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I get tweets and emails asking "what is this Flat Classroom thing?" When you flatten your classroom, you remove the walls. You connect your students to others around the world in a level playing field where they collaborate, work together and learn from each other. The first project was based on Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat when Julie Lindsay was a teacher in Bangladesh and I connected my classroom in Camilla Georgia to co-create and co-author a wiki on the trends in the book and make videos that have contributors from the other side of the world.  After the first project won ISTE's Online Learning Award, and Friedman included us in the update to his book, teachers from around the world started joining in. It has grown into projects from Kindergarten through 12th grade and now we're working with preservice teachers as we look to see what that will look like. Teachers discuss how to connect globally on our Flat Classrooms Ning, open to any educator.  ...

Find more photos like this on Flat Classroom Conference From about 45 minutes from the time of this post, the students and educators that are part of the Flat Classroom Mini-conference being hosted by the American School of Bombay in Mumbai, India at ASB Unplugged will be presenting and YOU can participate. We have been blessed with a 50 something group of students and educators in a project-based miniconference that will have participants thoroughly understanding the nuances of planning and bringing to fruition a Flat Classroom - style project. In 45 minutes, eleven teams will be giving their presentations. They are filling out their wikis and preparing to present as we speak. Here is how you may join us: Ustream video - http://asbunplugged2010.flatclassroomproject.org/UStream.tv Our Wiki - http://asbunplugged2010.flatclassroomproject.org  Our Ning - http://flatclassroomconference.ning.com The projects that have been invented: Like-write. come scrivere. مثل الك...

Just a little peek at the ways that our students are "traveling" to India. Here, I posed the questions to our tour guide for the fifth graders and filmed as if they are traveling beside her in the bus as we tour the city. The fifth graders have had us on a "scavenger hunt" of sorts about all types of things India. Some of these things are not "in" Mumbai or not easily observable, so we asked our delightful tour guide to help us and explain the many things. The fifth grade, in particular, should watch these with their scavenger hunt in hand and "sit" beside Mrs. Jaishri Vashisht to learn about the items in their scavenger hunt. The rest of you may learn from her as well. Enjoy! It is about sixteen minutes long. Mrs. Jaishri's contact information is below: Jaishri Vashisht Joyful Journeys Pvt. Lts. jshri2509@hotmail.com www.touringindia.org Phone 26183779, 66302812 New Delhi (She covers the whole country and does wonderful student exchange ...

If this blog seems a little quiet this week, it is because I have a group of students and Mrs. Betty, the curriculum director at ASB Unplugged and the Flat Classroom mini-conference.It is like 2 am in the morning here and we've been traveling since 9 am Saturday morning (we lost 10 1/2 hours.) What a trip, but wanted all of you to know where the ole cool cat was heading. In fact, if the weather getting off the plane is any indication, maybe I should temporarily be the Hot Cat Teacher. ;-) Related articles by Zemanta Immersing in all things India: The India Immersion Project (coolcatteacher.blogspot.com) Join the Flat Classroom Workshop in India, 2010 (123elearning.blogspot.com) Press Release: Flat Classroom™ Project 2009-3 (123elearning.blogspot.com)

Image of Julie Lindsay Thought some of you might want to participate in the upcoming Hong Kong Flat Classroom Workshop with Julie Lindsay and Kim Cofino. Here's the latest: "The Flat Classroom Workshop strand of the 21CL@HK Conference is less than 2 weeks away. Kim Cofino and I are very pleased to inform you we have about 30 students and about 10 teachers attending the workshop for the 2.5 days. This email contains important information for you and your students in order to get started before we meet face-to-face. Flat Classroom Workshop: Program and Teams list is available here: http://spreadsheets.google. com/pub?key=tFUg_UrzyKQM- vHRxrOE_mQ&gid=0   The program is set out in a basic format so far, but we wanted to send this now so you have more of an idea what you are in for. The teams list is not final and will possibly change between now and the start of the event. Each team consists of real and virtual members. There will be further explanation about this before ...

One of the great heroes who has emerged from the Flat Classroom projects is Salim Al-Busaidi.  His students were phenomenal participants in two projects and also have their own global collaborative work spreading environmental responsibility. In addition to this, Salim is a person who shows great respect and honor to all who know him.  He and his students not only made some Omani sweets to share, but presented the speakers and the school with a beautiful crystal Omani sword which is now in a treasured location at the entrance of our school and in my den. Here, he presents his global collaborative work and also Flat Classroom projects and the conference held in Qatar this year.  This video is in Arabic, so it is for those Arabic-fluent readers of this blog.  We hope to have a translation at some point. For those of you who speak English and wish you had a translation -- think of how others feel when we have GREAT videos without translating them for others. ...

Please ask everyone to take a moment to vote for the student project you wish to be run-- these were the projects of students from the Flat Classroom Conference This Past Week. Find more videos like this on Flat Classroom Conference - Tech Trust 2 and Wiki for Team 7 Find more videos like this on Flat Classroom Conference - Artistmatic and Wiki for Team 2 Find more videos like this on Flat Classroom Conference - FacePoverty and Wiki for Team 6 Find more videos like this on Flat Classroom Conference - Eracism and Wiki for Team 4 These videos are the final product of the four finalists in our flat classroom social issues competition. The students were taught to brainstorm, about visual communications, how to communicate their message, AND about web 2 tools and created face to face presentations on the second day of the conference. The four finalists then had 3 hours to make a video on the last day and also a wiki describing their proposal. The greatest thing about all of the...

Find more videos like this on Flat Classroom Conference This video was created on the Flip Video donated as a doorprize by Elaine Roberts and Pearson Publishing and was won by Salmi Al-Busaidi, the teacher of these students. What a great tool and wonderful reflections.

Day 0 of Flat Classroom conference. We have some exciting events tomorrow and welcome your participation.  (Also, check our wiki for ustreams.) Live Webcast Events Day 1 January 24, 2009 Thomas Friedman - Streamed live on EdtechTalk and also on Future of Education in Elluminate 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 2pm GMT: Live stream of Tom Friedman addressing students ( international times here ) Doha Debates the Flat Classroom Concept - A joint session between the Flat Classroom Conference in Doha, Qatar and Educon in Philadelphia, PA streamed through the Future of Education - elluminate room Log in at https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008350&password=M.3969DF... . The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. 7am Pacific / 10am Eastern / 3pm GMT: Flat Classroom Debates begin ( international times here ). Check for ustream links here also and please, join our Ning . Conference Schedule Conference Program (updated J...