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Am reprinting and article that Julie and I wrote to help those who may not really know what Flat Classroom is know a little more.  Our conference registration is opening up this week for Beijing 2011 and we're so excited!   The Flat Classroom™: Mobile and Ubiquitous Article for AALF newsletter, April 2010 Written by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis (cross-posted with the AALF article online ) "Imagine the possibilities if we brought students together from different areas of the world for a summit that challenged them to break through cultural misunderstandings, that challenged them to envision solutions for a better world", said co-founder Julie Lindsay, then Head of E-Learning at Qatar Academy. "If virtual connections via global projects can promote enhanced understanding and a world view, think what a face-to-face opportunity might bring". With this aim, the first Flat Classroom ™ live event in Qatar saw students coming to the Middle East from geo...

Hi everyone! It is that time again.  If you want to understand more about Flat Classroom projects and the video assessment portion, now is your time. In fact, many have volunteered their time as a judge and gone on to start their own projects.  So, we're issuing an open invitation to educators and those involved in the technology field to spend 1 - 2 hours judging the NetGenEd videos.  Each video is pre-screened by two people and sent up for 2nd level judging and then to our final meta judge to determine the best of the project! We've got some great videos planned and would love to see some new faces. Here is the note from my good friend, Julie Lindsay, who is the organizer for the judges for this project! Please join us! We have many classrooms around the world busily collaborating and creating their final multimedia piece to submit for judging.  The deadline for submission of multimedia for the internal judging processes as well as the global competition organi...

In the PhysOrg.com article What Do Students Know? it basically underlines the fear that many have about the way that we are testing.  Granted, this is a niche area, (astrophysics) but we're teaching the names of planets and basic items, and yet students (and their teachers) have the following misconceptions: They think there is no gravity in space. They think that space telescopes are put in space to get them "closer." The don't know that the sun is a star. They think that there are stars closer than Pluto besides the sun. Other findings: "The SAO researchers studied how these apparently seductive misconceptions could distract students away from choosing the correct answer in multiple-choice tests. They argue that such "distractors" should be included in evaluation tests but note that most often are not, and therefore that results from tests designed to measure student understanding are misleading, and that evaluation of the pedagogy is therefo...

Image via Wikipedia Graphene: The Game Changer for Electronics Graphene is a 2-d form of graphite and was only first discovered in 2004 "when physicists from the University of Manchester and Institute for Microelectronics Technology in Chernogolovka Russia found a way to isolate individual graphen planes by peeling them off from graphite with Scotch tape." (definition quoted from Wikipedia see original paper at Electronic Fields in Atomically Thin Carbon Films .) Does anyone else find this horribly interesting?  According to PhysOrg.com, the five years since this discovery have been lightning fast: "Graphene has the potential to enable terahertz computing, at processor speeds 100 to 1,000 times faster than silicon . For a material that was first isolated only five years ago, graphene is getting off to a fast start." So, what started as some scientists using Scotch Tape and Graphite in the UK and Russia is now turning heads all over the world as we look...

We are all so busy.  Perhaps that is why I'm moved to tears when I see all the volunteers that engage to make all of the Flat Classroom TM projects such an amazing experience.  We've worked hard (and spent our own money) to keep Flat Classroom TM projects free and appreciate Elluminate providing administrative support to keep this project going. IT has truly been a grassroots effort of educators - must like the open source movement that made the Apache web server possible, we are seeing an open education movement harnessing the power of our engagement and work and truly it is an honor to work with you as we see this happen.  You are an honor to work with. Right now, we have several things that we could use your support with.  And remember, your support is your time, but it is also the VERY VALUABLE feedback you provide on the weaknesses, improvements, and things that you think could be done better or differently.  Here is an overview and where to go for mo...

"Ugh... give me ball," the cromagnon man with waist length black hair, partial toga, and a big big red plastic baseball bat said at the door of my classroom.  Then he walked away. It took a moment.  First, I had to figure out who it was - he was so DIFFERENT.  Who was he?  Then, it dawned on me.  It was the senior's last week this week and it was one of them, I'll call him c-man. When C-man was in 10th grade, he was part of the first Flat Classroom class and we were in on a Saturday.  The learning curve for all of us was HUGE and we were pushing Windows Movie Maker to the max (we've since moved to Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12 .)  Some of the kids were tossing a hand sized yellow nerf and he was tired and ready to go home - he looked at them and said, "Give me ball."  It came out jilted and monotone like a caveman, probably because he was so unbelievably tired. Well, it struck me as funny. It sounded like a caveman and so, I like to ...

Over on the Left Lane Ends , where Jerram Froese blogs, I was struck by this statement: "We’re doing some great curriculum work with McRel over the course of this year and today’s focus is on developing a good unit overview and how assessment should be woven into the published curriculum. I’ve posted it before, spewed it to friends and commented in more meetings that I care to remember about how we ought to treat teachers, educators as professionals. After reading a ‘model overview’ (about probability) that was VERY well worded, we were invited to comment. My thoughts? [in my head: 'wow, this is a NICE overview. It actually has the 'why' built into it and makes real world connections. this would really get my brain going if I was teaching probability.' ] I guess others had different thoughts in their head. The first vocal comment was, ‘This is too long. Teachers won’t read it.’" He goes on to say that teachers are so focused on test prep that they don...

Fridays are always reflection days here -- when we share what we learned via blog post, discussions, or video. Today, we ustreamed. Several times my mouth went open. Like, when one of the terraformers (these are the people who make the land ) talked about the vision for the island and the creation of good "badguys" - people who are trustworthy to operate the avatars of the villains who roam the island and try to get students to give out inappropriate information. So, let the students speak for themselves. Listen to our terraforming team talk about our island, the uses of Open Sim in schools (We use www.reactiongrid.com and LOVE it!), and their vision of what they'd like to see happen. Also, hear the reflections of the other students about their work in virtual worlds. Free Webcam Chat at Ustream This is a great group of students and they are doing wonderful work! We're getting ready to start on their book. So, what am I teaching them, what are our objectives? A...

ASCD's article " Rigor Redefined " is an absolute MUST READ, MUST SHARE for everyone who remotely cares about education. Tony Wagner has done a remarkably concise job of reflecting on the state of education.  Below, I've extracted my annotations (items on the left are quotes from the article, Items indented with the clear circled bullet are from me), or you may view the annotated version of this article which will include all of those who annotate and share on this article using Diigo . He talks about risk aversion, I wonder what educators among us are willing to take the risk to go towards this when compensation is increasingly tied to test scores that measure only rote memorization and test taking ability. ASCD I conducted research beginning with conversations with several hundred business, nonprofit, philanthropic, and education leaders. With a clearer picture of the skills young people need, I then set out to learn whether U.S. schools are teaching and t...