Tuesday, July 29, 2008

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.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Links for the Week of 7/7/08

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

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 learn
ing with your staff?




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