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Tom Whitby writes a provocative blog post about Connected Educator Month, August 2012. He states: "No, to be a good teacher, one does not need to be connected. However, the question is if you are a good teacher and unconnected, could you be a better teacher if you were connected? Shouldn't we strive to be the best that we can be? It's not only an Army thing. Being connected offers not only exposure to content and ideas but also the ability to create and collaborate on ideas. Being connected fosters transparency and debunks myths of education that have been harbored in the previous isolation of the education profession. This is the stuff of a true learner's dreams, and, as educators, are we not all learners?"

Inspiring reflection from my friend and global educator Anne Mirtschin @murcha about the Global Education Conference 2013. Watch out for GEC 2014! http://globaleducationconference.com

The Global Education Conference Network created this during the Global Education Conference 2013.

From "The 20% Project" to "Staff Development for the 21st Century" Education Is My Life covered all the big topics in 2012. This book takes the best articles from our blog and compiles them into a must read for the education community. Whether you are interested in technology, 21st century leadership, or staff development - this resources provides information and inspiration to all.

Did you miss something at the Global Education Conference Nov 12-16? You will find all recordings and links on this page! Enjoy!

Yong Zhao's new book in 2012 - "The book is about preparing global, creative, and entrepreneurial talents. It is my attempt to answer a number of pressing questions facing education today. These questions are exemplified by two new stories that have dominated the media recently, one around the Facebook IPO and the other the debt and jobs of college graduate"

Thanks to CEM organisers for setting up our Flat Classrooms Global Network on the Connected Educator Month website. We invite educators globally to come and join our network NOW and tell us, via this website form, what you like about this connected community.

From my friend Kyle Dunbar - if you want to join in - sign up on her blog. "I am giddy with excitement about the opportunity to host a Virtual Book Club discussing the fantastic book Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time by Julie Lindsay and Vicki A. Davis. The book club was announced last Sunday night in my school division and I am thrilled that we already have thirteen teachers signed up! Even better, we have teachers from across our school division and from all different grade levels. It is a wonderful thing when already busy teachers find time in their lives to discuss powerful educational ideas with their peers.  Now, I am ready to get some global participation in this book club. I can't think of a better way to brainstorm about global projects than to have teachers from across the globe in the session together. So, we are inviting all teachers, parents, students, thinkers and learners out there to join us for six live meetings to share what they think about the projects, resources, and research discussed in Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds. We will be meeting on Mondays at 7:30pm EST on the following dates: January 7th January 21st February 4th February 18th March 4th March 18th (find the time in your area here) Meetings will be live using Blackboard Collaborate and will last one hour. We will spend the time sharing thoughts about ideas raised in the book. It will also be a great opportunity to connect with other educators that share similar passions and beliefs about flattening our classrooms walls. We will share strategies and resources for building those 21st century skills like collaboration, communication and creativity in authentic ways.

There's a massive educational game being leveraged right now that you probably haven't heard of. It's called Skoolbo and, as of this posting, has seen students answer more than 8 million literacy questions in just under half a year. Literacy scores have improved by an average of 22% since students started using the service.

I really like this video as a kick-start to discussing change in education as it features a number of internationally focused and international educators.

Tom Whitby shares insights into connected learning - asking if we should be flipping the model and the learners connect to model the benefits for the educators...... He also states: "Major education conferences are including more and more student sessions exploring the possibilities of student connectedness, connected learning, and choices students have in this technology-driven culture." Yes! that is what Flat Classroom conferences and live events do....and more!

A list of the many Flat Classroom Teachers presenting on global collaboration and learning at the Global Education Conference, November 12-16. All details at http://globaleducationconference.com

Excellent blog from an Australian educator! Shares apps in curriculum areas and key learning areas. Australian-based categories, but lots of wonderful resources.

If you have experience with debate and are an educator, we need you. Will you take one or two hours of your time (at most) and serve as a judge for the Eracism global debate project? We have students around the world debating now and need a few more educators. Here's information on signing up. We'll train you on how to share. it is done using voicethread. Thanks for your consideration. If you coach debate, you might want to familiarize yourself with this new debate format "simulated sychronous" using voicethread.

This short United-Eye Productions video employs free-style animation to show five key ways that education is improved by technology: Global learning Game-based learning Virtual worlds, digital simulations, and models Mobile learning Real-time data-based decision making

Honor Morman, a Flat Classroom Certified Teacher, shares her thoughts about introducing global collaboration into the curriculum. "Here's what two of my students said about our participation in the Flat Classroom Project, a 12-week project in which we collaborated with 15 other classes in seven different countries to create a vision for the future of education and society based on emerging technologies and the characteristics of the net generation: "[I learned] how important it is to be a member of a global society-communicating globally and working together as a global community is the only way we can solve global issues and improve the lives of all of us. Communicating and collaborating via the web with global partners is how we will do it in future." -Lara "[Participating in this project helped me become] a global leader, able to communicate important global ideas and different perspectives across cultures and borders and share those ideas for the betterment of my community and the world." -Katherine"

Informative article by Vicki Jan 31, 2013 about global collaboration and Flat Classroom.

Flat Classroom Certified teacher Aaron Maurer shares his frank views and strategies for global collaboration and global education with Dr Z from the University of Northern Iowa. Excellent insight into how to flatten the classroom walls and meet challenges headon to globalize attitudes and experiences of students. Thanks Aaron!