org/apps – will also have tools to help do some of the above tasks
• Kiva in the classroom – http://www.kiva.org/do-more/classroom – is Kiva’s webpage to help educators think about integrating Kiva
• KivaFriends – http://www.kivafriends.org – is a community (not associated with Kiva) of avid Kiva fans who are also a rich resource of information

Kiva launched some advanced search options which make it easier to do some of the above ideas.

Kiva has much to offer – consider how you can use Kiva to help your students connect to the world!