The World is Flat and Your Classroom Can Be, Too:Learning and teaching with

global peers in the Flat Classroom Project

Presented by Connor, Helena, Mia, Talia, and Honor

From The International School of the AmericasSan Antonio, Texas

Roundtable Discussion Questions

• What did you hear?• What stood out to you?• What surprised you?• What did you notice?• What are you

wondering?• What intrigues you?

• What are you thinking now?

• What else would you like to know?

• How might you apply this idea in your own classroom or school?

Round One

• The World is Flat and A Whole New Mind (Honor)

• Educational Networking (Mia)• Social Bookmarking (Connor)• Multi-Media Mash-Ups (Helena)• The 3 C’s: Connect, Communicate, Collaborate

(Talia)

The World is Flat and A Whole New Mind

Facilitator: Honor

Friedman’s Concept of a “Flat World”

“a global web-enabled platform for multiple forms of sharing knowledge and work irrespective of time, distance, geography, and increasingly even language”

Thomas Friedman, “The World is Flat,” MIT World video, May 16, 2005http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/266

The “Six Senses”DesignStorySymphonyEmpathyPlayMeaning

+

The 11 “Flatteners”Connecting the World OnlineWorld Wide WebWorkflow SoftwareUploading: Changing Shape of InformationWeb 2.0Globalization and OutsourcingGooglePLEs and Social NetworkingMobile and UbiquitousVirtual CommunicationWireless Connectivity

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

• Agricultural Age (farmers) • Industrial Age (factory workers) • Information Age (knowledge workers) • Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers)

“A Whole New Mind reveals the six essential aptitudes on which professional success and personal fulfillment now depend . . .”

http://www.edutopia.org/images/graphics/fea_collabage_walls_howworksstat.jpg

Pink’s “Six Senses”

• Design - Moving beyond function to engage the sense. • Story - Narrative added to products and services - not

just argument. Best of the six senses. • Symphony - Adding invention and big picture thinking

(not just detail focus). • Empathy - Going beyond logic and engaging emotion

and intuition. • Play - Bringing humor and light-heartedness to

business and products. • Meaning - Immaterial feelings and values of products.

The Future is Now

“In the future, how we educate our children may prove to be more important than how much we educate them.” (p. 309)

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

by Thomas Friedman, 2005, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Educational Networking

Facilitator: Mia

Popular Social Networking Activities

Creating and Connecting: Research and Guidelines on Online Social—and Educational—NetworkingNational School Boards Association, 2007

http://www.nsba.org/site/docs/41400/41340.pdf

Social Bookmarking

Facilitator: Connor

Multi-Media Mash-Ups

Facilitator: Helena

http://grownupdigital.ning.com/video/video/listTagged?tag=isa

The 3 C’s: Connect,Communicate & Collaborate

Facilitator: Talia

NEW SKILLS FOR A NEW AGEWhat students must master to succeed.

LEARN• Access, evaluate, and use different forms of information• Exercise critical thinking• Exhibit fluency with tech tools

CREATE• Use various forms of media when presenting ideas• Display originality• Employ problem-solving skills

COLLABORATE• Work successfully as a team• Demonstrate cross-cultural awareness• Communicate complex ideas effectively

http://www.edutopia.org/images/graphics/fea_collabage_walls_newskillsstat.jpg

"collaborate-communicate-connect" CC by langwiches on Flicker

"What does Learning mean?" CC by langwiches on Flicker

Round Two

• The Horizon Report and Grown Up Digital (Honor)

• Emerging Technology Trends (Talia)• Information Literacy and Research Skills

(Helena)• Collaborative Writing on Wikis (Connor)• Student Summits (Mia)

The Horizon Report and Grown Up Digital

Facilitator: Honor

Net Generation NormsFreedom (Choice)CustomizationScrutiny (Transparency)Integrity (Digital Citizenship)CollaborationEntertainmentSpeedInnovation

+

Technology TrendsMobile ComputingOpen ContentElectronic Books  Simple Augmented Reality Gesture-Based ComputingVisual Data Analysis

The Digital Generation

Image from BLC07 Conference, CC Share-Alike by Torres21 on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/torres21/848315727/in/set-72157600845034284/

Emerging Technology Trends

Facilitator: Talia

Information Literacy and Research Skills

Facilitator: Helena

Collaborative Writing on Wikis

Facilitator: Connor

Student Summits

Facilitator: Mia