Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Cynthia Cullen on July 12, 2011 at 5:39pm

I just have to say that as open-minded as I am when it comes to new ideas, I primarily came to this conference because I could get someone to watch my 3 year old son these 2 days and it fulfilled my contractual obligation for professional development.  The idea of "social media" in my mind involved my 12th graders tweeting about their crazy weekends and I wanted nothing to do with it.  Boy, am I out of the loop!  While still feeling very unsure of my ability to keep up with the flow of information once entering this new world, I am going to try to join the 21st century.

 

My immediate question really has to do with what venue I should pursue for the districtwide project I want to initiate.  As I explained at the conference, I would like to create a network of teachers, classrooms, student groups, clubs - whoever wants to jump on board - who will adopt their own "cause" to fundraise for, educate others on, and in general, connect their learning and their lives on Long Island with the "bigger picture".  I originally was focuses on women's causes due to the book Half the Sky but now that Monica Willard has introduced the countdown to the International Day of Peace, I have 2 possible projects to pursue.  I already have a number of teachers who are willing to join me but I don't know enough about what is out there to begin to look for the right type of site that would allow all those individuals and groups to share their "causes", and their research and personal reflections on pursuing their causes.  Any hep in pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. 

Permalink Reply by Blanca Duarte Martini on July 14, 2011 at 3:02pm

Wow Cynthia, tall order! Might I suggest, since I know you've done so, to ask the question on Twitter as well as in this forum? That said, based on my personal experiences, here are some places you might want to start:

Fragile Oasis is a website that started off as a blog by the astronaut Ron Garan. He wanted a way to impact children and started writing about his experiences in space (and recently, about his experience on the International Space Shuttle). He and NASA have built a website dedicated to collecting projects related to sustainability, the environment and basically all good works going on to protect our planet, Our Fragile Oasis. 

The UN Cyberschoolbus is connected to the UN and helps educators find curriculum related to global issues like water, health issues, poverty, genocide, and more. The calendar for international days recognized by the UN are also listed there as well as student conferences and video conferences that teachers can connect to.

Lucy Gray has begun the Global Education Collaborative. In this network your teachers will find others around the world to connect to, projects they are involved in, etc. There are over 5000+ teachers and educators that you can connect to about global issues. They also have a Global Educators conference in Nov.

Finally, another resource I love is the Intel® Teach Engage network. They are a group of 15K educators, about 1/2 who are outside the US. There are so many people to connect to and ways for teachers to share what they are working on with others. I'm connected because of their reach - 6 million educators in over 50 countries since 1999 through their free resources and curriculum. 

 

Finally, there are so many places you and your teachers can go to connect to larger organizations who have projects around the world and spaces for others to share. If you are trying to keep your teachers together in a space to share what they are doing in a local venue, you might want to use a wiki like Google Sites or Wikispaces to showcase the projects. Both Sites and Wikispaces will allow comments to be left on a page. If you require teachers to create a movie or other digital presentation, you can have them upload video to YouTube and share privately or with the world. 

Here are some other global community project websites:

iEARN

Taking IT Global

Be The Change (student project)

Global Virtual Classroom

 

Permalink Reply by Marianne Klepacki on July 12, 2011 at 8:17pm

Hi Blanca,

This was a very enlightening conference, filled with more resources than I could have imagined. Thank you to you, everyone who organized it, and contributed to its success. I did my best to type notes, while I listened to the speakers and  create new bookmarks for future use. Now that I am home, reflecting, it seems to me that joining Twitter is essential as a professional learning network. We had two presenters who espoused the virtues of joining Twitter and the last one was Alexandra Pickett. She has a blog about how she decides who to follow on Twitter. That sounds like a great resource.

With more than 2,ooo programs that could be useful to educators, the members of a Twitter group would have previewed many and decided what is useful. This would help "....to keep up with the flow of information...."

Permalink Reply by Blanca Duarte Martini on July 14, 2011 at 3:23pm

And thank you Marianne and to the dozens of others who participated so strongly in the conversations, presentations and online discussions. One of the goals of the conference was to show how a community that has active, engaged learners has value - and that it does no matter whether it is online or face to face. Online networks can add value to who we are through the sharing and creation of content. Communities add value; it's what we strive to create when we work with children and each other every day. 

Picture courtesy of Visual Thesaurus @visualthesaurus visualthesaurus.com