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Today, Tuesday, at 5pm in Rm PACC 123, Julie Lindsay will be leading a birds of a feather designed to help schools find each other and begin global collaboration. Flat Classroom Conference 2009 Doha, Qatar The audience will be peppered with our certified Flat Classroom teachers - those who have been through our new book ( www.flatclassroombook.com ) and have proven their ability to collaboration AND CARRY THROUGH via our projects. The audience will be salted with you... those of you who are ready to REALLY do it. So many teachers complain that it is hard to find classrooms that are ready to collaborate. Here is your chance. Please join us today. I hope to skype in to at least listen and say hi to some of you. If you cannot be there, here are some resources for you: Flat Classroom Project - Project for older grades, students must be 13 years and older to join this project. Applications open now for this year. This will run two times next year. Digiteen Project - Project...

Whoever says cheerleading isn't a sport needs to see how much icy hot, how many bruises, and how much sacrifice it is to do this sport. Last night I printed my boarding pass and zipped up my suitcase and then ran over to the school to get my daughter at 8:30 pm. I picked her up and she fell apart. She's been nursing a back injury for several weeks without telling anyone and tonight the stunt fell on her. With her cheerleading camp supposed to be next week, I have to be the one to take her to the doctor and make the call about whether she can attend as it may mean that she's off the squad (something that would kill her.) I don't have the answer but I do know who has to be the one to get the answer: me. This is one of the most important things in my daughter's life and she has a spine that she will have with her for the rest of her life. My Sessions will Go on! Julie Lindsay is running DigiTeacher along with some help from Barbara Barreda and a visit from A...

Image by Terry Freedman via Flickr Julie with our dear friend Terry Freedman from the UK. Just up on the ISTE website, my dear friend and Flat Classroom co-founder, Julie Lindsay , is now an ISTE board member. Thank you to everyone who supported her run. And most of all, thank you to Julie who let herself run again. This was her third run. Most people give up after the first time. This is certainly one thing that characterizes Julie - she never gives up and persists. How would your life be different if you just did something ONE MORE TIME? Thank you to the network of Tweeters, bloggers, and teachers. Although this means I'll see less of Julie, I think that she will do great work on the ISTE board. Related articles ISTE Members, I am asking you to vote for Julie Lindsay #voteforjulie #iste (coolcatteacher.blogspot.com) The Importance of Affecting Change from Within - ISTE Board Elections - Vote Now! (123elearning.blogspot.com) Dreams When We're Awake (coolcatte...

Image by Betchaboy via Flickr - Jeff Utecht, Julie Lindsay and Darren Kuropatwa. What Julie is not. Not leading a massive consortium or state organization. Not a VP in a big company. A regular IT director and classroom teacher who has maxed out credit cards to keep international projects going so that schools from all walks of life could participate and collaborate. Someone who has pushed me to my limits - helped me be better and more. Julie works with intensity and drive. Julie lives with an intensity that can be intimidating - even for me. But when she does something, she does it well. She takes very seriously her legacy to help others and to connect schools and schoolchildren. I first met Julie in 2006 as part of the K12 online conference and this relationship has gone on to be one of the defining relationships of my life. So, yes, I'm biased. Hugely biased. ISTE would be a better ISTE with Julie on the Board I support and appreciate ISTE. But ISTE needs someone like Ju...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife Here are a couple of tips for ISTE 2010 attendees.  First of all, if you're not going - follow the hashtag #iste10 and #iste2010 on Twitter to grab the ustreams and freebies that will inevitably come your way.  My firs #necc was attended that way. (Pre-twitter, though!) This is a camping term but it has great value here. If you can be as autonomous as possible, you'll be better off! 1. Pack your food and water. The lines are long and the food is expensive. You'll be busy. The best advice I can give you is to pack in your food and drinks. When we had ISTE in DC last year, we went to the local store and picked up drinks and snackbars for the day.  You just never know when you won't have time to eat or when you have a choice between a two hour line to eat or a one hour session that is really special!  If you've gotta have Starbucks , buy a cold one and put it in your bag!  Keep at least two bottles of water with you in yo...

This is your time to contribute.  A massive debate is emerging over at ISTE's keynote discussion forum and as part of this massive edublogosphere (maybe it should be renamed edutweetosphere?) ISTE has crowdsourced one of their keynotes for ISTE 2010.  I've put in my two cents. Right now, two of the proposals that seem to be running through twitter are Kevin Hunnicutt's proposal and that by Scott Mcleod.  I'll share those proposals and then my personal thoughts and then share with you my own proposal for the keynote.  (note that just because someone proposes it DOES NOT MEAN that person is going to DO the keynote - right now it is about content - phase 2 is about speakers.) From Kevin Hunnicutt  (go to the ISTE forum to cast your vote for this one.) Thoughts from Me: To me, it is not just about the trends.  I think that ISTE will be chock full of trends, tools, and tactics.  I think that keynotes should take us past the cool factor int...

Tomorrow night on the WOW2 show, my friend and global collaboration expert Sharon Peters will be moderating and interviewing Julie Lindsay, from Bangladesh and I about the Flat Classroom Project. We are quite excited that Thomas Friedman asked for several hundred words about this project to be potentially included in version 3 of his book. This was an honor to be asked by someone we both respect so much. We submitted it to him this week, perhaps it will work out! After reviewing the new NETS standards proposed by ISTE , Julie and I have concluded that this project meets each standard. Honestly, it was quite striking when we realized this, because the project literally evolved under our fingertips. Each of us pushed the other to do better and include more and we know that there are several areas we will improve upon next time. I hope you'll join us over at edtechtalk.com, Tuesday night at 9 pm EST. Join in the chat room and listen on Channel 1. It will be a great talk. (Julie...