Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 12/29/2011
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Task Management for Teams - Asana
A website that is for teams and is free for up to 30 members in a workspace. We are looking for work flow software for Flat Classroom so this is a neat one to try out. Lifehacker mentioned it as an underhyped app of 2011 because they think it is so great. It is definitely something for those who are interested in global collaboration to test out.
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Challenge 8: Collaborate and Communicate - Flat Classrooms
Having an interesting conversation about collaboration versus cooperation. Here, Cynthia Sandler reflects on the difference:
"before this project I would have said that of course it matters, collaborative being superior to cooperative. After the project, however, I am wondering how significant the difference really is. I see that there was more discussion and perhaps critical and creative thinking within the collaborative group. They probably got a lot out of the process of this project and continued to hone their interpersonal and intrapersonal skills However, the project assignment was asking for a particular product, not grading the process, so I would say that the groups who divvied up the work did some great critical and creative thinking by deciding that that would be the most effective and efficient way to get the job done. "
My own thoughts are:
"I think this is a great point about cooperative and collaborative. Both can create great outcomes, that is sure. In this case, you're not teaching collaborative skills, so cooperative or collaborative would be fine for either, however, in Flat Classroom we do want the students to specifically know how to collaborate so we do care. Of course, the argument always comes up, "but it looks fine, you shouldn't care if we collaborate." I think the struggle is that school seems to encourage cooperation not collaboration and so they should learn it somewhere. There are certainly struggles with this."
Please feel free to share your discussions on the original Ning post. -
iCitizen Project - What does it mean to be a citizen - nationally, globally, and digitally?
A school project about what it means to be a citizen. I'm looking to see if students are actually interacting with other classrooms (which is what needs to happen) but it looks like they are using Schoology so perhaps they are. It is important to not just talk to the world or at the world but to talk WITH the world.
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Mind the Gap Year: Global Citizen Year Turns 18-Year-Olds into Future Leaders - Education - GOOD
Abby Falik was turned away from the Peace Corps and created a post-high-school program called Global Citizen Year. This next year they will be traveling to Ecuador, Brazil and Senegal where they will teach or translate English, help farmers with internet resources or help local teachers use search engines for lesson planning. The price tag is close to 30K but I think global experiences like this are going to increase for a world that is beginning to value the global competency that comes from travel and participating in global collaborative experiences (like Flat classroom.)
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The World Peace Game | Edutopia
A TED video from a fourth grade teacher who is helping fourth graders understand world peace. Very inspirational.
