Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time (Pearson Resources for 21st Century Learning)
By Julie Lindsay, Vicki A. Davis

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What is education? What is a teacher? How do students learn in the 21st century?

The Flat ClassroomTM  project is redefining excellence in education. Schools and higher education are moving to online education, blended learning, and e-learning, redefining education as we know it. Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds will take your school online one teacher at a time. 

Based on their award winning projects, these two classroom teachers use the principles that have connected thousands of students in educational Web 2 e-learning environments to take educators into the project plans and lesson plans that can make global collaboration a reality in the classroom.

Featured in Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, Don Tapscott's Grown Up Digital, Edutopia, Curt Bonk's The World is Open,  in the Wall Street Journal and beyond. Winner of ISTE's 2007 Online Learning Award, the Taking IT Global Outstanding Online Project, and was shortlisted in the International WISE awards in 2009 the projects created by the authors include Flat Classroom, NetGenEd, Digiteen, Eracism, and 'A Week in the Life ...' (an 

Elementary Project).

The new school of education is global collaboration. Whether you want to become a teacher or add to your teaching toolbox, when you connect globally and have contacts around the world, you become a more valuable teacher to your school. The "Flat Classroom 15" challenges bring even the beginner into the exciting world of social media in the classroom in

a way that any teacher (elementary, middle school, high school, or college) can use. Connect your classroom and fall in love with learning again!

Editorial Reviews

Review 

"Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds'' is a terrific guide, by two real pioneering teachers, on how the networked world can be used for cooperative learning that can enrich education and empower students -- anywhere and everywhere.

- Thomas L. Friedman, author,  "The World Is Flat.''

Insightful, innovative, and practical, this book is a must read for any educator interested in preparing competent global citizens. 

 - Yong Zhao, Ph. D, Presidential Chair and Associate Dean, College of Education, University of Oregon

In a hyperconnected world, it's imperative that students gain deep, rich understandings of other peoples and places. This book demonstrates in concrete detail how every classroom can be a global classroom.

 -Dr. Scott McLeod, University of Kentucky and Founding Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE)

The world is facing monumental challenges requiring creative solutions, and flattening our classrooms is our only hope! Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds will take you on a powerful journey of transformation - connecting your students with meaningful work and unleashing their potential to become leaders in our communities. Get ready to go global!"

- Michael Furdyk, Co-founder, TakingITGlobal.org

Open the door and find a new world! In this significant contribution to global education, Julie and Vicki have produced a resource for teachers that contains much needed information, challenges education thinking and provides resources on each and every page.  This is a book a teacher can read and immediately open a global door for their students. For me. it is so exciting (and a relief!) to see that the voice of change in education thinking is the voice of our students.

- Tony Brandenburg, Fellow, Australian Council for Computers in Education

This book has everything you need to start collaborative projects in your classroom. From educators to follow, to ongoing projects you can join today. Julie and Vicki do a great job of walking you through how to get started with collaborative projects in your own classroom. With links, ideas, and steps to keep both you and the learning focused. This book has enough people, links, and resources to keep you clicking for days.

- Jeff Utecht, Apple Distinguished Educator, Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer, Consultant, Author

From the Author
High speed Internet, social media, and mobile devices have opened up a remarkable world of connection and collaboration. Global economies are now increasingly intertwined. Multinational teams are becoming the norm in the workplace. Yet most schools are unchanged.

As schools struggle to engage students with learning and disengage them from their cell phones and social networks, there are some schools leveraging technology and social media to launch learning forward. By implementing global collaborative practices, we are building the bridges today that the society of tomorrow will walk across. 

We can change society for the better from the bottom up, while improving education and student engagement. We want students and educators to be able to connect and get along with other people globally without losing their own identity and sense of belonging to a country or culture. We are forging new pedagogies. We question current education systems that place value on content above process. We believe that collaboration and community learning increases understanding as a valuable part of what classrooms are already doing. 

Global collaboration is not a choice between current pedagogies or global collaboration. Rather, it is an "and" proposition. We should use current teaching pedagogies and effective global collaboration pedagogies as part of the complete, healthy classroom ecosystem. You can get your classrooms and schools there one step at a time. This book will teach you how.

From the Back Cover 

Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds

Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time

The buzz about this book:

"Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds is a terrific guide, by two real pioneering teachers, on how the networked world can be used for cooperative learning that can enrich education and empower students -- anywhere and everywhere.” - Thomas L. Friedman, author, The World Is Flat

“The world is facing monumental challenges requiring creative solutions, and flattening our classrooms is our only hope! Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds will take you on a powerful journey of transformation - connecting your students with meaningful work and unleashing their potential to become leaders in our communities. Get ready to go global!" - Michael Furdyk, Co-founder, TakingITGlobal.org  

Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds presents a seven step approach to transforming teaching using current pedagogies, technology tools, and global collaboration to create standards-aligned, technology rich, cross-cultural learning experiences that enhance 21^st century student engagement.

Designed so readers may interact via their mobile devices, this highly engaging book on 21st century teaching and global collaboration pulls them into the rapidly growing 21st century learning network of educators, teachers, and students. As schools struggle to engage students with learning and disengage them from their cell phones and social networks, Lindsay and Davis show how leveraging technology and social media and implementing global collaborative practices launches learning forward in all disciplines to better prepare students for the society of tomorrow.

Visit the online PDToolkit for Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds (http://pdtoolkit.pearson.com), via complimentary 6-month access code inside every new book, that gives educators access to:

• Full length case studies excerpted in the book
• Downloadable, writable tools and templates, including rubrics and planning tools
• Interactive Surveys
• Online Glossary
• Sample student assignments

Meet the Authors

Julie Lindsay is an international educator, having worked as a teacher and administrator in six different countries and has higher degrees in both music and educational technology leadership. She is currently E-Learning Coordinator and Middle Years Programme Coordinator at an International Baccalaureate school in Beijing, China. She is a prolific presenter and workshop leader prompoting the use of  technology to support teaching and learning across the curriculum, including in the UK, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, US and Australia. Julie is an Apple Distinguished Educator, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Ambassador and recently-elected member of ISTE Board of Directors as the International Representative. View her bio at www.learningconfluence.com.

Vicki "Cool Cat Teacher" Davis is a full-time classroom teacher and IT director in Westwood, Georgia and author of the popular, award-winning Cool Cat Teacher blog (http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com) with more than 30,000 subscribers and over 22,000 Twitter followers. She’s received numerous awards for her work in virtual worlds, wikis, social networks, and classroom practices. Vicki is a Google Certified Teacher, Discovery S.T.A.R. educator, and Adobe Education leader. She has written for many periodicals and online spaces including Edutopia, ISTE, and Educause. View her bio at www.coolcatteacher.com.