The Conference for Educators and Students to Change Your Life
Monday, November 09, 2009
Last year, we had our first Flat Classroom conference in Doha, Qatar during which the students invented global collaborative projects that they believed would improve a social issue. Out of that conference, the students invented and voted the Eracism Project as their winner, a project to hold weekly debates around creating an understanding of race and culture. The first week into Eracism, I'll say the student vision was amazing and as teachers we are so excited about what we see with the potential for "simulated sychronous" environments to bridge gaps.
Now, Julie Lindsay and I are working diligently on the next Flat Classroom Conference, which we are calling a "mini-conference" because it is being held as part of ASB Unplugged in Mumbai India this upcoming February. We are bringing the same project based learning environment along with incorporating adult educators - not as "teachers" but as co-participants and equals in the process of not only understanding technology but in improving the world at large.
Students will again be assigned a diverse group of students (last year in a group of four each student was from a different country) to use leading social technology tools to design the future of how students can use these tools to improve our world. Most likely we will be settling on an environmental theme this year and will let you know in the upcoming month.
But the bottom line is this - we are making sure that you know that this conference in Mumbai is here for those who want their students and teachers to improve and change the world. Through partnership with ASB Unplugged, we've worked to make 50 student scholarships available for housing and attending the conference and although the scholarships are first issued to students from schools who have participated in a Flat Classroom project (Flat Classroom, Digiteen, Horizon, NetGenEd, and Eracism see http://www.flatclassroomproject.org for information on these projects.) we are opening up applications from any school.
If you want to view what happened last year in Doha Qatar, take a look at the powerful documentary about the conference. We also are talking to some sponsors at this time not only for February 2010 but also for February 2011, which is at a location that will be announced soon. We are talking to companies who believe in harnessing the power of social media and the engagement of students from around the world to improve our world through global collaboration in education. We have tough problems to solve and it is important to engage our students in working together towards improving our world!
Julie and I are completely passionate and dedicated to making participation in our projects and conferences as affordable as possible and thus far have not charged one dime to participate in any of our projects and have scholarshiped students to these conferences with them only having to raise airfare and incidentals, but we are at the point that it just cannot be done alone. We need your help!
So, spread the word - we're looking for at least 20 more students and their teachers to come to this amazing conference (most schools send about 4 students and 1-2 teachers) and also for sponsors who believe in this vision or who just want to understand how a PBL conference integrated educators and students into a meaningful, life changing experience is done.
How can you help?
Share this with your school and ask them to get involved in this grassroots movement to connect students in powerful, global ways.
Share the conference information - http://flatclassroomconference.wikispaces.com
Consider attending ASB Unplugged or our Flat Classroom Conference Strand as an educator
Tweet information out.
Look for information about virtual participation.
Consider donating to help some at a local school pay for airfare. (Contact your local school directly as we are not taking donations at this time through us.)
We simply would not be doing these things without YOU. My gratitude extends to you and all of those who have supported Flat Classroom projects with their time, volunteer efforts, and wisdom. This sort of open-collaobration represents where we are heading and our minds and hearts are simply spinning with the huge demand and desire to bring this to so many schools.
Thank you again for sharing this with those who are interested. Here are the important links:
The American School of Bombay and ASB Unplugged are proud to be the host of the Flat Classroom Workshop (and mini-Conference), February 24-27, 2010 in Mumbai, India. Flat Classroom Projects have joined with ASB Unplugged, a conference organized in collaboration with the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation, the Near East/ South Asia Center of Overseas Schools (NESA), and the Laptop Institute. The Flat Classroom Workshop Strand will include a unique, project based learning approach allowing participants to use cutting edge technology tools AND interactions with educators on the leadership strand to redefine learning while involving students in the process.
Co-founders of the Flat Classroom Project, Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay, have joined forces with colleagues and supporters from around the world to provide another opportunity for a face-to-face, real-time gathering. The aim of getting together in the one place is to fully extend and foster connections and collaborations that will ultimately improve classroom practice and pedagogical approach using technology as part of a global flat classroom. In an ever-changing world the impact of the Internet, in particular Web 2.0 tools, has been so significant it has changed the way students and teachers can interact and learn. There are opportunities for different learning relationships and for multi-modal outcomes using multimedia and online tools. The conference will provide opportunities for leaders in education, classroom teachers and administrators as well as students to learn with and from each other in a 'flat classroom' model. It is envisaged the workshop experience will culminate in actions that are then shared around the world and sustained by continued projects based on community and curriculum needs.
What is the Flat Classroom Workshop?
The aim of the workshop is to bring together geographically dispersed participants with a view to sharing ideas, using mobile computing, learning about Web 2.0 communication and collaboration tools in a flattened world, and working on a project theme that can be transplanted back into their home school. The selected theme will inspire unity and action as well as fostering continued connections after the event in Mumbai. It is envisaged this will improve global understanding and cement friendships for ongoing collaborations. It is also envisaged that this will provide an opportunity for students and teachers together to 'create the future' through exploration of a global or social issue and developing an 'action' plan to work globally to overcome this
Who Should Attend?
The workshop is aimed at Middle and High school students. It is envisioned that past and present participants in Flat Classroom Projects and previous workshops projects will be interested in coming as well as classrooms who are wanting to have a 'Flat Classroom' experience and take the ideals and skills back to their own schools. Each participating school is encouraged to register up to 4 students, and if interested, 2 teachers. Workshop teams will be made up of participants from different schools and countries.
What will you do?
An essential element of the workshop is to join students (and teachers) together in a constructivist learning environment, and by using 'flat classroom' tools, work through a project-based, action-oriented learning workshop. Skill development in Web 2.0 and multimedia tools along with enhanced cultural understanding and digital citizenship support the pedagogical approach to collaborative learning in a digital world. The skills and tools will provide the scaffolding for developing ideas and putting into place actions that could make a difference to the world. We invite you to browse the recent Flat Classroom Workshop in Hong Kong wiki to see what we did there. All conferences and workshops connect via the Flat Classroom Conference Ning
Flat Classroom Conference
Flat Classroom Conference, held in Qatar, January 2009, brought more than 150 education leaders, teachers and students together to Qatar to envision the future of education. Students and teachers from very diverse backgrounds such as Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United States, China, Australia, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Ethiopia, South Africa, and beyond came to the Leadership Workshop and Student Summit. The student videos and reflections on the conference Ning show the positive affect that the conference had on reducing stereotypes, not only of the Middle East, but of one another. This conference was not a lecture-based conference but primarily a project-based conference using the latest in educational research in project based learning to rework how content is delivered in a conference format. Using small teams, group presentations, and multiple interactions between students and educators, a rich, interactive environment evolved. Multimedia was a focus, with students exploring topics and creating rich presentations. Many presenters, educators, and students have expressed their favorable opinion in their post-conference reflections of the need to deploy this method of improving education on a global basis.
What is the Flat Classroom Project?
Info from the ABOUT wiki found at http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/About The Flat Classroom project is a ground breaking, internationally recognized project which combines hundreds of students from various cultures, countries, and backgrounds into a meaningful collaborative writing and digital storytelling project to study the trends in information technology. After the initial project won multiple international awards and was included in Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat v.3, it has been remixed into 11 different projects following the same model. These projects have joined together almost 2,000 students from more than 20 countries and is widely considered a best-practice for as a holistic and constructivist educational approach that creates students who are competitive and globally minded. The project was co-founded by Vicki Davis http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/ (Westwood Schools, USA) and Julie Lindsay http://123elearning.blogspot.com/ (Beijing (BISS) International School) in 2006 when they were located literally around the world from one another. This project uses a wide variety of Web 2.0 tools including wikis, educational (social) networks, cross-timezone calendaring, collaborative digital storytelling and publishing to "flatten" or lower the classroom walls to join two or more classes virtually to become one large classroom.
A little more about the projects:
The current projects cover the following topics:
Flat Classroom Project - The topics studied and discussed are real-world scenarios based on 'The World is Flat' by Thomas Friedman. Students collaborate on a wiki then produce an individual multimedia piece in response to their topic. A clip in this piece is 'outsourced' to a team member in another classroom, so not only do students study the flatteners as discussed by Friedman, they use them in the project.
As a sister to the Flat Classroom Project the Horizon Project, as mentioned in Don Tapscott's recent book, Grown Up Digital now renamed as the Net Generation Education project and run in collaboration with Tapscott himself, also lowers or 'flattens' the classroom walls by emphasizing connection, communication, collaboration and creativity as well as higher-order thinking skills and problem solving. This project is based on the Horizon Report released annually by New Media Consortium and the Educause Learning Initiate that outlines 6 trends they believe will be impacting college and university campuses within the next five years.
A further imitative recently is the Digiteen Project which has linked classrooms of middle school students from Australia, Canada, USA, Spain and Qatar with the aim of promoting better online citizenship through research and discussion and culminates in each school taking action within their own community to promote this.
In 2009, the Digiteen and NetGenEd projects are adding a virtual component in OpenSim and have gridizenship added as a component of digital citizenship in their work. In addition the new project 'Eracism' will provide an opportunity for global debate around he need to 'erase racism'.
Registration Details
Our aim is to encourage participants from around the world to attend the Flat Classroom Workshop and wish to support this by providing accommodation and most expenses for students, including meals and sight-seeing, while in Mumbai in the form of a 'scholarship'. Students and teachers who have been past or current participants in the Flat Classroom Project or at recent Flat Classroom Workshops will be given priority however we strongly encourage all interested applicants.
Interested applicants are requested to complete this online form to register and to be considered for scholarship benefits. Application deadline has been extended. Successful applicants will be notified by November, 2009
This phenomenal special interest group of ISTE has a great quarterly newsletter which is really the best of innovative learning in all of education. On pages 15-17 there are three pages of an article from two of my students and I about teaching in a virtual world including my "quick tricks for teaching in a virtual world." Print this, share it, and learn - so many great things in this newsletter!
Will be speaking in Arkansas on February 17th at their TICAL conference. I'm so excited! This is information if you are in the area so that you may plan to attend. If you do, please plan to say "hi" - it really means a lot to meet the people from cyberworld, I guess it makes it all more "real."
Important article to read about children of all ages creating profiles. I believe this supports our driving need to incorporate instruction and discussion on this topic in schools.
Office gossip (this study on an elementary school and their gossip against a principal) hurts EVERYONE including your school and in this case, test scores declined. Remember that when you gossip, you also hurt yourself and if you didn't already know this, take a read here about office gossip and how to intervene and stop it.
Get some Java and Spend some Time with Jane in Java
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Educators who share and really understand the transformative power of teaching and connecting are inspirations! They can be halfway across the world and their energy and zest for living and learning can be felt like the sun lights planet earth.
So, a big shout of Thank you to my friend Julie Lindsay for finding Jane Ross (a/k/a Jane in Java) in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Maybe what some people need here in the USA (and other countries who have rested on their laurels for so long) is to spend a little time with a cup 'o Java with Jane in Java to CAFFEINATE their desire to progress and move ahead.
Listen to this article
Permalink:
This is an example of how I used Diigo to create an annotated link to give feedback on a wiki on Flat Classroom. I love using Diigo for giving wiki feedback because I can mark up the page. I like ot share them through groups that are private with my students and I and the annotated link feature is one of the best ways to do this.
"There is not research but as more and more teachers start using Twitter in a variety of classroom projects, it seems the practice will be the only empirical foundation to let children get away with their multitasking and huge capacity to use social media tools like Twitter."
I don't know where Milton has his facts about teachers using twitter in a lot of classroom projects, but I don't see it. I see teachers using it to connect and create projects - USUALLY it is the teacher tweeting something out to get a response. I see a very very small few teachers like me using Twitter to allow their students to connect to experts in their field and each other as well as to understand online leadership and Web 2.0 networking. (I am the exception except for the profs doing this at the college level.) But as for wide uses of Twitter in the classroom - where is it? We connect each other but is it in the lesson plans... I don't think so. The stereotyping of students here and that somehow "letting students get away with multitasking" I find insulting to the teachers I know who use Web 2 in the classroom. It is so not about "letting them get away" with something but more about getting learning into their brains.
Here is my response.
Just one thought here. To me, yes, there is something to be said ABOUT The tools but to point to the tool itself as needing research, to me is quite missing the point.
It is HOW the tool is used. For example, a hammer is quite useful and essential for building a house but if I use it to hammer in all of the screws the house will fall down.
Just as blogs and wikis are being seen as tools that can be used, the question here is NOT about twitter but the underlying technology of microblogging. If you look at Edmodo and Youth Voices and how they are using microblogging, it is quite useful.
Using ticket to leave in the classroom is one of the best researched tools out there (asking students to answer a critical question before leaving class.) If this practice is done on paper or tweeted should be irrelevant - it is the practice that counts.
Twitter is certainly NOT appropriate in many cases but it DOES, however, network the teachers to help us put together projects and things in the classroom for the students. There are cases where it CAN be used with some older students but really, an Edmodo or other microblogging site like Plurk may be better suited in some instances.
This is SOOOO not about Twitter and it shouldn't be. When researchers researched search engines did it focus around Google or around search engines?
Microblogging is the underlying trend and if it is something to be used in the classroom, the appropriate site should be selected based upon the PURPOSE of what they are doing, the local legal and school policies for safety and the specific objective of what they are trying to teach.
Twitter is 140 characters for goodness sakes it is good for something but certainly is only a small subset of what we use the Internet for.
I had a really good teacher one time who I recall saying. "I will do whatever it takes to teach, even if it includes dancing on my desk." If it makes sense to me and it is a tool I can use, I'm going to use it and I hope that researchers are wise enough not to get trapped into thinking a company IS a technology it represents.
Google has rocked,but now a third of my students prefer Bing. Second Life was cool but now OpenSim and ReactionGrid are where we have gone.
It is about how we use the tools! I'd like to pull out a quote that I left on the article from edweek where a commenter had said that the world "is becoming STUPID" about the fact that anyone would use Twitter in the classroom for anything.
"I use twitter for my classes all of the time and my students even use twitter. It is very useful. For example, if they are reading an author who is living, they can follow the author and ask questions and even get a response. Or, when we are using Reactiongrid and we have a question, the students can tweet the founders directly. Like anything it can have good or bad uses - distractions and also positives.
Twitter like all of these other items is just a conduit and certainly as we know about conduits they pretty much are a channel for whatever the humans put into them - whether a piece of PVC pipe carries the chocolate in a chocolate fountain or raw sewage - it isn't about the pipe but about how the pipe is USED. It is the same thing with Twitter, Facebook or any other tool: it is all in the use.
Some people, like James here, think it is dumb to use Twitter in this way - well he just uses his conduit differently but truly there are as many uses for twitter as there are for the telephone!"
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