Serendipity35

I didn't make it to ISTE 2010, but I have been following some of the tweets and posts on it. One group that I have been following for awhile is the Flat Classroom Project.

They are doing a session at ISTE called "Seven Steps to Flatten Your Classroom" about the steps to connect your classroom locally and globally to create meaningful and authentic learning communities using Web 2.0 tools and emerging technologies. They have a Ning Discussion online too.

The Flat Classroom Projects have picked up a number of education awards and connected thousands of students, educators and education leaders around the world. They are structured on a pedagogy that embraces emerging technologies to harness the energy of creative learning.

The presentation shares this seven step pedagogy:

STEP 1 - Connection: Connect yourself, connect your administration, connect your students locally and then globally (taxonomy of global connection)

STEP 2 - Communication: Synchronous and asynchronous approaches - The flat classroom using educational networking as a unifying asynchronous communication tool. In conjunction with collaboration tools such as a wiki and along with teacher cooperation and organization skills classrooms can communicate effectively and develop ongoing relationships. The classrooms may then cooperate with objectives, projects, and assignments created on these common platforms. However, the effective flat classroom structure has both synchronous and asynchronous communication methods.

STEP 3 - Citizenship: Digital citizenship - how to be a Digiteacher - Digital Citizenship education starts at a young age as we cover all of the aspects of digital citizenship with elementary education including topics of access, safety, digital citizenship, etc. in walled gardens or by adopting a webkinz and moving towards open participation in educational spaces during the high school years.

STEP 4 - Contribution and Collaboration: How to measure and verify the quality of online participation using Web 2.0 tools. Collaboration obstacles and how to overcome these. How to involve the global community.

STEP 5 - Choices: Differentiating instruction with Technology

STEP 6 - Creation: Blooms Taxonomy & 21st Century Learning Objectives

STEP 7 - Celebration: Virtual global student presentations and summits

All of this started with reading Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat.

The folks behind the project:

Julie Lindsay, current E-Learning Coordinator at Beijing (BISS) International School, China. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, over the past 10 years she has been teaching and leading the use of technology in schools in Zambia, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Qatar and now China.

Vicki Davis is a teacher and the IT director at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia. Vicki co-created three award winning international wiki-centric projects, the Flat Classroom project, the Horizon project, and Digiteen. These projects have linked more than 500 students from both public and private schools in such countries as Austria, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Japan, Spain, Qatar and the US. These collaborative projects harnessing the most powerful Web 2.0 tools available including wikis, blogs, digital storytelling, podcasts, social bookmarking, and more.