Sunday, August 29, 2010

Announcing Flat Classroom(tm) Subscription Invitation

Press Release August 29, 2010:
Flat Classroom(tm) Directors, Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis, are excited to announce the new project subscription model for Flat Classroom(tm) Project, Digiteen(tm) Project, NetGenEd Project and Eracism(tm) Project.

Our goal: To create and maintain best global collaborative projects and collaborative work spaces for students and educators in and serving K-12 around the world while building bridges between Students, Educators, trainee teachers and Post Secondary Education Institutions. We know there are many educators wanting to take on global projects but may not have the confidence with technology or in project design or access to resources. Through our subscription we will provide this support and access to quality Web 2.0 resources as well as to other educators who are experienced global collaborators.

In brief, an annual school subscription will provide for 15 students to be entered into one of the projects. Any students above this, or if the school or class wish to enter another project, a per-student fee is applicable. Included in this subscription is access to a student educational network (currently a Ning facility) that can be used for other class activities, and an educators network to connect globally with others wanting to complete projects.

In addition, project subscribers will benefit from access to Flat Classroom(tm) private label wikis and to Elluminate meeting space for student presentations and teacher meetings. Along with a live trouble-ticket system, teacher mentoring and school recognition for completing a project, the subscription model now moves all Flat Classroom(tm) Projects into a more sustainable and scalable working mode with support and opportunities for effective curriculum integration. In addition we are introducing “Sweat Equity” for teachers. This means that some scholarships will be available to cover per student fees on an application basis. This allows teachers to provide administrative support for the project such as RSS monitoring of the project portal, serve on the project leadership committee, provide troubleshooting response, and other activities that will defray the administrative overhead costs of running the project. This is over and above the monitoring that teachers are required to do of their own student work for each project.

Announcing also our pilot Flat Classroom(tm) Certified Teacher course starting in September 2010. Applications are invited from past and current Flat Classroom(tm) Project teachers. More information available from http://tinyurl.com/flatclassteachercert including a link to the application form.

Further information about the subscription models is available from the attached documents for -