Children Connecting

JIM CARLETON AND MALI BICKLEY
Presentation at
NECC 2008, San Antonio

We are entering "The World is Flat" era of education.
How can we inform, enlighten, and connect our children across time and space?

Jim and Mali shared the numerous collaborative projects in which they have involved their students.



photo on flickr by carf
GLOBAL MURAL PAINTING PROJECT

MY HERO – A project promoting positive role models- myhero.com
ONE DREAM – A project to develop the relationship between two classes
• School wide collaboration website project
• Idea to help another school across the world- war affected students of Sierra Leone
• Raised funds to purchase technology to ship to them
• Then ask them to document the growth of the community

ART MILES PROJECT
• Creation of 1/ 2 mural by each culture send the 1/2 mural
• The other country paints the second half (based on Paper Bag Princess and the second 1/2 on a different story)
• Mural travels to art museums around the world

ZERO FOOTPRINT KIDS CALCULATOR - New project through iEARN about global warming

Lets the kids be the leaders and to take ownership of their learning.

We are crossing the line in the way students learn and need to adopt the way they learn out of school. We need to help them use these tools safely, confidently.

Engage students in real projects that make a difference in the world.

Having live interactive communication is vital!

By connecting the students with others across the world, they find a way in to understand current events and then want to learn and understand more.

Goals drive the tools.

It is about the connections and making the relationships.

The traits within Commit to Character were being developed through the collaborative projects. The traits became action words for them, changing who the students are. The words are who the children are becoming.

Collaborating across the world also increased collaboration within the school.
• Through collaboration the curriculum was developed in a meaningful connected way.
• Over a five-year period the test scores rose over 20% across the board.

Yes, there can be difficulties along the way.
Partners in other countries fell apart. Time zone differences can be difficult to negotiate around. And at times there were tech problems. Communication between IT and ICT is key.

Words of Advice and a Call to Action
• Take steps to take to begin
• Be willing to take a risk
• Follow your passion
• Collaborate, collaborate
• Please ask for help
• Work together
• Don't wait until you think you know what you want to do and know how to do it
• Your students and others will help you along the way
• Dream BIG
• Impact your student and the rest of the world

What kind of world do you want to live in?

Convene, Connect, Transform

Ideas presented by CEO of ISTE Don Knecek
at NECC2008, San Antonio

We need to transform schools into global learning portals

ISTE could stand for the

International
Society for
Transforming
Education

• Schools can't continue as if the world hasn’t
changed and that there is a globalization of
economy
• Imperative for all to think and innovate
• Whole new meaning to competitiveness
• Sprinkling of tech literacy is no longer enough
• Command digital environment
• Collaborate and communicate
• Innovate projects and solutions
• Be co-learners with students and colleagues
• Learning with and from students is imperative
• Teachers come from all over the world- virtually and literally
• Teaching and learning as isolated endeavors is no longer

We are entering "The World is Flat" era of education.

We must build capacity for transformation
and
build Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships in education,
across stakeholder groups
and up and down levels.

Links for the Week of 7/7/08

It's Been a Very Busy Week Online! Don't miss the additional links from NECC2008.

• Jakesonline Wiki

  One Hour PowerPoint presentation by David Jakes and Dean Shareski at NECC 2008. Using design principles to improve powerpoint presentations.
  
  
• Google Spreadsheet example
  

  Generating a map from a Google Spreadsheet.

• Notes from McTeach: THE Web 2.0 Directory
  

  Web 2.0 Directory posted through Scribd. A comprehensive direcgtory to a ton of social networking site.
  

• Building 21st Century Skills
  

  A preview of the student outcomes from the 21st Century Partnership framework

• necclibrarians08 » home
  

  Wiki for Library2.0 NECC2008 panel presentation.

• NECC 2008 Webcasts
  

  List of vidcasts and podcasts from NEC2008 sessions.

• Ping.fm / Update all of your social networks at once!
  
  
• Around the Corner - MGuhlin.net : Assess Your 8th Graders for Free
  

  Assess your 8th graders tech literacy for free compliments of Texas

• Around the Corner - MGuhlin.net : Help Deeply Moved by NECC2008
  

  A kindergarten teacher's view of using technology in her professional practice.

• 21st Century classrooms and learning | Not So Distant Future
  

  Blog post about Chris Lehmann's NECC2008 presentation.

• The Best Collaboration Tools
  

  An extensive list of current collaboration tools.

• Copyright issues in the classroom and beyond
  

  Copyright issues in the classroom and beyond.

• Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech » Blog Archive » The Real Magic of K12 Online
  

  Stream of K12Online presentation at NECC2008.

• Flip Video - Educational Discount
  

  Get an educational discount for the Flip Video Camera - $15 rebate coupon.

• UbD21C » home
  

  Wiki which supports Chris Lehmann's NECC 2008 presentation.

• aquaculturepda » Ning
  

  Tutorial with screenshots for using Ning.

• PBS Teachers | learning.now . PBS Teachers Embraces Social Networking and Bookmarking Tools | PBS
  

  PBS Teacher Connect Social bookmarking from PBS- blogs, bookmarking.

  
  
  

A Spark that Ignites the Power of Learning Collaboratively

The Magic of Digital: Collaborative Interaction in Teacher Professional Development
Presented by Wes Fryer, Darren Kuropatwa, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, and Dean Shareski NECC 2008




Conferences are typically finite, but through blended professional development, the opportunity to learn continues. A tiny fraction of teachers are participating, so how can we increase the number of teachers participating?


Through Blended Professional Development- K12Online
It will be there when you are ready to go to it.

• Provide professional development credit for teachers for accessing the content
• show them the content- select an element and then share three things about it
• other people have dealt with the same issues that we are dealing with- having teachers from other countries helps teachers to understand it
• What are academic needs for your school? Develop and create your PD around it.

K12Online Shanghai- Jeff Utecht exlained his model for using K12Online as professional development with teachers in his school.
What did you learn through K12 Online learning- what were the learning points?

• Connection - 4 Saturdays in a row with his teachers- watch the keynote together
• Then 1 1/2 hours you could select any sessions within the strand you selected.
• Then created podcasts as a group about the experience that day.
• In addition was able to provide graduate credit for the teachers.
• International schools partner with US graduate school- blog posts,replies, etc. became the reflection necessary for the graduate course.

Unbounded Learning- not "Bell" Bounded

• Live events-Fireside Chats and When Night Falls
• Wes - Sustained conversations over time change us
• Live events provided some of the social glue that bind us together.
  

It is about student learning.
Part of publishing is showcasing work.

Learning how to learn yourself so you can analyze it and then teach your students how to do it.

It is all about people.

How do you plan to engage people in learning together?

How can the K12Online Conference be a stimulus to ignite learning with your staff?

k12online photo by Wesley Fryer on flickr
Skypetation by todbaker on flickr