Posted June 2008 Students travel the globe online with Wally the Wombat
		Lee Rossow Smart Classrooms Mentor South Coast Region From venturing into sub zero conditions in icy Antarctica to braving the wild on an African safari, Queensland students were able to share in Wally the Wombat’s recent world trip adventures through a Learning Place project room.

The Around the World in Six Days project saw travel buddy Wally trek to each continent over six days to learn more about the lifestyles and cultures of other nations and share his experiences with students online.

The event included a competition where, through a series of problem-solving online chats and blog-entry quizzes, students attempted to work out Wally's next destination and the exciting things he had seen along the way.

Smart Classrooms Mentor from the South Coast Region Lee Rossow says the project room was designed to help students find out more about world geography in a fun learning environment.

'Rather than have students work with atlases and copy down information about different continents and countries, I wanted to provide them with a fun and engaging experience that enabled them to learn the same information,' he says.

Lee chose to use chats and blogs to enable students to interact in a real time sense with Wally and his travel partner, asking questions to deepen their understandings of different culture and countries.

Students were able to reflect on each others comments and ideas and develop new understandings and knowledge of what it's like to live and travel in other countries.

Around 300 students from across the state participated in the event.

Tapiwa Mabukwa, a student from winning school Balmoral State High School, enjoyed learning about world geography through Wally’s blog.

"I really enjoyed participating in this competition and in the process I have learnt many things." he says.

Smart Classrooms Mentor from Fitzroy-Central West Queensland Region and Gladstone Central State School teacher, Margaret-Mary Opstelten, was also impressed with the project.

"This is the first time Gladstone Central has been actively involved in chats and an online competition.  The students' interest in learning about countries through Wally's travels helped their teachers to see the value of such a project," Ms Opstelten says.