52°North refers to the degree of latitude which intersects the founding organizations' home - the city of Münster, Germany.
52°North - the R&D Network
The open source software initiative 52°North is an international network of partners from research, industry and public administration. Its mission is to foster the development of new concepts and technologies in Geoinformatics through a common innovation process. Partners participate in so called R&D communities, focusing on common themes, such as Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) or web-based Geoprocessing, for example.
All software developed within this collaborative development process is published under an open source license.
The 52°North partners have a long and outstanding record in the Geo-IT domain. They are actively contributing to the development of international standards, e.g. at W3C, ISO, OGC or INSPIRE.
Established in 1998, the Global Nomads Group (GNG) is an international NGO that creates interactive educational programs for students about global issues. GNG's educational programs include (1) four types of videoconferences - The PULSE, Currents, Innovations and Rapid Response - where students learn about and discuss subjects with their peers from around the world in live, facilitated sessions; and (2) videos and learning content on a variety of international issues relevant to teachers and students.
130 Countries
30 Languages
40,000 Educators
2 Million Youth
iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is the world's largest non-profit global network that enables teachers and youth to use the Internet and other technologies to collaborate on projects that enhance learning and make a difference in the world.
Global SchoolNet's Projects Registry (PR) is the oldest (1995) and largest online clearinghouse for teacher-conducted global learning projects. The PR contains more than 3,000 annotated listings - and is searchable by date, age level, geographic location, collaboration type, technology tools or keyword. The Project Registry is a central place for educators to find global partners and announce projects.
Many projects are aligned with the 21 Century Learning Skills matrix, the ICT Literacy Maps, especially in Science, Geography and English and International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) NETS Standards for Students.
What is the Flat Classroom™ Project?
The Flat Classroom™ Project is a global collaborative project that joins together middle and senior high school students. This project is part of the emerging tend in internationally-aware schools to embrace a holistic and constructivist educational approach to work collaboratively with others around the world in order to create students who are competitive and globally-minded. The project was co-founded by
Vicki Davis (Westwood Schools, USA) and Julie Lindsay(Beijing (BISS) International School, China) in 2006when Julie (then in Bangladesh) and Vicki joined their classrooms together for the first time to study and emulate the emerging flattened learning environment. The Flat Classroom Project 2006 is featured in Chapter 13, 'If it's not happening it's because you're not doing it', of the 2007 edition of Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat' upon which it was based. (pages 501-503)
One of the main goals of the project is to 'flatten' or lower the classroom walls so that instead of each class working isolated and alone, 2 or more classes are joined virtually to become one large classroom. This is done through the Internet using Web 2.0 tools such as Wikispaces and Ning.
The Project uses Web 2.0 tools to make communication and interaction between students and teachers from all participating classrooms easier. The topics studied and discussed are real-world scenarios based on 'The World is Flat' by Thomas Friedman.
E-Learning Coordinator at Beijing (BISS) International School, China. This blog exists to share ideas about E-Learning, ICT integration and digital literacy in education.