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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.

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.

Research Profile: The GoodPlay Project With support from the MacArthur Foundation, the GoodPlay project explores the ethical character of young people's activities in the new digital media. We seek to understand how young people conceptualize their participation in virtual worlds and the ethical considerations that guide their conduct. We are exploring five themes which we believe are salient in the digital age, with implications for ethics-identity, privacy, ownership and authorship, credibility, and participation. In the first phase of our project, we studied youth ages 15-25 who participate in online games, social networking sites, and other online communities. Our methods included in-depth interviews and the posing of ethical dilemmas. Based on this research, and in collaboration with Project New Media Literacies, we developed classroom exercises to encourage high school-aged youth to reflect on the ethical implications of their online activities. In the current phase, we are studying the ethical perspectives of youth ages 10-14 and of influential adults in young people's lives. We are also studying "good participation," focusing on youth who use digital media to facilitate the achievement of civic and political goals.

This is a collaborative workspace for the development of instructional items for the use of the MMORPG, World of Warcraft, in a school setting. Please take a moment to explore the various sections of the site and if you would like to contribute, please email Lucas Gillispie at lucas AT edurealms.com. The original focus of this project was to develop a curriculum for an after school program or "club" for at-risk students at the middle and/or high school level. This program would use the game, World of Warcraft, as a focal point for exploring Writing/Literacy, Mathematics, Digital Citizenship, Online Safety, and would have numerous projects/lessons intended to develop 21st-Century skills. Because of the success of the first year's implementation as an after school program, the program is now being implemented as a language arts elective for middle schoolers designed to provide enrichment for students at all levels. All project materials, including a fully-developed language arts course, aligned to middle grades standards, will be made available under a creative commons license upon completion. The goal is to not only demonstrate the viability of game-based learning using commercial games, but to also provide a foundation or template upon which similar projects can be built.

Eracism At the Flat Classroom(tm) Conference in Doha, Qatar in January 2009, a visionary group of students proposed that a series of debates be held to promote awareness of racism on a global basis and how we need to work together to solve the world's problems. This multi-national group of four students proposed their project and were promoted through an extensive voting process including a global vote on the next project to be run by the Flat Classroom(tm) project founders, Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay.

Over the past two years I've been approached by several people from around the world inquiring about our World of Warcraft in School Project. Yet, despite the numerous contacts, I'm only aware of two other schools/school systems who've started similar projects. Of course, there are many potential barriers from costs to people-barriers. Craig Lawson (@midlawsondle) and I have worked over the past year to create a full-year, standards-aligned language arts course that is based on World of Warcraft. We have several goals in doing so: 1. We want to demonstrate that there is value in considering commercial, off-the-shelf games for curricular integration. 2. We want to share our work with anyone else who might take it on, and in doing so, expand the network of educators who are exploring the potential that games like this hold for the classroom. 3. We want to create a model (using the term loosely, here) upon which similar projects, perhaps using other games might be built. 4. We hope that others will look at the work and expand on it, improve it, and share it. 5. We want to show that, "Yes! You can do this."

Project Zero is an educational research group at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. Project Zero's mission is to understand and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific disciplines, at the individual and institutional levels.

Video by the founder of Hole in the Wall project, which involves kids in a slum in India teaching themselves (and other kids) how to use a PC.

Flat Classroom Elementary Project

The JASON Project was founded in 1989 by Dr. Robert D. Ballard, the oceanographer and explorer who discovered the shipwreck of RMS Titanic. Within months, he received thousands of letters from middle school students asking to join his next expedition. Dr. Ballard knew his discovery had tapped a wellspring of curiosity and excitement about science and was determined to feed it.

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.

Bonaire Facebook pages about their Adobe Youth Voices projects

"The CoSN Value of Investment (VOI) Leadership Initiative, is designed to support the effective use of technology in K-12 education. The focus of this initiative is to provide a methodology and tools for K-12 school leaders, allowing them to better measure and articulate the costs and benefits of proposed technology projects. "

What historical event, explorer, voyage, or local history would you like to share with other schools? Have you studied the settlement history of your own community? Have you studied about your state or country and historical events that helped shape it? This site is dedicated to the explorers, voyages, events, and historical backgrounds of countries throughout the World. We'd like to hear about famous explorers who surveyed or traveled through your community long ago. Perhaps you'd like to tell us about historical events that shaped your locale or region. You may wish to report about a catastrophic event in your area. Or, you may want to tell us how your community was founded, its historical background, early settlers. Every community, every town, every country has a past, and we'd like to hear about yours. This project is open to schools all over the World. We invite a "global community" of schools to share this site with us. We can learn about each other's countries as we contribute to this site.

The EcoCasting Project is a set of hands-on inquiry activities focused on ecosystems, food webs, bioaccumulation, and invasive species designed for use in environmental science and biology classes in grades 9-12. The curriculum is aligned to Illinois state standards, the College Readiness Standards, and the National Science Education Standards. It addresses the following objectives:   *  Using ecological models to investigate food web complexity   *  Investigating PCB toxins and how they move through an ecosystem   *  Investigating invasive species and how they disrupt ecosystems and change bioaccumulation patterns

The Watershed Dynamics project is a partnership between the Office of STEM Education Partnerships (OSEP) at Northwestern University, the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) program, CUAHSI (the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc.). Each organization represents a group of people interested in hydrology and science education. Working together, curriculum developers at OSEP, the worldwide network of science educators in GLOBE, and scientists and engineers from CUAHSI, have created tools and curricula to support student investigations of the watershed. This curriculum is designed to teach students about water availability and the impacts of human activty on the watersheds we live in. Watershed Dynamics promotes the use of authentic scientific data and technology in the high school classroom. Students and teachers learn to use GIS tools and various data sets to answer questions about the environment.

Our Mission Global SchoolNet's mission is to support 21st century learning and improve academic performance through content driven collaboration. We engage educators and students in meaningful e-learning projects worldwide to develop science, math, literacy and communication skills, foster teamwork, civic responsibility and collaboration, encourage workforce preparedness and create multi-cultural understanding. We prepare youth for full participation as productive and effective citizens in an increasing global economy. Founded in 1984, GSN is a 501(c)3 non-profit education organization. Let's work together to give youth the skills they need.

The Flat Classroom™ Conference is a unique limited-seating conference including students and educators to envision the future of education as they use leading technology tools such as wikis, blogs, social networking and multi-media storytelling. The conference is diverse in participation while allowing smaller groups with leading world-class presenters in a "flattened" environment where virtual participants join in the conversation from remote corners of the world. Educators will leave the conference understanding how to collaborate globally and with skills and contacts in hand to start projects. Students will leave the conference with leadership skills, technology skills, presentation skills, and a better understanding of diverse cultures and collaboration.

Join our online community for those interested in global education. Contribute by adding media, conversation, and collaborative projects.