What does family mean to you? What does it mean to your students?

Families depend on each other a lot. They show each other how to handle problems and they show support to each other when help is needed. They show how to set goals and they care for one another…

“A day my sisters had to depend on me was on Mother’s Day a couple years ago.” (read more)

” The person I really depend on is my brother. I just want him to be around when I need him. My mom I really don’t depend on because I know she is going to be here regardless. But my brother…I depend on him because he needs to be here when something happens. I mean my mom can protect me but not like my brothers can or dad.” (read more)

 

“One time that my family depended on me was when my grandfather was very sick because of his diabetes.” (read more)

Above are three responses from students about what family means to them. Their Language Arts teacher provided the opening sentences but then the students took it from there. They wrote about times they helped their families, times their families helped them and times their families let them down. Each essay told a new story and shed new light on the nature of families. But the essay also shared commonalities: how connected we are with our families, how our actions impact on families and how our families’ action impact us. Read more of the students essays here.

But what we want to know now is:

How similar are families around the world?

We have issued ourselves a challenge. Can we find students from 10 different countries to share with us what their families mean to them? By May 1st?

Will your classroom be one of them?

 

We would love that! If you are interested, leave me a comment here, contact me on Twitter @edtechdunny, or just go ahead and join our wiki. We can send you more information about how to add your essays to our wiki. But basically, if you can type up your essays, we can add them to our site! Let’s give our students a chance to learn about families everywhere and to see a world bigger than their own.

Blends in a Global Classroom

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This week, I was fully reminded of the fact that I should never, ever doubt the ability of students and what they can achieve when highly motivated and engaged. Thinking it would be great to blend two classes – one in Boston, USA and mine in Hawkesdale Australia in a virtual classroom, it was suggested to Lorraine Leo, my great colleague in USA. Lorraine suggested Friday 16th our time, or Thurs night 15h March, their time. Yikes! That was only two days away and we had nothing organised.

The challenges

• That was only two days notice.
• the interesting mixed collection of students in my year 9/10 ICT elective class
• the student mixed ability levels
• lack of time to practise, rehearse etc.
• our continuing problems with sound on the student netbooks (they had just been reghosted and handed back to students)

As there was one single, precious lesson prior to the online session, we tested sound/audio/access/application sharing/use of web camera etc to Blackboard Collaborate, the webconferencing software tool to be used and also brainstormed some ideas on a wallwisher. However, the time was not long enough. Students were then told to bring their photos and scripts with them on Friday ready to share with their global counterparts.

Feeling quite nervous on Friday about whether:-

• anyone had brought photos and more importantly how many had not done anything
• they had anything to talk about and would they stutter, stumble and take frights (as many of these students are extremely shy)
• they would behave online
•  the webcam would be used to good effect
•  the application sharing of pivot and some stored photos on student computers work etc…
• sound/audio would all work

I was surprised to find all of them were all organised. They had taken time consuming, fascinating photos at home and on their farm, had brought products into share and wanted to come in at recess to get organised. Some of these are students who rarely complete homework! Here is what it all looked like.

• an opening comment by Lorraine : Thank you for inviting us to Australia to visit your students.
• Problems as always with sound – most students had to come to my laptop to speak and demonstrate
• in my nervousness, I forgot to go through the tool bars and elements of Blackboard Collaborate at the beginning, but most seemed to work it out as we went a long.
• A classroom of 21 participants, including Mrs Leo, the teacher from USA, 5 of her students, logging on from home (as it was 7:30pm at night for them), two adults from Japan – one  a university professor who is creating great globalprojects with Scratch eg World Friends, the other a parent; a student teacher from Saskatchewan Canada, a parent of one of my students and Mrs Leo’s mother, an amazing 86 year old lady in blackboard collaborate for the first time. Such a blended classroom, made possible with technology.
• my students presenting on topics such as:- Hawkesdale, my farm, my pets,our school, my interests, pivot and demonstrating sample student work, including quilting.
• Once the initial nervousness dispersed, the obvious pride that my students took in sharing their passions, how well spoken they actually were and that they were all organised!
• the support that students gave each other
• the fast paced nature of the chat, where participants asked questions, gave feedback and generally shared across the globe.
• interacting on the collaborative whiteboard to share names, farewells, favourite technology.

Despite being  pushed outside their comfort zones, students really enjoy interactions such as this. They find it fun and engaging and are curious about each other. Each person has a voice and is able to interact in the chat. A big thank you to our global participants for coming to learn about us and to Mrs Leo for her work in making it possible.

Read the student reflections

1. Georgia
2. Rachael
3. Sean
4. Tamiko
5. Kim
6. Jess
7. Ivy
8. Aza
9. Nathan

Have you used blends in a global classroom? Have you worked synchronously with classes in other countries? If so, how? What are your reflections?

(Guest post by Anne Mirtschin, an educator in a small rural Australian school, prep to year 12, that is geographically and culturally isolated.)

World Water Day 2012 – International LinoIt Project

A little history

A year is a very long time in the life of an educator, and as the #globalclassroom co-founder, it is hard to believe I am days away from commemorating the first anniversary of my very first global project.

Back in 2011, I ran the World Water Day 2011 International LinoIt Project; enabling my students to connect, and share their understandings about water conservation and WaterWise practices with children the world.

This project had over 2200 international hits within a week, and helped my former school achieve “Star WaterWise School” status here in Western Australia.

We’re back for “World Water Day 2012″

Take the opportunity to share your students’ learning with the world!

The World Water Day International LinoIt Project (2012) is open to K-12 classes worldwide.Watch the video, explore the issues, and encourage your students to share their thoughts, learning, and solutions with the world!

A note for teachers: Please tell your students that their comments are moderated, and that inappropriate comments will be removed. This is a PUBLIC document, and should be treated as such. Thankyou.

Project LinoIt Page:
http://bit.ly/WorldWaterDay2012

We hope you will join us, and share your thoughts, pictures, videos on our LinoIt Page on March 22, 2012.

Musings on Assessing Global Collaboration

The March #globalclassroom chats proved to be incredibly lively and valuable discussions about the merits and challenges of assessing and communicating the impact of global collaboration.

I was quite taken aback by the diverse responses to this topic, and prompted by @WarwickLanguage and my early reflections on the Flat Classroom book, I’ve taken the unusual step of including a proper summary of the March #globalclassroom chats.

Here we go.

Assessment can be a tricky issue.

Many teachers expressed concern about the need to assess global collaboration, fearing that too great an emphasis on “measuring” the impact of global collaboration would detract from the learning and building of the global relationships.

As @WarwickLanguage wrote in her chat summary, “there was a perception that the impact of these activities is clear, but not always measurable, showing itself in student focus, engagement, and enjoyment.”

@SNskole: The greatest gain for our students is they start to feel like world citizens. Breaking down ignorance stone by stone.

We need to share our stories, reflections, and pedagogy

A common theme of these chats was the need for teachers and, particularly students, to share their stories and reflections on the impacts of global connections and collaboration on their learning.

Suggestions included videoing students’ stories (@carmenstack), showcasing student work on co-created blogs and wikis, exploring Visible Thinking routines (@whatedsaid), and building school administrators’ understanding of our work.

For me, one tweet stood out:

@Kubikhan: What about peer-to-peer evaluation in #globalclassroom? Much can be gained from knowing another culture values your work, and knowing why.

This idea, seconded by @terriharings, is something I’d like to see developed through the #globalclassroom project as a whole. It is indeed “powerful to partner across the sea”, and this form of assessment would have an incredible impact on our students (and teachers) learning & worldviews.

There is a need for action-research in this area

Raised by @brettelockyer in the Sunday chat, this issues features in the Flat Classroom book, which I am reading at the moment. There is a need to study the long-term impacts of global collaboration on teachers and students, exploring how our global connections change our teaching, learning, and personal worldviews.

@iEARNUSA kindly dug into their archives, sharing a variety of research studies they have been involved in, and I suspect that this an area in which I may well conduct my own research one day.

So, in conclusion:

@davidweldridge:We shouldn’t obsess about assessment, but offer multiple opportunities for developing learning and understand our context. #globalclassroom

@hechternacht: The more you are connected, the more you see the impact. The relationship grows as eyes are opened. #globalclassroom

Thankyou

Thankyou to everyone who made the March #globalclassroom chats such an engaging, thought-provoking learning experience. A particular thank-you goes to our moderators, past and present, with special mentions for @iEARNUSA, who has done so much to make these chats a success, and @WarwickLanguage who helped write the chat summary.

The March #globalclassroom chat archive is now available on our wiki, and we’d love to hear your thoughts, reflections on the topic in the comments below.

Click here for the March Archives

See you next month!

“Assessing the Impact of Global Collaboration” – March #globalclassroom chats

This month’s topic comes to us courtesy of @iEARNUSA, and takes the #globalclassroom chats into new territory: assessment.

As teachers involved in global collaboration, we are in a unique position to witness the impact of global collaboration and exchanges on our students. Yet, can this impact be measured?

How can we assess and communicate the effects and benefits of global collaboration with our students’ parents and administrators?

Do we need to rely on anecdotal evidence, or is there a better way to assess the impact of our global connections on teaching and learning in our classrooms?

This promises to be an interesting discussion, and we hope you can join us!

Chat Details – March 2012:

* Please note that times for the Monday night / Tuesday morning chat have changed due to the start of daylight saving in parts of the USA. The chat remains at 5PM EST, but is at a more friendly time for some countries.

March 10/11

• 3PM New York, 8PM London – Saturday, March 10
• 7AM Sydney, 9AM Auckland – Sunday, March 11
• Or click here to find out when this chat runs in your timezone.

March 11 – Europe / Asia / Australia

• 9AM London, 11AM Athens, 2.30PM Delhi, 5PM Beijing, 6PM Tokyo, 8PM Sydney – Sunday
• Or click here to find out when this chat runs in your timezone.

* March 12 / 13

• 5PM New York, 9PM London – Monday, March 12
• 8AM Sydney, 10AM Auckland – Tuesday, March 13
• OR click here to find out when this chat runs in your timezone.

Thankyou!

The #globalclassroom chats are moderated by teachers around the world.

If you’d like to moderate a chat, or suggest a topic, please tweet @mgraffin, or leave your details here. We sincerely appreciate your support!

New Global Classroom Collaboration Challenges

Next week, beginning March 5, the P2PU School of Ed will be beginning two new global classroom collaboration projects, and we’d love to have you join us in these projects!

Global Classroom Collaborations – Elementary — Elementary teachers from around the world will discuss, design, and establish collaborations between their classrooms.

Global Classroom Collaborations – Secondary — Secondary teachers from around the world will discuss, design, and establish collaborations between their classrooms.

If you aren’t familiar with P2PU, it’s a community for free, online peer learning. The School of Ed at P2PU is geared toward professional learning for K-12 teachers with hands-on experiences driven by each educator’s particular needs and classroom situations. It’s about connecting, collaborating, and creating, not just reading or studying. You can sign up for occasional updates on the School of Ed here.

You can contact karen at k12opened dot com for more information.