Sunday, August 29, 2010

Acoss My Desk (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Announcing Flat Classroom(tm) Subscription Invitation

Press Release August 29, 2010:
Flat Classroom(tm) Directors, Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis, are excited to announce the new project subscription model for Flat Classroom(tm) Project, Digiteen(tm) Project, NetGenEd Project and Eracism(tm) Project

Our goal: To create and maintain best global collaborative projects and collaborative work spaces for students and educators in and serving K-12 around the world while building bridges between Students, Educators, trainee teachers and Post Secondary Education Institutions. We know there are many educators wanting to take on global projects but may not have the confidence with technology or in project design or access to resources. Through our subscription we will provide this support and access to quality Web 2.0 resources as well as to other educators who are experienced global collaborators.

In brief, an annual school subscription will provide for 15 students to be entered into one of the projects. Any students above this, or if the school or class wish to enter another project, a per-student fee is applicable. Included in this subscription is access to a student educational network (currently a Ning facility) that can be used for other class activities, and an educators network to connect globally with others wanting to complete projects.


In addition, project subscribers will benefit from access to Flat Classroom(tm) private label wikis and to Elluminate meeting space for student presentations and teacher meetings. Along with a live trouble-ticket system, teacher mentoring and school recognition for completing a project, the subscription model now moves all Flat Classroom(tm) Projects into a more sustainable and scalable working mode with support and opportunities for effective curriculum integration. In addition we are introducing “Sweat Equity” for teachers. This means that some scholarships will be available to cover per student fees on an application basis. This allows teachers to provide administrative support for the project such as RSS monitoring of the project portal, serve on the project leadership committee, provide troubleshooting response, and other activities that will defray the administrative overhead costs of running the project. This is over and above the monitoring that teachers are required to do of their own student work for each project.


Announcing also our pilot Flat Classroom(tm) Certified Teacher course starting in September 2010. Applications are invited from past and current Flat Classroom(tm) Project teachers. More information available from
http://tinyurl.com/flatclassteachercert including a link to the application form.

Further information about the subscription models is available from the attached documents for -


Applications for joining projects:

- Flat Classroom(tm) Project (deadline for FCP10-3 is September 1, 2010)

- Digiteen(tm) Project (deadline for Digiteen10-2 is September 15, 2010)  

 

Questions? We love to hear from interested participants and classrooms globally. 

Email: fcp@flatclassroom.org

Outside My Window: August 29, 2010

We are nearing the end of Summer here in Beijing. It is still quite warm, and some humidity. The trees and bushes are sharing their final summer blooms before being stripped for the winter. Loud and constant noises from cicadas and crickets fill the air. Outside my study window these trees have now given us a show of yellow flowers that transform into seed pods. How amazing!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Acoss My Desk (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Call for Presentations: Global Education Conference 2010, November 15-19

 (Cross-posted from Steve Hargadon)

The call for presentations for the 2010 Global Education Conference is now open. Presentation proposals are now being accepted at http://www.globaleducationconference.com.

The 2010 Global Education Conference is a collaborative effort to significantly increase opportunities for global education activities and initiatives. The conference will be held online November 15 - 19, 2010 in the Elluminate (now Blackboard Collaborate) platform. Sessions will be free, broadcast live be in multiple time zones and multiple languages, and will be available in recorded formats afterwards. The dates of the conference coincide with International Education Week, a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of State.

The conference has an International Educator Advisory Board of over 90 educators worldwide, chaired by Julie Lindsay of the Flat Classroom(tm) Project. Thirty leading global organizations serve as Conference Partners, including: the Asia Society, the Centre for Global Education, East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools (EARCOS), ePals, iEARN, and TakingITGlobal. Full lists of the advisory board and the partners can be found at the website, and interested individuals and organizations are encouraged to contact the conference chairs.

Conference presentations will be categorized in five tracks: Teacher, Student, Curricular, Policy and Leadership, and Global Issues. Particular emphasis will be given to global inclusion and practical teacher application, and the intention is that all serious proposals be given the opportunity to be presented. Keynote speakers will be announce in September and October.

The conference co-chairs are Lucy Gray and Steve Hargadon. Lucy Gray is an Apple Distinguished Educator and Google Certified Teacher, and founder of the Global Education Collaborative network (http://globaleducation.ning.com). Steve Hargadon is Elluminate's Social Learning Consultant, founder of the Classroom 2.0 social network (http://www.classroom20.com), and host of the Future of Education interview series (http://www.futureofeducation.com).

The Twitter/Social Media hashtag for the conference is "#GlobalEd10".

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Acoss My Desk (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

A Vision for Learning: Back to School Activities

The summer is gone in a blur of travel, presentations, workshops, flat classroom business and planning, book writing, and ....some rest and relaxation, but possibly not enough. However here I am in the first week back, staff week, at Beijing (BISS) International School, starting my second year at the school and in China.
Lots of plans, ideas, discussions, and an exciting time as we shape the coming year. BISS is also going through a major face-lift which is not finished so we are stepping over cables, dust and debris and stepping around the many workmen who are madly finishing stairways, hallways, the new reception, the kindergarten playground and more! My new office (moved from 4th to 3rd floor) is almost sorted out, but needs brightening up. The bust of Mao I bought at the Dirt Market last Saturday has started to give it more character at least. I encourage you to check out the new BISS website as well.

This is shaping up to be a big year already. I have an increased teaching load with Grade 9 and 10 MYP Technology as well as re-introducing ITGS (Information Technology in a Global Society) to BISS. Very excited about teaching ITGS again, and about how my colleague Madeleine Brookes and I will be 'flattening' our classroom walls and joining our 2 ITGS classes together. We have started a blog, Inside ITGS, and will be documenting and sharing our classrooms with the world. More about this later. In addition BISS will be hosting the next Flat Classroom Conference, February 25-27, 2011 and will welcome guests from all around the world to Beijing.

Earlier this week I was invited to speak to teachers at BISS about my vision, well our vision really as this is a shared vision, for learning and 21C teaching.
Teachers were invited to backchannel and participate in discussion opportunities during certain key points in the presentation.We looked at the role of e-learning at BISS, digital citizenship, digital learners and how we can improve classroom practice to best cater for their needs in a digital world. I also gave an overview of Flat Classroom Projects and played the Flat Classroom Conference documentary so that everyone at BISS is aware of what is coming in February.
Vision for Learning August2010_online
View more presentations from Julie Lindsay.

What are you doing in your first week back at school?

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Acoss My Desk (weekly)

  • "Education Beyond Borders is a non-profit NGO devoted to closing the education divide through teacher professional development and community education. We are focused on advancing and supporting the movement for educators and advocates for education to do our part in supporting our colleagues and their students in disadvantaged regions here at home and around the world."

    tags: acrossmydesk educationalnetworking globalcollaboration education

  • Article by By Andrew Marcinek in Edutopia. (Makes sense to me!)

    In education, technology is simply a new tool that is helping drive the content. Teachers are, and will always be, necessary. Classrooms are still a good place to provide direct instruction. And yes, direct instruction is STILL relevant and necessary, however, there should be a balance between DI and independent...(insert the newest buzzword here).
    Meet the Parents

    My solution to all of this...invite the parents to the social networking in your classroom. Let them be a part of the process, the analysis, and the reflection. Use social networking in your classroom to your advantage. Make it completely transparent and allow parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to participate in the learning. Before this can happen, you need to train them.

    tags: digitalcitizenship digiparent acrossmydesk

  • ICT in Education conference, Qatar March 2010.

    tags: acrossmydesk ictqatar Qatar conference

  • tags: opencontent clipart free online acrossmydesk

  • A comparison bw these 2 social bookmarking tools by Involvement and Interactivity in Teaching

    tags: diigo delicious acrossmydesk socialbookmarking

  • From On an e-journey with generation Y with Anne Mirtschin

    Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis were the guest presenters on eT@lking. These two innovative, creative, forward thinking teachers have created the Flat Classroom Projects. They have won many awards for their work and I love their mottos:- “Creating the Future” and “Building the Bridges of today that the society of tomorrow will walk across.” In this session, Vicki and Julie spoke about what is a flat classroom, how do you know when you have one, levels of collaboration and the seven steps to flatten your classroom. New projects will be commencing soon and there is Flat Classroom Leadership Workshop and Summit coming up in Feb 2011 in Beijing, China.

    tags: flatclassroom_presents globalcollaboration acrossmydesk


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Tell YOUR Global Collaboration Story

 Julie in Colorado Hills, July 2010

The bulk of this blog post is cross-posted from my colleague and friend Vicki Davis (Cool Cat Teacher). However, given my lack of real blogging lately due to the VERY busy Summer trip around the USA (more about that later!), here is my introduction.

We are delighted (and exhausted!) to announce our book contract with Pearson Education! The book will be about global collaboration and Flat Classroom(tm) Projects. Needless to say we are frantically collecting data and writing and re-writing and shaping this into something that will be GLOBALLY accessible, useful and support authentic educational collaboration between classrooms around the world. In conjunction with this venture we want to hear about YOUR global collaborative stories. We are trying to tell our story and want to include some of the best stories globally in the book. 

We are sending this message out through our networks, but want to make sure that all of you who are collaborating on a global basis have this invitation to share your story.  This is the email we're sending out today.

Consider this an invitation to tell your story!  Thank you!

****************************************

Hi everyone!

We're so excited to be publishing a book with Pearson Publishing teaching how to connect classrooms on a global basis and we want your stories!

Please share your story of collaboration by emailing it to story@flatclassroombook.com!  If your story is selected, we will email you with a permission form and confirmation of the text selected for the book (whether it has been edited or not!)

Has global collaboration changed your view of the world? Improved some area of your life? Established friendships that you still maintain?

Was it a positive experience? Negative? What lesson did you learn from the project?

Please share -- we want to know!

Thank you everyone!

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Acoss My Desk (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.