For the past fortnight we have been hosts of Lesedi, one of five travelling Rhinos sent round the world by Karen Stadler, who I have neer met, but connected with through email and twitter. Hawea Flat is a small rural school in the South Island of New Zealand and the closest Rhino to us is in a Zoo 5 hours drive away. We knew what a Rhino was and we knew who a poacher was, however we had no comprehension of how the two fitted together and what the devastating consequence of their connection was.
When Lesedi arrived in the mail we had to begin at the beginning. We read books, watched YouTube clips and researched on line. Quickly made connections to the horrific truth and the selfish reasons behind the problem. I have never seen a group of children become enraged so quickly over an issue.
So I simply asked “What can we do about it? We are to far away!” and showed them the distance between South Africa and Hawea Flat on Google Earth.
That is where the kids took over. They showed me that the skills that we have learned in class – ways to solve a problem and find a solution – were important and that when needed the kids could call upon them. In groups they thought of raising money, but then realized that money was not the problem, people were the problem and that not enough people knew about the issue (Kids came up with this – not me).
So, again I said “Ok, it is a people problem. We cant fix that!”
Then the class was off again…
“We can make a petition.”
“Put it on a Google Form.”
“Tweet it on our class Twitter and Mr Dyers Twitter.”
“Email it to all the parents.”
“Get them to like it on face book.”
“We can tell the parents at assembly too!”
…and like that the project made an impact on my class and our community. We blogged, tweeted and emailed. Posters and placards were made. Then, we received emails from the local paper asking for interviews. The class and myself have been stopped in the street and told that what we are doing is awesome.
If you have not added you name to this petition then click here to get to the form.
Through my classes participation in Karen’s Travelling Rhino Project we have learned firstly about the plight of the Rhino and raised the awareness of it to our community, but secondly that through projects such as this classrooms no longer need to have walls.
The Global Classroom is a reality and achievable for any educator and all you need is a concept or cause and a PLN to connect you with the world. You can collaborate on a blog, email, Skype, trade letters or tweet with another class, as the technology we have at our classrooms removes the barriers of distance, borders, language and timezone. This project only lasted two weeks, but it changed the way that I look at education and changed the way my class looks at the world.
This is a guest post from #globalclassroom teacher @LParisi. Lisa blogs at http://thelisaparisi.com, and this post was originally published here.
I belong to an amazing group called The Global Classroom Project. I love this group. The teachers have fabulous ideas, talk about the ups and downs of global connections, and seek out collaborators. If you haven’t looked at the site, you must check it out.
Recently, a blog was posted by Michael Graffin as a reposting of a blog created by a student in Honduras. The class had just completed a mystery skype call, and this student was discussing the awkward, nearly offensive questions asked by the mystery class, which turned out to be in Texas. The two questions in point: “Do you guys use cell phones?” and “How does your house look like?” You can read her blog to see her view about these questions.
This started a conversation in the Google group about being careful how we communicate with each other and what questions we ask. So I just want to put in my two cents on the subject. (You should note that I already talked online with Michael about my response. He, as usual, invites conversation.)
My purpose for Going Global with my class is an idealistic one. I hope that my kids do a better job than we have. I want them to understand, accept, and connect with others, regardless of language, religion, race, gender, etc. I want them to learn that we are all people, deserving of respect and consideration. And I want them to remember this when it comes time to work with others, have discussions with others, argue with others. We are all people!
When I was growing up, in the 60s, we were just starting to talk about differences as positive. ”Be yourself.” ”Love who you are and love the one you’re with.” But, along with loving each other, I was taught not to insult anyone. And it was insulting to stare, to ask questions, to recognize differences. So we never even looked at each other. Really. If a person of color walked into the restaurant where I was eating, in my very white neighborhood, everyone would look away. To make eye contact might indicate that you were afraid of them or didn’t want them there. So, in order to show our respect, we just didn’t look. Strange but true. I wasn’t taught to do this. It was modeled for me.
Did this work? Of course not. I learned that people are different and deserve different treatment from one another. Poor and rich, black and white, abled and disabled. Labels were important. They defined for us how to act and how to treat each other.
But I have grown up. I have learned that this is not the way. And I have taken it upon myself to model differently for my students and my own child. I ask questions. I talk about clothing, jewelry, political beliefs, religious practices. I ask questions. And I keep talking. And I make eye contact. And I smile. And I invite people to sit down with me. And I make plans to go to dinner, the movies, a book club. And I ask questions.
My students recently did a Mystery Skype call with a class in Texas. Once we figured out the states we came from, the questions started flying. They thought we were all gangsters (New Yorkers are usually depicted that way). We thought they were all cowboys. After finding out the truth was quite the opposite, we laughed about our misconceptions.
What did we learn? That Texan students like the same music we do, watch the same movies and tv shows, and shop at the same stores. Hmmm. Not so different. The accents were certainly different but not much else was. And my students now have a new understanding of Texans and other Southerners.
I work in a very multicultural climate. We often have conversations about similarities with our religious rituals, our family dinners, and our weekend responsibilities. We are so different and yet so similar. I don’t ever want my students to stop asking questions. Eventually, their questions will get more mature, less “insulting”. And, maybe someday, they won’t need to ask questions about each other. They will just accept and understand.
Although we have participated in iEARN projects before, for the first time a Kindergarten class in our school, Mill Creek Elementary in Geneva, IL, USA, participated in the Teddy Bear Project through iEARN. It’s been great hearing about their exchange with Wen Ya Elementary in Taiwan. Although we were not part of this video or the iEARN post linked below, we loved seeing all of those happy students!
iEARN. What a great organization. There are many global collaborative education organizations out there now, but iEARN…well, they were the true cutting edge for us all. They have only become stronger in their numbers, larger in their geographic reach and curriculum scope, and more influential during their 25 years. Lucky for all of us, they have retained all of their professional generosity, humanity and incredible inclusiveness. They are true leaders in every possible way. Happy 25th iEARN! I’m proud to be among your many admirers and participant teachers.
My Year 5/6 students are researching Asian countries, and I’m hoping to introduce them to global connections through a simple inquiry project. I’d like to use Skype and Edmodo, but given that this isn’t my own class, I’m keeping things relatively simple (for now at least!).
Over the past week, almost all of my students have contributed some questions to a class Google Doc, which I’m sharing with my PLN around the world. While their questions barely scratch the surface, I hope that this project will start to raise awareness of global perspectives and connections within the school, with a view to forging deeper connections in future.
If you are a teacher or a student living in one of these countries, or you know someone who does, could you help answer my students’ questions?
You can access the public Google Doc here. Thank you!
There are so many great organizations and global collaborative project options, so just jump in! Once you get your feet wet and figure out the terrain, it’s time to make global projects work for you by specifically addressing your curriculum. You’ve opened up your classroom to the world to allow your students to connect and learn with kids all over, but curriculum standards are different around the world. It is easy to make the project not only collaborative, but also individual to suit your needs.
I’ll take a project my class finished recently to demonstrate how to tailor a project to fit your own needs. Using Data to Understand the World was a collaborative project between Illinois, Alaska, Taiwan, Canada, Costa Rica, Ireland, and Australia. It spanned grades 3-6. On the surface, it was a project to compare geography throughout the world by tracking data (temperature, precipitation and sunlight), and then discussing topics (animals, plants, and land forms). Each participating teacher agreed to provide the data and to participate in a conversation between classes. I could have left it there, but I used the project as a backbone to integrate my 5th grade curriculum.
In our district, the 5th grade curriculum includes:
Ecosystems (Science)
Compare and Contrast writing (Language Arts)
Informational writing (Language Arts)
Data and graphing (math)
Culture (Social Studies)
So to address those things, I included these aspects:
Ecosystems: I used my science text-book as we worked. Then I assigned deeper investigative research on the relationship between sunlight, location to the equator, hemispheres, and the ecosystem.
Compare and Contrast writing: Students chose two countries to compare and contrast animals and discussed how geographical location effected animal population.
Informational writing: Students chose a country’s plant posting and wrote an informational piece after researching.
Data and graphing: We used the data from around the world each month to graph and chart. We learned about mean, median, mode while comparing the counties and relating that to distance from the equator. I used my math book to teach these lessons while we worked.
Culture: throughout the project, we discussed culture as we Skyped, discussed, interacted with kids and teachers.
In addition, we used edmodo.com as a place for students to interact directly. I taught digital and global citizenship, collaboration, and technology while we worked online. Schools participated on different levels and to different degrees, so I used that to frame my collaborative connections.
I chose Using Data to Understand the World in this example, but this can be done with any global project. So far this year, we have worked with iEARN and Flat Classroom, and through kidblog.org. This individualization can be done with any project, so start small. Also, take advantage of the other teachers out there. Educators that are online in global projects are there to mentor and help as well. There is an amazing network of teachers online that welcome questions with open arms, so don’t be shy! Professional generosity is abundant. Jump in!
I am new to the Global Classroom Project but have found the content and ideas fascinating. I am hoping to invest some of our limited library time to pursue some of the activities. After looking through some of the “handshakes” that others have posted, I showed them to a group of fourth graders. A group of kids that can be easily distracted was fascinated by the descriptions of the other classrooms. When I had them brainstorm ideas of what WE would tell others about us, they were quite creative. They were also still engaged the next week when I had them write descriptive sentences about the things they want to tell others about them. Hang on, out there. We’ll get those handshakes posted yet!
Wow! What an incredible year we’ve had with our global projects! We are heading full steam into winter with a couple new ones. The students in Scoil Iosaif Naofa Kinvara, Co Galway, Ireland are our partners in learning about an amazing man named Francis O’Neill. Coming from Ireland in the height of the Great Potato Famine to Chicago, IL (very near to us), and ultimately becoming the Chief of the Chicago Police Department, as well a well-known and respected musician and collector of Irish Folk music, his life is full of rich history. We are learning lots about geography, world history, United States immigration and culture. We met our partners on Skype last week and we are off to a great start. Please check our wiki out!
And then there are eagles. Two eagles in particular, Liberty and Justice. By watching them on webcam, and researching collaboratively with partners in Iowa, North Carolina, Canada, and The Netherlands, we are becoming experts in habitat, lifespan, symbolism, protected species laws, anatomy, and other birds of prey. There is so much to learn from one bird that is admired worldwide. As we went on the webcam today, we saw that Liberty had laid an egg! You can find that project here. This is a Flat Classroom® project.
Lastly, our day takes us to fantasy. No, not daydreaming during math, but actually studying the elements of fantasy writing with Mrs. Parisi’s class in Long Island, NY. After we finish reading The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and discussing the elements, we will be writing fantasy stories collaboratively with a partner across the county. Follow along as we learn!
Hearing the kids complaining about having to leave their work as they lined up for recess today was music to my ears.
Written by Donna Roman, 5th grade teacher: http://about.me/donnaroman
The post below is something I originally posted on my personal blog, where I share my thoughts, explorations, and reflections on technology integration in early childhood education, particularly as a means for global collaboration. One of the core ways I feel connected to to the global education community is through the Global Classroom Project and the monthly #GlobalClassroom chats so I was excited to have an opportunity to share my experiences directly with this community. I am currently engaging in a massive online open course on educational technology (#ETMOOC), which is what inspired me to write this post about my (mis)adventures in connected learning and trying to form relationships between my school and other classes and teachers around the world. I hope it might have an inspiring or intriguing idea that will spark your own collaboration and if you have tips or ideas for working through these misadventures, I would love to hear them!
Before the second week of #etmooc “Connected Learning” slips away, I wanted to write a post reflecting a bit on the prompt: ”Is it possible for our classrooms to support this kind of (connected) learning? If so, how?“
I definitely think that our classrooms can support connected learning and that technology can make the “how” much easier and more feasible to facilitate that learning. To me, connected learning involves engaging students in real-world applications of skills and knowledge. One way to do this is by asking students to try and solve problems that people face everyday, such as concerns with the environment (Inspiration from GOOD.is) or building prototypes to help the elderly more easily navigate outdoors (see the FIRST Jr. Robotics Challenge).
I also view connected learning as a motivation to teach my students tools that can empower and enable them to be change agents. With these tools, students can build meaningful connections across different mediums, connections that not only facilitate learning but establish relationships. This means introducing ideas of digital citizenship and cyber safety at very young ages so students can begin using tools that they will likely continue to use as they grow older instead of tools that they will quickly grow out of (e.g., teaching 2nd graders how to conduct safe and effective Google searches versus restricting them to KidRex and allowing kindergarten students to tweet with other kindergarten students in class).
But most importantly, in my opinion, connected learning translates into global connectionsand collaborations for all students and teachers.
With modern technologies like Skype, Voicethread, Google Translate, Twitter and other (a)synchronous tools, it can be simple and free to connect students, even if their time zones never overlap or they speak different languages. There is no longer a need for expensive web conferencing technologies and with web 2.0 tools, students don’t have to wait weeks for a reply from students in another country. Therefore, it seems to me that we should be scaffolding and encouraging global connections in every classroom, starting with our youngest students. These connections can blossom into meaningful relationships where students can share experiences and learn together about the cultures, perspectives, and knowledge of each community. That feels like true connected learning.
The Global Classroom Project Logo
So what does that look like in the classroom? At my school, I have slowly been working to build some of these local and global connections so students can engage in more connected learning. While we have had some success, we have definitely had a few misadventures as well.
We tried signing up for an Elementary Mystery Skype project created by some educators who had seen it done with older grades. Three of my teachers signed up, willing to take the risk and do something they had never done before, but although all three were paired with another teacher, none of them heard a response back about setting a date to actually Skype. After following many inspiring #kinderchat teachers, I talked with a kindergarten teacher at my school about having her class join Twitter. We sat down and discussed how it could work, we wrote up a detailed letter to parents, we planned how to introduce it to the students but since their initial Twitter “launch” the class hasn’t been able to get other classes to tweet back. I think the kids are beginning to feel like tweeting means sending a message on the computer and never hearing back. Whether it’s been via Skype, Twitter, or even email, we have found that making that connectionwith another teacher and class can be much harder than getting the technology or other preparations in order.
1st Graders Excited to Skype with a class in Canada
Luckily, we also have some success stories to share. Thanks to the Global Classroom Project database, I was able to connect our Spanish teacher with a class in Spain so her students could Skype in English and Spanish. While moderating a #globalclassroom chat, I connected with another educator who wanted her students to be able to share their experiences of a Quaker meeting. This led to two of our fourth grade classes Skyping with their fourth grade and discussing their religious practices, as well as the similarities and differences in their schools. Comparing lunches and “specials” was a big highlight. Through Twitter, I was also able to set up a Skype session between a Canadian class and one of our first grade classes – our students were shocked to see all of their snow! And in a few weeks, we have a session scheduled with NASA for our youngest students, who are studying space, to hear about “Humans in Space,” one of the offerings in their Digital Learning Network.
So, while the actual “how” of connected learning can certainly be a challenge, I think it is doable. My students have been able to use a range of web 2.0 tools that have enabled them to develop deeper relationships within their individual classes, between their class and other classes at the school, and between our school and other schools. They are becoming more comfortable with the idea of leaving messages through various platforms and receiving comments and messages back from parents or other students after a pause (which can be tough to understand when you’re only 5 or 6). Teachers are beginning to consider ways we can connect with other students and classes in other parts of the world to enrich their units of study and make different topics and concepts more concrete while also more making them more complex. I hope that with time, patience, and perseverance our connections will continue to grow and with it, the connected learning that we are all able to share.
We’re really excited to share this great article from Northbrook Patch, which features the work of @DKarnoscak, one of our Global Classroom teachers in the USA. This article was originally published here, and is reproduced with permission of the author.
Willowbrook School third grade teacher David Karnoscak and his students have visited 14 countries and six continents so far this year, and they haven’t even left the classroom. By using Skype and The Global Classroom Project, Karnoscak connects his class with educators across the globe.
On Thursday, Jan. 17, all the third grade classrooms met in Willowbrook’s Collaboration Cafe and used Skype to meet with penguin research scientist Jean Pennycook, who is currently stationed in Antarctica. It’s summer on the continent, but temperatures remain below freezing.
Pennycook answered the children’s questions and talked about how a scientist lives a “very rustic” life, while conducting research in Antarctica.
Pennycook said her favorite penguin is the Adelie, because it is an active and engaging animal, as opposed to the Emperor penguin, which just “stands around.”
She says there are more Adelie penguins than any other penguin species, they live in the south and have to cross many kilometers of ice to reach where they can build their nests in the spring.
Students heard about the living conditions in Antarctica — a solar panel is the scientists’ only source of electricity, which they use to charge their computers, cameras and radios.
All waste products are stored in big drums and must be hauled out by helicopter after the scientist’s eight week stay. Pennycook showed the students the tent where she lives, as well as the outdoor scenery, which consisted of rocks and ice, and a view of the ocean. She said Antarctica is “stark, like the moon.”
Melted snow is used for washing, not drinking, because of its high salt content. She stated that there are no plants, trees or bushes in Antartica, nor is there a permanent population of human beings. Animals that live there only survive by eating creatures and fauna from the ocean. Students also heard about the different types of seals, whales, seagulls and skua that live in the region.
Karnoscak, the Willowbrook teacher, emphasized that his passion for Skyping around the world has rubbed off on his students. In December, the class Skyped with students in Greece and exchanged holiday greetings. He says he enjoys seeing the kids becoming global citizens, who are learning about different cultures and people. They recently visited a school in Nepal, and everyone was very surprised at how different it was from Willowbrook School.
“Our favorite game is Mystery Skype, where students take turns asking geographic questions about an opponent’s location. Students must use geographic knowledge, map skills and logical reasoning to find where another class is located,” said Karnoscak.
The other third grade teachers who collaborated with David Karnoscak on the Antarctica activity were Allison Safran and Jessica Gomberg.
One of the true joys of my work with this project is the opportunity to meet, and work with amazing educators all over the world. This is the first of what I hope will be a long-term series of posts, where I’ll introduce you to some of our Global Classroom teachers, and share their inspiring stories with the world.
Rawya works at the Makassed Schools in Beirut, Lebanon, and was involved in global education long before we met through the Global Classroom Project. With an impressive list of national and international awards, Rawya is dedicated to helping her young charges learn, share, and connect with the wider world; and has personally taught me a great deal.
Rawya was recognised as one of our inaugural Global Classroom Lead Teachersin 2012, and blogs at Young Clovers. I am looking forward to the day when we finally manage to meet f2f.
Here are a few glimpses into her classrooms:
Flat Rosie at Makassed School
Art Project – Lebanon and India
Flat Rosie Celebrating Lebanon Independence Day 2012
This was originally posted on Stephanie Cruz’s blog last year, and is reproduced with permission. Stephanie is one of @JosePopoff‘s students in Honduras.
Hey! So this week we had a Skype session with a Texas school. This teacher’s students wanted to practice their Spanish with us, they wanted to have an experience in which they would actually be talking with native Spanish speaking teenage students (wow, that’s long, sounded shorter in my head). Anyhow, they started talking to us and we did not feel offended, but it was a bit awkward.
We were excited about the session, but once they started asking, everything turned out to be disappointing One of the questions asked, was “do you guys use cellphones ” And the other one was, “how does your house looks like?”. It felt like if our balloon was just pinched.
One of the things I learned was never to feel above others, or beneath others.
We should think twice before we speak, we should consider whom are we talking to or talking with. There are many countries, not just the one we live on. This means that when we are talking with someone we must at least try to use a global vocabulary. Not our daily words, but words that are understandable to others that do not live in the same country as we do. For instance, “I live in Lima”. From this phrase one can understand that I live in Lima, Peru, and this is not the case. Specify from were are we natives from. “I was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras”.
I just wanted to share this because whether we are aware of or not, we are all going global somehow.
The world is advancing, technology is getting even better. There is a word we Hondurans say when someone is uncivilized “montunos”. So, as my teacher once said, we must take off that “montunation” we have.
Start getting global, speak the global language, and get it started!
A year ago Lorraine Leo from Jackson School, MA (USA) suggested that we join the Penguin Science Project running from November 2012 to January 2013. This year we joined – four classes from Vonsild School, Denmark – from 1st to 8th graders.
The project is organized by Jean Pennycook, who stays near the penguin colony at Cape Royds, Antarctica – following the Adelie Penguins day by day from the building of nests to chicks running around.
The goal is to learn about penguins, the environment and Antarctica in general.
You are able to join the project on different levels. In Vonsild we have had 8th graders learning about climate changes and weather. All classes have been following the nest of Mary (the penguin we have adopted) daily. We share the nest with Jose Lopez´s class in Spain, who has adopted the male – called Pocolo 2. Pocolo 1 was left by Mary after she had laid one egg. What a drama to follow!
1st and 2nd graders have been making postcards to be send to Antarctica to get stamped. They have also made a flag to be sent to Antarctica where it will wave near the nest for a period before it will be returned to our school, as they have been writing penguin stories.
We ended the project with a skype call to Jean. Three classes (1st, 2nd & 6th graders) were asking questions about penguins, Antarctic surroundings, tent lift, etc. One of the eye opening facts was that human waste was transported by helicopter and ship to the States to keep Antarctica 100% clean. It was also interesting to see the temperature was -2 deg. Celsius both in Antarctica (summer) and in Denmark (winter). We were also asked to give the chick a name, which was a fantastic opportunity for our students.
See more on our class blog!
I can highly recommend to join this project, which resumes in November 2013. But make your arrangements now. Please e-mail Jean for further details: jean.pennycook AT gmail.com, or visit the website: http://www.penguinscience.com.
Between late September and December my class and I have been connecting quite frequently through FaceTime, Google Hang Out, and Skype. Each connection has been unique. Sometimes we connect over a specific topic such as we did here, here, and here. Other times we’ve connected as a culminating activity after working on a project together such as here. Sometimes it’s been over a time frame meeting weekly like we did here and here. Yet sometimes it’s with the same class, over a variety of topics, but regularly enough that the students in my class know a lot more about these students. Each type of connection has a purpose, and they are all meaningful in their own ways.
This frequent connecting is a very conscious change I’ve made in my teaching practice. It’s new to me, my students, and their parents. Sometimes I wonder if I’m setting us up to connect too frequently, but at the end of every interaction we are all rejuvenated and excited about learning. Yes, occasionally our calls go on longer than they should (we can get real squirrelly when that happens), and sometimes they take longer to get started because of technology issues. But each and every time we connect outside of our classroom we learn something from those on the other side of our computer screen. We learn something that we couldn’t learn with out them.
My students love it when we find that other classes are doing similar things as us. Our very first call of the year was with Mrs. Cassidy’s class. My class was surprised to learn that they were learning about patterns in math just like we were. Our call with our Global Read Aloud friends in New York surprised us too. Their lives in many ways were so different than ours – they come to school by taxi or subway and their playground was on the roof of their school, and they have eleven floors in their school. Yet they were just like us in so many ways too. When we Skyped with Northern BC we were shocked to find out that they had snow, and they had a different time than us. There is a story for each and every call that we’ve made.
Time is certainly something that comes up over and over again. My class is always curious to know what time it is where the children on the other side of the computer are. One student actually asked me why we are always behind everyone else. While our friends are preparing to go home for the day, my class is just in from recess, or getting ready for lunch. When the call is first thing in the morning the class we are chatting with is usually getting ready for lunch. It’s confusing for my students, but it’s a teaching opportunity too. So far the only classes we’ve connected with that are in our time zone are those in our own school district – Mrs. Leech and Mrs. Sarchet’s classes. My class loves that they live where we do. We also know them a lot better because we took the time to go to their school and meet them in person.
The thing I like best about inviting all these people into our classroom is that it really creates a sense of wonder in my students. No matter what the specific purpose of our call is we always end them with our “wonder” questions specific to that class. The more we’ve connected the better we are getting at coming up with wonder questions. I really like that.
From what I can tell the two biggest reasons for not connecting is lack of time or lack of technology. Lack of time can be an issue when your sole focus is on covering specific prescribed learning outcomes in only one way. I have read my curriculum over and over again, and we cover a lot of prescribed learning outcomes with our calls. In terms of the Speaking and Listening Language Arts requirements alone we cover every single one. Here are just a few of those we are covering.
- interacts with others for the purposes of exchanging ideas on a topic
- asks questions for clarification and understanding to demonstrate comprehension
- takes turns as speak and listener when interacting with others
- organizes thinking by following a simple framework when presenting ideas and information
There are many more on the list and we cover all of those too. In addition when our calls are on a specific content area subject we cover those too. So when people tell me they don’t have the time to connect outside of their classroom I am puzzled. We have so many things to cover in our day that it surprises me that more people aren’t connecting. It’s such a powerful, and motivating way to learn. I can assure you that my students are learning things that I am required to teach them during these calls. And they are learning a lot more than that too.
Technology, or lack of it can be a real issue for some. I know it was an issue for me before my school became an open wireless school in May. It isn’t so much that we are open wireless but more that Skype was actually blocked on our old network. At the time I didn’t have a smart phone either so using my personal phone wouldn’t have worked . But if you have internet access that allows you to connect with Skype, Google Hang Out, or Face Time then you really don’t have much of an excuse.
To make this all happen we have a computer, camera, a projection device (or Apple TV), and a big screen. If all we had was a computer (our computer happens to have the camera built it) and an internet connection that allowed connection with one of those communication tools we could and would still connect outside of our classroom. So again, unless you’re missing one of those key components connecting can be possible for you too.
Now I alluded to it earlier, things don’t always go as planned. Lately we’ve been having issues with sound. Sometimes they don’t hear us but we hear them perfectly fine, and other times it’s the complete opposite. My students have learned just as much when things don’t go as planned as when thing go exactly as planned They have learned how to be flexible and how to adjust when things don’t go well. That’s a really important skill to take with you throughout your life. I also know they watch to see how I’m reacting to the problems. As a teacher I am always on stage when I’m in front of my students so it’s even more important that I keep my cool during these mishaps. I can assure you I am doing my best to model good practice. Hopefully they are learning perseverance, and/or adaptability from me.
Learning with others through Skype, FaceTime, or Google Hang Out is a very powerful way to learn. Are you learning this way with your class? I’d love to hear your story too.
Each year, the Flat Classroom Project invites a world leading global educator to create a video ‘keynote’ – and this year’s video is a truly inspiring retrospective on the power of global connections and collaboration. It is well worth watching.
In the words of Chris Betcher (@betchaboy) from Sydney Australia:
I was lucky to have discovered how flat the world could be when my students and I did our first global collaborative project way back in 1996. Over the next few years we participated in lots of successful global projects, and the lessons I learned through those experiences permanently changed the way I viewed learning, teaching and education in general. I saw first-hand how powerful it could be to work across the boundaries of time and location, to connect with others and share our learning on a global scale.
In this keynote, I’d like to offer the long view of working in a flat world. I’d like to share some insights into how it changed the way I view education, and how it changed my teaching career. I’d also like to introduce you to some of my ex-students, who will share the effect that being part of these global collaborative projects has had on their lives almost 17 years later.
Well, it is hard to believe that after 6 weeks of solid preparation, we formally launched our 2012-13 project at the Global Education Conference 2012.
Our Global Classroom Stories and Project Launchpresentation was attended by a (record) 27 participants, from 10 countries across 5 continents (6 if we put Trinidad in South America); and hosted speakers from all over the world.
The presentation was one of our best -
Enabling emerging #globalclassroom leaders to share their stories with the world
Formalising our emerging relationship with Govinda Panthy & the Open World Cause, as we look forward to helping raise funds to build the SAV School, Nepal
Marking the formal launch of Global Classroom 2012-13
But perhaps the most emotional moment was when we handed over the microphone to some of our #globalclassroom students – from Elkanah House, in Cape Town, South Africa.
THANK YOU to Sarah, Abigail, Tyra, and Matthew – you did yourselves proud! And thank you to their wonderful teacher, Karen Stadler (@ICT_Integrator) who made it all possible.
Slides and Recording
The presentation was recorded in BlackBoard Collaborate – please watch (and feel free to share) the recording link:
connected with through email and twitter. Hawea Flat is a small rural school in the South Island of New Zealand and the closest Rhino to us is in a Zoo 5 hours drive away. We knew what a Rhino was and we knew who a poacher was, however we had no comprehension of how the two fitted together and what the devastating consequence of their connection was.
