Monday, October 22, 2007

Flat Classroom Project 2007: Multicultural and Holistic

This week the intense work starts on the Flat Classroom Project for 2007. Over the past month students have been finding each other via the Ning and via the topic wiki pages. Now the real work starts! Each of the 7 classrooms and over 100 students must help to edit the wiki pages from last year AND create a personal video, with a segment outsourced to a team member, in a less than 4 week time frame. The videos this year are using concepts from Dan Pink's book 'A Whole New Mind' as inspiration. Students have been placed in one of these concept groups:
We are aiming high once again with this project and expect a lot from the students. Already I am pleasantly surprised, or should I say delighted at the output and commitment shown by the top few who have started dedicated virtual conversations and planning towards the end goal.

Here is the music widget from the main wiki page that has a few of the audio introductions from students. Note: to hear more introductions go to the personal page of each student on the Ning.
One of my personal favourites is the one by Zak from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts called, 'Zak's Flat Classroom Blues'.



Find more music like this on Flat Classroom Project


Classrooms for this 2007 project include:

United States:
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (Barrie Becker)
Mary Institute St Louis County Day School, Missouri (Elizabeth Helfant)
Westwood Schools, Camilla, Georgia, USA (Vicki Davis)
China:
Shanghai American School (Simon May)
Austria:
Vienna International School (Barbara Stefanics)
Australia:
Presbyterian Ladies College, Melbourne (John Turner) PLC wiki work
State of Qatar:
Qatar Academy, Doha (Julie Lindsay). Grade 10 MYP Technology. Class wiki

Once again we are challenged by time-zone issues, hemisphere issues, English language issues to name a few however we are excited by the opportunities for cultural understanding and for heightened modes of interaction and communication facilitated by Web 2.0 technologies.

Invitation to be part of the Flat Classroom Project 2007
We invite other educators to be part of our project by taking on one of these activities:
  1. Classroom peer reviewers: If you have a classroom that has a spare 1-2 lessons we invite you to do peer review of student work on the wiki.
  2. Digital story judges: All students will have their multimedia artifact (digital story) judged by a team of educators. There is a rubric designed specifically for this.
  3. Expert advisers: We invite experts in the field of the 11 topics (Based on Friedman's The World is Flat) to help encourage the students as they contribute content to the wiki page and define their video topics.
So, come on board and join our project, we would love to have you involved. Let us know you are interested by either emailing flatclassroomproject@gmail.com or by joining our Ning, stating in your profile you are interested in being part of this, and sending either Vicki or myself a message.

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3 comments:

Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher said...

This is a great project. Again, it is an organism that is so much larger than those who create it. It has already surpassed the teachers and the knowledge of my students in these topics is exciting already!

Thank you for your leadership and friendship. You are truly one of the greatest educators I've ever known and it is all my privilege to work with you on this and other projects.

Julie Lindsay said...

Thanks Vicki! I am so looking forward to the outcomes of this new project. It has become a haven for me as I deal with the trials of everyday life here in Qatar. I know that no matter how good or bad the day is in the land of 'let's move into 21st century e-Learning' I have the Flat Classroom students and teachers to keep me on track and headed in the right direction. Your friendship and collegiality keeps me going!

johnson07 john said...

All I can say is, thank you so much to everyone who helped, guided, and advised me over the course of the last year. I could never, ever have done this alone. I am so proud to be part of this learning network, it actually brings tears to my eyes.
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