A free five-day, multiple-language, multiple-time zone online collaborative conference on global education. Teacher, student, curricular, policy/leadership, and change tracks.
Phenomenal global collaboration project involving students from 15 countries. Teaching assignment is replicated across continents. Last year's project, Rock n Sol, was featured in the California K-12 Technology Showcase. This year's project, "Are You Game" focuses on digital storytelling. Students collaborate to compose music, make movies, podcasts, and experiments and met in face to face video-conferences. Using Garage Band, kids annually create a collaborative song that has been touched in every continent in the world. Each week, each group contributes 30 seconds with a specific musical instrument. Even blind students are involved in the project.
With an understanding of spatial thinking, educators can learn to use geographic tools to develop research, writing, and presentation in the classroom. Requires Google Earth and ESRI ArcExplorer.
Scholastic Administrator magazine named Verizon Thinkfinity a "Best in Tech" website for professional development. Thinkfinity was one of eight websites to receive the award at the ISTE 2010 conference. Thinkfinity Professional Development is aligned to ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers.