Learn how to Flatten your Classroom at our Workshop

Vicki Davis and I are really excited to announce our first 2-day Flat Classrooms workshop. Although we live on opposite sides of the world, in very different cultures and circumstances, on July 8 and 9 we will be together. It is truly rare that we are in the same place, but we are passionate about duplicating our efforts and encouraging the proliferation of these projects around the world.

We invite educators who want to transform their learning spaces to include global collaboration in their curriculum to join us for a unique workshop at Mary Institute St Louis County Day School in St. Louis, Missouri.

These two days will be a unique opportunity to really drill down to the details of how to hold a flat classroom project and understand the best practice and pedagogy behind such a project. We believe it will be a memorable, special event as it is the first opportunity we have had to truly outline how such a project is conducted, assessed, and facilitated.

Please take time to review the workshop information, what you will learn, and contact us with your questions. Space is limited and on a first come, first served basis.

Because we are busy teachers, we have partnered with fellow visionary, Steve Hargadon to orchestrate this event. He shares our common vision of global collaboration and facilitation. We also appreciate the vision and encouragement of fellow collaborator Elizabeth Helfant at St. Louis County Day School and her insistence that this is something that we need to share with the world.

What will you learn?
Our Aims:

1. To promote academic excellence through the use of leading technological tools.
2. To promote connection and understanding between geographically dispersed, ethnically and culturally diverse groups of students in meaningful, global cooperative authentic learning experiences.
3. To simplify and document pedagogical best practices for such projects.
4. To duplicate "ourselves" and practices to encourage the open proliferation of such projects as a standard part of global education and digital citizenship.

Course Outline
Workshops have plenary and break-out sessions and include both skill building with Web 2.0 tools and project management. A hands-on approach is emphasized with participants encouraged to bring laptops and take advantage of the wireless network provided.
According to the needs of the workshop participants both introductory and intermediate/advanced breakout sessions can be offered.

Introduction

• Flat Classrooms and 21st century teaching and learning
  • What does a 'flat classroom' mean? How do we recognize one? How can you create one?
  • What are 21st century skills? What does a 21st century classroom look like and what does it do?
• Global Projects and integrated/embedded curriculum
  • A review of characteristics of best-practice global projects and methods to find projects appropriate to your learning needs
  • A look at what it means to embed global collaborative projects into the curriculum

Pre-Project management

Planning and managing a Flat Classroom Project

• A review of essential requirements and logistics to run a Flat Classroom Project

Seven Steps to Flatten Your Classroom

• Connect

  • The 5 phases of connection - an overview of essential elements of being a connected educator
  • How to create a PLN (Personal learning network) and explore online connectivity
  • An introduction and review of social networks and networking in education and how to integrate them into the classroom
  • An overview of generic Web 2.0 tools used in Flat Classroom Projects

• Communicate

  • How to foster an online learning community - teacher and student engagement strategies
  • A detailed look at skills and tools needed for asynchronous and synchronous communication

• Citizenship

  • How to be a responsible digital citizen - a review of issues
  • Solutions for safety and privacy when collaborating online

• Contribute

  • How be a reliable and successful online contributor - mastering RSS, social bookmarking and wiki's
  • Breakout sessions for skill development at different levels

• Collaborate

  • How to manage the extended project community: peer review, expert advisers, judges, researchers
  • How to develop strong collaboration skills amongst students and teachers

• Create

  • Digital storytelling - How to integrate this powerful practice into a project
  • Managing multimedia online - Strategies for working with multimedia formats and sharing resources around the world

• Celebrate

  • How to assess and acknowledge student achievement - Review of authentic assessment methods
  • How to run student and teacher summits - Strategies for reflection and showcase sessions

Practical sessions

Lab #1 - Setting up a class or school wiki

Lab #2 - Setting up a class or school Ning

We hope you will consider joining us, Flat Classrooms Workshop

Vicki Davis
Julie Lindsay

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