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High Def Teacher: Top Websites for Teachers
"Welcome to High Def Teacher, a totally free community of
teachers dedicated to finding the best resources on the web! " -
Drive-time Opera - Flat Classroom Conference
Our driver Charlie the opera singer!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Acoss My Desk (weekly)
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Connect, Communicate, Change - A Conference with a Difference
This conference is about global collaboration, it is about flattening the learning experience. Students, teachers, leaders are learning and leading from each other. We are excited, we are exhausted! and we have great expectations for what today will bring!
Don't forget to follow us virtually, both Taking It Global and Beijing Kids have supported us with online spaces to view media.
Our Flickr group has the latest pics!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Acoss My Desk (weekly)
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Home | Upload, manage and measure web video with Buto | Buto.tv
tags: online video upload web2.0 acrossmydesk
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Copyright and fair use presentation by Kristen Hokanson, 2011
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Web 2.0 music tool looks interesting!
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YouTube - Happy Birthday Alec Couros
Great example of crowd sourcing - 75 friends wish Alec Couros a Happy 40th birthday!
tags: viralvideo acrossmydesk
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Students and Educators Prepare for Action!
Excitement is growing as we approach the time for the Flat Classroom Conference 2011 to start. Hosted by Beijing BISS International School February 24-27, this event will bring to together 250 educators and students from more than 15 countries and 45+ schools and institutions. In true ‘flat’ learning style elementary, secondary and tertiary education converge as participants work through a conference program that inspires them to connect globally and take action back in their own schools.
For the Leadership Workshop, adults will explore collaborative learning modes and emerging technologies that support these while designing new instructional models for immediate use in their own classrooms. These new curriculums and pedagogies that include interaction and true problem solving in collaboration with other classrooms around the world are aimed at developing global citizens who have confidence and knowledge with digital learning environments.
For the Student Summit, nearly 100 students will be challenged by an action project that asks them to envisage solutions to problems they have identified along the theme ‘Our Global Future Living Together’. Working in teams they will pitch ideas to the Leadership strand, then after feedback create a presentation that is a pre-visualization for a multimedia story. After an international vote, the best student teams will work with a Hollywood film producer to create a short movie based on their ideas.
Student Summit Classrooms, Flat Classroom Conference 2011
World - Think Global School
USA - Westwood Schools
Oman – Osama Bin Zaid School
Korea - Gyeonggi Suwon International School
Indonesia - Al-Azhar Islamic Senior High School
India - Stonehill International School
China - Yew Chung International School
China - Western Academy Beijing
China - Tsinghua High International School
China - Beijing BISS International School
Both teachers and students will work together and learn from each other at key times during the 3-day conference. In particular they will enjoy ‘Ted Talk’ style sessions called Flat Learning Action Talks (FL.A.T.s) where both presenters and students have an opportunity to communicate a passion and a message in 10 min.
Another vital part of the conference is the Virtual Flat Classroom. Supported by Taking IT Global (a global social network for educational collaboration), Flat Classroom organizers have out together an opportunity for any interested teachers and students who cannot come to Beijing to be part of this event. Through video streaming, backchannels, Skype, the use of wikis for collaboration, and other Web 2.0 tools (online tools that are normally free that support connection and collaboration, also called the Read/Write web), virtual participants can observe, interact and in fact become full team members if they wish.
Essential Links to the Flat Classroom Conference
Website: http://flatclassroomconference.com
Wiki: http://conference2011.flatclassroomproject.org/
Educational Network: http://flatclassroomconference.ning.com
Virtual Flat Classroom: http://flatclass.tigweb.org/
Our host, Beijing BISS International School: http://www.biss.com.cn
Julie Lindsay
E-Learning Coordinator
Beijing BISS International School
Director Flat Classroom™ Conference and Live Events Inc.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Acoss My Desk (weekly)
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China to Convert Phone Booths to Wifi Hotspots
What a great idea!
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The World is Flat | Beijingkids Magazine |
Article by Michael Wester | Jan 11, 2011 | beijing-kids.com re the Flat Classroom Conference 2011
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The International Schools Island (isi):
Written in 2008 by Chris Smith - Getting to i.s.i. ..... for COMPLETE beginners in Second Life
tags: secondlife tutorial acrossmydesk
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ePals Corporate Site | corp.epals.com
ePals Expands K-12 Solutions Partner Program with Leading Educational Services and Technology Provider
Herndon, VA (February 8, 2010) – ePals, Inc., today announced a significant expansion to its K-12 Solutions Partner Program. Based on strong customer demand for solutions that enable a digital learning environment, Dell will now offer the full breadth of ePals policy-managed solutions to its cloud-hosted education clients, enabling communication and collaboration across the global education community.tags: epals cloudcomputing acrossmydesk
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Learn the Basics of Photoshop in Under 25 Minutes
Could be useful
tags: photoshop tutorial acrossmydesk
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Using Diigo in the Classroom - Student Learning with Diigo
Great resources for getting started with Diigo in the classroom
tags: diigo acrossmydesk flatclassromproject digiteen
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Acoss My Desk (weekly)
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Reviewing the Flat Classroom Pedagogy & Structure « Haas | Learning
Excellent and complimentary blog post reviewing the pedagogy of the Flat Classroom Project. (I wish I had written this!)
Fred Haas is a Flat Classroom Certified Teacher and writes an excellent blog! -
YouTube - Habits and Habitats: Introducing the IDEA
A video introducing the Innovation, Design, and Engagement Area: http://goo.gl/qo3i8 Critical to the notion of the IDEA, the concept of rethinking the habitats for the desired habits: http://goo.gl/9LKEv. Order of guests: Ryan Bretag (voice), Stephanie Bitter (voice), Jennifer Wawryk (voice), Mike Riggle, Joan Gallagher-Bolos, Kris Frandson, and Paul Pryma
tags: school2.0 library professionaldevelopment professionallearningcommunities acrossmydesk
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Flat Classroom Group on FaceBook
tags: flatclassroom flatclassroomconference acrossmydesk facebook
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Critics say top-rated Chinese education system has a flaw - USATODAY.com
"The strong showing by Shanghai's 15-year-olds on standardized tests — administered every three years by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and considered a global benchmark of academic excellence — was largely expected, some experts say, and is the mark of a society that values discipline in education. But critics believe this strength may mask the Chinese education system's shortfall in producing innovative and creative students.
"What the Chinese are very good at doing is achieving short-term goals," says Jiang Xueqin, deputy principal of Peking University High School, affiliated with Beijing's Peking University, known as the "Harvard" of China. "They're good at copying things, not creating them.""
Friday, February 04, 2011
Go Virtual! - Strategies for Successful Participation in Virtual Learning
- Make sure you are connected through the tools - know where to find the streamed video, know how to open the backchannel, know where to find the Twitter conversation amongst the 1000's of other tweets and volumes of social media. A good virtual workshop or conference will have an interface with full instructions. Make sure you study this first and download or open any tools needed beforehand. Using Elluminate for the first time for example takes a few minutes to download.
- Contribute to online discussion - Don't just be a lurker! Actively contribute, throw in some links, make some comments and ask questions, participate in the conversation. If you do nothing, you are invisible to others as they cannot SEE you because you are not in the same room. To be visible you must contribute
- Participate in group research - If given a chance, try your hand at participating in group research virtually. The first time I did this I was excited to find resources and ideas grow in front of my eyes as my virtual team members added more information
- If set up correctly a wiki or collaborative document will allow you to contribute synchronously and/or asynchronously. Remember the differences here, and don't think you have to be synchronous or in real time to be able to contribute. A virtual team member can support a team when the real time, face to face work has finished for the day. Remember, working from China to the USA means you can in fact be developing ideas and resources 24 hours a day!
- Jump in a co-create a product - During the Flat Classroom Workshop last July, real and virtual participants co-created presentations and final global project ideas. Nervous at first, participants gained confidence and skills as they juggled tools and timezones!