Group items tagged

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.

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.

Free surveys of teachers and school leaders that will measure 21stCentury teaching and learning skills in your school. People all over the world are talking about the need to transform education to align with the realities of life and work in the 21stCentury. This is not just about the effective use of technology. It's about developing kids who are deeply engaged in the learning process and taking the initiative to learn. But how do you make this transformation happen in your school and classrooms? How do you measure your success?

In an historic speech in Cairo, Egypt in June 2009, President Obama expressed his desire to "create a new online network, so a young person in Kansas can communicate instantly with a young person in Cairo." Since then, the Secretary of State and Secretary of Education have both emphasized the importance of learning other languages, gaining a global competency and traveling to other countries.  A number of organizations linking US schools with others around the world are coming together in a new "Connect All Schools" consortium to meet a very specific goal: to connect every school in the US with the world by 2016.

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.

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."

"It is a great pleasure to be here at the East Noble School District and to be a part of this great adventure you are embarking on. You are not alone, though you are among pioneers among educators who are learning to adapt schooling to reflect the unique demands of our times, our millennial children, and an emerging and dramatically different information landscape. For the community session, I will outline three converging conditions - a perfect storm - of change that is forcing us to rethink the fundamental of education, being educated, and even the definition of literacy"

Futurelab aims to inspire, challenge and engage all young people in rich and rewarding learning experiences that will equip them with the essential skills and attitudes for life, learning and work in the 21st Century. We do this by making the most of new approaches to learning and through the innovative use of technology. We take evidence of what works and turn it into practical tools and services to help teachers, schools and policy makers provide the best possible learning for young people.

Personalisation by Pieces is a secure website which supports three core aspects of 21st century learning * Development of skills and competencies for learners of all ages through gathering and recording of evidence from life in and out of school. * Peer assessment: evidence is peer assessed by learners from other schools all over the world who are developing the same skills. This is anonymous and moderated. All users become learners and assessors. * Mentoring: all learners are given a mentoring role for another learner with structured mentoring meetings and resources on the website. Every user is a mentor and a mentee.

from a 7 - 12 school...2100 students public

"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. "

wiki for independent schools

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.

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.

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.

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.

"Education and political leaders in countries around the world have recognized the imperative to prepare their youth for the 21st century, a goal that many believe requires the fundamental transformation of educational opportunities together with the integration of technology into teaching and learning. But educational change is complex. It takes place within an ecosystem of influences that range from national policies, programs, and supports to local community contexts and school-specific professional cultures. As part of Microsoft's commitment to education transformation, its Partners in Learning Program initiated the Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research project to contribute information and policy insights on where and how effective education transformation is taking place around the world."

This wiki has been created by Vicki Davis, who blogs at the Cool Cat Teacher Blog, and teaches computer science at Westwood Schools in Camilla, GA. If you are interested in contacting Vicki for your conference or online webinar, please review the About Me page. (This page is only to be edited by me, you may see everything without joining!)

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.