The 1001 Flat World Tales writing project is now accepting learning communities interested in writing with and for classes around the world. Based on the simple premise above, students will be using the power of the web to share their stories with other students from around the world and support each other through peer editing with their partner classes.

Beginning in late February, the project will last a little over a month (the schedule is flexible so teachers in the groupings can negotiate the time frames). After registering, classes will be set up in small grade-level based groups to create collaborative groups for our peer editing process. If the suggested time frame doesn’t quite work for you let us know and we’ll work with you to start a workshop a bit later (or earlier) in the year – our goal is to bring together teachers that would like to embed collaborative writing and authentic audience into their classroom experiences.

As part of the project, students will:
• experience writing for an authentic audience
• work collaboratively with peer reviewers around the world
• follow the writing process to build an understanding of your selected style of writing (while we suggest persuasive writing, teachers in a group can choose a completely different style and story set if they wish)
• utilize a wiki for writing, editing, forum discussion, and revision history
• understand how to connect information through hyperlinks
• create and embed multimedia elements to bring a story to life

The 1001 Flat World Tales project was initiated as a high school venture by Clay Burell in Korea several years ago (Clay is now in Singapore) and has been going strong ever since. It has since transitioned to the elementary level and, we are hoping, will also have an active middle school cohort this year as well (we are still working on that one, so contact us if you might be interested). No matter what grade level you’re working with, this is a great, easy to implement, collaborative writing project that students love!

We would absolutely love to have you join this project with your class! Fill out the online form and you’re in! All materials, resources, rubrics and related information can be found on the project wiki at http://es1001tales2012.wikispaces.com.

I am excited to be coordinating this project with Kim Cofino once again. Kim is an amazing international educator, highly respected and well situated in the global learning community and someone who is extremely generous with her time and talents. For more information on the project feel free to contact Kim (email) or myself (email).

Hope to see you and your students writing for their lives!

In a short and snappy 30 minutes Kim used her personal journey as an educator – and her juxtaposition of the cultures of North America and Asia – to illustrate her vision for the future of education. Having lived and taught first in Germany and later in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and now Japan, she brings a wealth of global experiences to the story.

Kim Cofino

Kim’s message was powerful, starting many conversations amongst the participants and giving me personal food for thought the past few days. As a master storyteller, Kim used the power of a variety of images to support her story of how we can look to the culture of Asia for indicators of a new model of learning for the 21^st Century. I’ve picked out a few and commented below…

• Just in time – Asian culture delivers goods and services on a smaller scale and is responsive to demand. 21^st Century education needs to look at learning what a student needs to know when they need to know it, not just because the curriculum says they should learn it now.

• Quick – Asia is fast and quick. Nimbleness is the key to business and life. Kim used the analogy the Asia is like fast food while here in North America our culture is slow to respond to needs (we always did it that way), more like cooking a pot roast. Education needs to be nimble to meet the shifting demands of our students.

• Customizable – you can buy anything you want in Asia and don’t have to settle for mass produced products. Vendors are willing to customize anything to serve their clients. Our schools need to be customizable for students.

• No fixed values – In Asia, the value of everything is negotiable, unlike education in North America. With new learning options and delivery models (eg. iTunesU, MIT labs) learners now have options that range in value. This will change value structure of schools and education systems. 

• 

  I've actually visited his market about 15 years ago. It offers customizable foods and other goods 24 hours a day. Can the same be said of our schools?

  Always on – Asia is open and available24 hours a day. Life/business is available around the clock. In contrast, we remain wrapped up in schedules and bells. We need to move to an anytime, anywhere model by using online synchronous and asynchronous models.

• Collaborative – Nothing in Asia gets accomplished alone. Even the simplest jobs are done in groups, leveraging the strengths of the crowd. Teaching and learning in our schools needs to be more collaborative.

• Blending old and new – Kim noted the reverence Asia continues to hold for tradition.  Old and new sit side by side. Schools need to look at this model. The trick is to identify which elements of our current schools are of value and worth keeping and mixing into the new story.

• Global – Asians (unlike North Americans) look outward to the world. Our schools need to be able to bring pieces of all places together, providing global understandings that will allow students to be able to flow easily between situations they will encounter as adults.

• Flexibility – To survive in Asia, individuals need to be able to adapt to shifting stories. Likewise, our schools need to have the ability to change to meet the changing demands of our students and our communities.

Kim was quick to note that life in Asia was not perfect, but as a global educator she saw lots of elements in life in Asia that point to a new recipe for success in the 21^st Century, a recipe that learning leaders in our schools and districts need to look to to ensure our schools remain relevant for the future.

A special thanks to Kim for sharing her time and expertise.

Photo Credit: Shilin Night Markets, Taipei, uploaded to Flickr by Eduardo Mariz. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Next week teachers in my district go back to school in preparation for our students return the first week in September. As part of that return, many teachers are looking to jump start their school year with some late summer professional learning.

I have been fortunate to participate and present at several events every year and I know what a learning opportunity exists within the conversations and connections they offer. Having said that, I also know that there are many barriers for teachers to attend events that require travel away from home for several days.

Last year I proposed to my district that we look at holding a pre-school professional learning event specifically focused for our six 1:1 schools. It was tagged the 1:1 Bootcamp for Teachers. As demand grew we quickly expanded the focus to teachers from across the province and broadened the sessions to include teachers in all levels of technology-rich learning. We ended up with 120 learning leaders spending a day and a half sharing stories of the transformational impact of technology in their classrooms.

With such a tremendous response and positive feedback encouraging us, we continued to expand the breadth and depth of our event. We partnered with a neighboring district, found a few additional sponsors, kept the price right (FREE!) and the model simple. In fact, three of us organized the whole thing. As a result, on Monday and Tuesday of this week we welcomed just under 150 educators from around New Brunswick (and even a few from beyond – one came all the way from the Yukon!) to LEARNEast 2.0.11. Quickly reviewing the data from our on-line participant survey tells us we are doing something right.

So, why am I lucky?

Rolling Lucky Sevens

I am lucky to live and work as a teacher in what is a relatively progressive public education system like New Brunswick’s and, more importantly, blessed to be part of an amazing network of generous colleagues who understand the powerful role technology can, and must, play in supporting a new story of learning for the 21^st Century and who are willing to share so freely. I have been to many events and my colleagues in New Brunswick are world class in knowledge, passion and vision around 21^st Century education. I want to thank each and every one of them who took the time out of their last week of the summer to join us as presenters and share their expertise. Without such generosity LEARNEast could simply not happen.

I particularly want to thank our two keynote presenters, Brian McCain of The Gaia Project and well-known global educator Kim Cofino, who skyped in to share with us from her school-year home in Yokohama, Japan (more on Kim’s message in a later post). Their generosity with both their time and ideas blows me away. It’s this willingness to share that sets individuals like Kim, Brian and our other presenters apart as learning leaders of the 21^st Century.

I am just lucky to be part of it. See you next year at LEARNEast 2.0.12!

Photo Credit: Dice: Lucky Seven, by jfh686, uploaded to Flickr, used under a Creative Commons License.

Jeff Utecht

This year’s keynote was Jeff Utecht, who is enjoying a summer stateside from his posting across the western pond at the International School Bangkok. Jeff’s keynote was not just entertaining (which a good keynote should be), but illuminating and challenging. He shared his ideas, asked us to share ours and left us with a couple of questions to think about – why is it (other than the obvious fact that EVERYONE wants to go to Memphis in July during a heat wave!), when we can learn pretty much anything we want from YouTube, that we still gather together at events like LI and, once we know what we want to get out of the event by answering the why, just what are we going to do to meet those ends?

I love conferences. Most of the time I am sharing my experiences as a presenter now, but all that “fame” (sarcasm intended) isn’t what drives me to attend. It’s also not about the sessions (although many are very good I don’t get to see other people present much anymore). What does motivate me to pack a bag, investing both time and money, and hit the road to events are the conversations.

I know that in this day of facebook, twitter and skype teachers can – and should – develop and manage an extensive personal learning network where we can connect and converse using these virtual tools, but there is just something about physically sitting down with an old friend or a new one and sharing a meal or a new idea in person. It’s not even about the efficiency; it’s about the trust. Somehow the professional relationship changes after you have met someone in person.

In a session on managing successful global collaborative projects, I encouraged teachers to look around the room or around their table at lunch to build a network that they can leverage for not just their learning, but their students as well. Most of the most successful global collaborative projects I have been involved in with teachers and students in my district, with schools from Mumbai to Ft. Worth, were born from connections at events just like the Laptop Institute.

Learning from my network online is great. The constant chatter amongst educators on Twitter provides fuel for many short learning journeys, but the real tank-topper – the big high octane fuel truck that fills me up for the long haul – are the conversations and connections that come from conferences.

To all my Laptop Institute friends, thanks for the fill up and we’ll see you in 2012 for year ten!

Photo credit: Ewan McIntosh, CC license, from flickr

Over the past few months I have had several occasions to chat with students – both high school and university – and adult learners about the need to develop and manage their personal digital brands.  We can’t just live by the old adage of “do no harm” anymore. Our young people need to learn the skills to actively manage their digital footprints to leverage against their future. We – our students and ourselves – need to be “google-able”.

Image: Non-Digital Footprints, personal collection

Students respond to this message. They love to hear that their web has value and is not just something that can only cause them harm. The message is simple, yet powerful; they not only can, but they MUST take control of their web presence, nurturing it through consistent use of social media and other web tools to present their story to the world.  With most employers and post-secondary educational institutions now searching prospective applicants, the need to create a positive web presence falls to the individual.  This can happen in multiple ways, but the initial steps I recommend are surprisingly simple.

Email – Before we even get to the web presence, one of the biggest mistakes an individual can make is to use an unprofessional email address. As an instructor, I still receive emails from university students using email address like “sexysarahxoxo <at> hotmail”. I wouldn’t think it would be a stretch for those same students to use that same email to submit a job application to an employer. Bad move. The solution is easy – get yourself a professional personalized email that builds your brand. What’s your brand? Well, my suggestion is that your name makes a real nice brand. While you are at it, go to Gmail (or another site with more professional recognition) and leave Hotmail for SexySarah.

The three solutions I promote next go hand in hand; common branding (usernames) across social media platforms, a web-based digital portfolio and a personalized domain name for your portfolio.

Social Media Branding

Taking control of your digital footprint / web brand starts with recognizing that your social media presence is a calling card for today’s connected community. Your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other platforms all converge with your other web content to build your brand. By using a common username across platforms, you will build links and profile across the web. What brand to use? I encourage people to use their name? It’s their original brand and people more closely attach their recognition of your ideas to your name.

Web-based Portfolio

The most powerful person to tell your story is you! By building and managing a more formal web presence – for lack of a better term we can call it a “portfolio” – you can share your story with the world. I think blogs – WordPress is my suggestion – are a tremendous platform for hosting these portfolios (see an example from an undergrad BEd student). Ideas and new learning can be continually shared on the blog while other ideas and artifacts live on accompanying pages.

Wouldn’t it be great to see every school start individual student blogs beginning in elementary grades, building on content and skills through middle school and resulting in a full fledged web-based portfolio for graduating students, ready for perusal by the world.

Domain Names

While we are building the branding idea, what speaks louder in a web-based world than a personalized domain? My blog/website is located at jeffwhipple.ca. It’s not about vanity, it’s a conscious effort to link my brand across platforms and build a digital profile. Domain names are cheap (generally less than $15 a year) and easy to link to blogs or Google sites. Again, your name is a great brand and it works nice if it matches your social media username.

I can think of no better graduation gift we could give to high schools graduates than a personalized, individually constructed and managed portfolio with a personalized domain purchased for three years.

The message?…go forth, tell your story and prosper. It’s not an option anymore.

As those of you who follow my sporadic blog posts know, I am currently on sabbatical working on my MEd thesis, a process that marches along. The plan is to do data collection in the next month and a half and then move on to the writing stage. While I will be returning to an as-yet-to-be-determined day job in my District in the fall, it will likely be closer to Christmas before the thesis thing wraps up.

While I have to pass on ISTE this year, July and August will see me on the road to the Midwestern States for two exciting events. My annual pilgrimage to Memphis continues as I am presenting eight different sessions over two days at the Lausanne Laptop Institute July 10-13. I love this event for many reasons. After all, it’s where my thinking about teaching and learning took a ninety degree turn after being challenged by the ideas of David Warlick six years ago and I have developed and continue to nurture many friendships and professional relationships with educators from all over the world every summer on the banks of the Mississippi. This summer will be particularly exciting for participants as international educator Jeff Utecht from the International School Bangkok – he’s a rockstar in educational technology circles – will be keynoting and leading several sessions as well. If you are looking for a great learning event this summer, this is the one!

In early August I have been invited to participate in a two-day conference at the University School of Milwaukee. While I am not sure if the details are public yet, I am humbled to be invited to stand amongst the quality of the presenters that will be there. I will share the details as they are announced/posted.

Of course, later in August comes “our” turn. After successfully hosting our 1-to-1 Bootcamp for Educators last summer, we’ve changed the name to LearnEast 2.0.11 and tweaked the focus to include a broad range of technology-rich learning sessions. I am excited that noted international educator Kim Cofino of Yokohama International School in Japan has agreed to join us to virtually keynote day two of the event. Preliminary details are available here.

Throw in a week as a member of the host committee for the Pepsi U-19 Men’s Canadian Fastpitch Championships and the summer of 2011 is shaping up to be one of the best ever.

As I was watching television last night, one of the storylines the commentators were tracking was the emergence of social media and, more specifically, how individuals who “broadcast” election results on Twitter, Facebook or any of the other platforms could be breaking the law. The penalties are severe, with possible fines of up to $25,000.

You see, Canada is a huge country, spanning four and a half hours of time zones. Polls close here on the east coast several hours before our friends on the west coast must stop casting their ballots. As soon as the polls close here in the east we start to see results broadcast on TV and other local media. For many years, however, our government has had a law that prohibits the local broadcast of election results until after the polls close, meaning that broadcasters to the west of us were prohibited from releasing results until after the polls closed locally. This effectively meant that there was a cascade of election programming that made its way from east to west.

Of course, the world has changed since this particular part of the election act was made law. Back then TV was local. We were lucky to have half a dozen stations even in the largest centers. Now I can sit at home and watch TV originating from across the country and around the world. Of course, the satellite and cable TV providers are required to black out any programming that might reveal the results.

However, the REAL change is the emergence of social media and participatory journalism. As individuals become more comfortable and demand access to information, rules that threaten such draconian reactions have reached their best before date. I understand the intent – but it just isn’t practical anymore.

As citizens of democratic countries, we are highly critical when foreign governments use censorship and limit access to information for political reasons. We demand that citizens of those countries be given their rights and be respected and valued as engaged citizens with a share in their countries fortunes.

The idea that individuals on the west coast might be swayed and need to be protected from the results to the east just doesn’t hold much weight in the new world. The digital platform of the web – and the increasingly ubiquitous connectivity provided through the mobile web – makes it easy to get results. But it’s more than that. I give my fellow citizens credit and expect that they would weigh the candidates on their own merits (which might include the policies of their affiliated national parties) and not simply react to a wave of media reports.

Message to the government: the world has changed. The law is irrelevant in today’s world. Show citizens some respect as recognize them as educated individuals who are able to make up their own minds without requiring protection from the state. Oh, and while you’re at it, maybe you want to look at web-based voting options to engage more young people. Just a thought.

As students and teachers head off to the Christmas break on the 23^rd, I’ll be heading off to enjoy the holidays with my family as well. However, when everyone heads back to school on January 10^th here in New Brunswick, I won’t be returning.

Time 4 Learning

Over the past year or so I have been working on my MEd. I just finished my fifth course, taking them one at a time in the evenings and during the summer. Some of these courses were face-to-face, some on-line. All were great learning opportunities, providing an opportunity to augment the more informal learning I do everyday, primarily through Twitter and other social media, with more formal “academic” pursuits.

Now comes the real exciting part. Beginning in January, I have been granted a sixth month educational leave by our Department of Education. This is a wonderful program whereby teachers can apply and, if lucky, be granted up to a full-years paid leave (at 70% salary) – I only applied for six months – to pursue personal learning opportunities. While most are formal programs (like me) some use it to travel and expand their understandings by writing, research, etc.

So, what will I be doing? For the past several years I have been teaching introductory level learning technology courses in an undergraduate education program at the University of New Brunswick. This program, run by the Mi’kmaq-Maliseet Institute, is designed specifically for First Nations (aboriginal) learners throughout New Brunswick and the Gaspe region of Quebec. Through the wonders of the web, video-conferencing and, more recently, web-conferencing many students in remote communities (remote in terms of geography, economic opportunities and many other factors) of our region have had the opportunity to access post-secondary educational opportunities while remaining in their home communities to fulfill family and employment commitments. I have been absolutely blown away by the hard work and dedication of these adult learners towards themselves, their families and their communities.

I will be continuing my work with the Mi’kmaq-Maliseet Institute through graduate studies and a thesis in the area of First Nations education. The plan is to conduct qualitative research in an attempt to capture the story of these students and the impact that technology-based distance education has had on the lives of the individuals and the communities involved. As an active participant in the delivery of these programs, I am very excited to see what stories evolve that weave together the collective narrative of how the new information environment can change lives by flattening the educational landscape for this specific population.

I am excited about this opportunity. While I will definitely miss the bustle and excitement of working with teachers and students everyday, I know I will be back to the classroom again next September. In the meantime I look forward to the change, for the conversations with colleagues and fellow learners in a different setting; for the opportunity to engage a new audience (within the university Faculty of Education) in discussions of change; to reflect, write and share through this blog more (and maybe Tweet less??), to spend a bit of time travelling with my wife, to hopefully participate in a couple of conferences, to continue my teaching at the undergrad level but most of all, to have the chance to get very messy in learning through research.

I have to admit, this is new to me. I am anxious and uncomfortable, but know there are wonderful people who will guide me through the process.

It’s almost noon now – down to six and a half days left!

Photo credit: Time in the Sky, by Matt Westoby, from Flickr, CC licensed.

Part of that learning takes place at conferences. For me they have real benefit; the conversations recharge my batteries and the networking pays huge dividends as I add to my Personal Learning Network (PLN) and provide connections for collaboration and student projects.  I am excited to be heading across the border again next month to present at ACTEM’s MAINEducation2010 conference – a wonderful mid-sized event that captures the essence of the conversation of a new story of school.

However, I also realize that having teachers attend conferences on a regular basis is neither practical (we do have jobs to attend to) nor feasible (resources are scarce everywhere).  For those teachers who are driven to learn and change their personal narrative of school, the solution is becoming more visible – virtual conferences.

There are a couple of exciting options taking place next month. First up is CRSTE’s 2010 Global Symposium. Held on-line in a virtual environment (Elluminate), the event will feature a variety of sessions held over nine days between October 16^th and the 24^th and will focus on the ideas surrounding worldwide collaborative network of educators. The sessions will take place on weekends and evenings (on the east coast of North America at least) and will feature educational technology leaders from around the world, including Alan November, Mark Weston, Karen Cator, Kathy Schrock, Jeff Utecht, Julene Reed, Julie Lindsay and Shabbi Luthra. I am absolutely humbled and honoured to be included in that company as I been invited to share some of my ideas about student global collaborative projects.

After that intense week, we will all need to turn quickly and immerse ourselves (or dip a toe in) in the annual K12 Online Conference, running pretty much the whole month of October (it actually starts before and runs concurrent and extends after CRSTE). The theme of this year’s conference is Cultivating the Future. Beginning with a keynote from Canada’s own Dean Shareski, educators will be able to choose from a wonderful selection of sessions delivered by educators from all over the world. These sessions offer practical advise on shifting classroom practice from your colleagues; classroom teachers and educational technology leaders from every continent.

From classroom teachers, learning specialists and superintendents to parents and students, the conversations about a new story of learning that will be offered at these events will be valuable to your personal journey as a learner. If you feel overwhelmed, you can join the room, sit in the corner and just listen. If you have something to offer, please share. But in whatever way you can, engage in the conversation.

Hope to see you on the other side.

This summer I was introduced to WatchKnow, a non-profit organization whose goal is to locate, index and offer free online educational resources for teachers and students. WatchKnow is run by a group of educators led by Wikipedia co-founder Dr. Larry Sanger. While they don’t own rights to the videos they share or necessarily host the videos on their own site, the strength of WatchKnow results from the power of a community who act as a filter and conduit all in one.

WatchKnow now sports over 15,000 videos from a variety of sources, cataloged and searchable by subject area and other filters. As a user, they also welcome teachers to add their own favorite videos you find on-line, sharing your finds with colleagues from around the world.

Best of all, the price is right.

Free!