Tag Archives: #globalclassroom

Circumnavigating the Globe with the Travelling Scrapbooks

A little over a year ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea … What if we could create a physical artefact of global collaboration? What if we could create something to demonstrate the power of global connections with our schools, communities, and the world?

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And thus, the travelling scrapbook project was born. 

Since March 2012, I’ve coordinated the extraordinary journeys of three #globalclassroom scrapbooks around the world.

As of May 2013, the scrapbooks have been hosted by 16 teachers, in 10 countries; and travelled in excess of 122 400 km (76 055 miles) – which is equivalent to circumnavigating the globe THREE times!

Our participant students and teachers around the world have embraced the opportunity to share a little of their lives, cultures, schools, and countries with the wider global community; and their contributions to our travelling scrapbooks are a true testament to the power of global collaboration.

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One journey is coming to an end

Scrapbook #2 came home last week.

It bears the stains and wear and tear that you’d expect from a document which has travelled well over 47 563 km (29 554 miles) over the past year. It’s been to Brasil, Guatemala, … was lost in Honduras, … Texas, and New York City (USA). It’s been shared with children around the world, and its journey is coming to an end.

It’s hard to describe what its like to hold this document in your hands … It’s the embodiment of a dream … made reality through the efforts of teachers and students who’ve I’ve yet to meet face to face. The stories, the photos, the sketches … make this a unique, and very special physical artefact of global collaboration.

Sadly #2 is in no condition to continue on its’ global travels through the mail system, but there is one last trip in store … It will travel (in my suitcase) to the iEARN 2013 conference in Doha, Qatar … in just over four weeks time, where I’ll be presenting on the Travelling Scrapbook Project, and launching a new spin-off iEARN scrapbook project.

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But, the journey continues

The Global Classroom Travelling Scrapbooks have become a unique, special part of the #globalclassroom community, and the remaining scrapbooks will continue on their travels for some years to come.

I’m planning the introduction of at least two new books in the coming months, so I’m looking forward to seeing this project evolve and develop over time.

I’d love to have scrapbooks touring Europe and the Middle East, … and I’m now starting to wonder if we can get the scrapbooks to travel more than half a million kilometres?

It might take a few years, but let’s see …

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“Learning with the World, Not Just About It” – A #WLPSict Inquiry


cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by Stuck in Customs

As some of you will know, I am working with a local school in Perth, Western Australia, as a temporary ICT Integrator.

My Year 5/6 students are researching Asian countries, and I’m hoping to introduce them to global connections through a simple inquiry project.  I’d like to use Skype and Edmodo, but given that this isn’t my own class, I’m keeping things relatively simple (for now at least!).

Over the past week, almost all of my students have contributed some questions to a class Google Doc, which I’m sharing with my PLN around the world. While their questions barely scratch the surface, I hope that this project will start to raise awareness of global perspectives and connections within the school, with a view to forging deeper connections in future.

If you are a teacher or a student living in one of these countries, or you know someone who does, could you help answer my students’ questions?

You can access the public Google Doc here.  Thank you!

  • Malaysia
  • Mongolia
  • Myanmar (Burma)
  • Vietnam
  • India
  • Nepal
  • Japan
  • Laos
  • Thailand
  • South Korea

Cross posted at The Global Classroom Project

2012: A Year of Exploring Possibilities

“Bather’s Beach” – By Michael Graffin (2012)

My blog is very much a reflection of my teaching journey over the past few years …

2010 was very much a year of experimentation, of learning, and finding my feet – as a relief teacher & a connected on-line educator.

2011 was a “Year of Change“, but with the benefit of hindsight, the lessons & outcomes of that painful, tumultuous year have more than compensated for the agony I went through.

So, what were my experiences of 2012?

 

2012 was “A Year of Exploring Possibilities” 

Mr Davo Devil checking out the #globalclassroom scrapbook

This has been an interesting year. I’ve had my ups and downs, but overall it was a positive, meaningful year.

Some significant moments include:

This was a year where my skills and expertise were recognised and appreciated locally, as well as internationally. Working with Jenny on the TIPS2012 project was a rich learning experience, and my involvement with iEARN Australia has thrown up some wonderful opportunities for 2013.

A huge thank you also goes to Nigel Mitchell (my ACEC 2012 co-presenter), Kathryn Edwards of Peach Media, Kesha Busing of RIC Publications, and Mal Lee. You’ve helped shape an amazing year, and I hope we have the opportunity to work with each other in the years to come.

 

My favourite posts of 2012

This year, I haven’t blogged as often as I’d have liked; however, there are a few posts of which I’m particularly proud.

Thank You Mr P.

Perhaps my most heart-felt, emotional post of the year, which came as a bit of a shock for Mr P. 

Life, Language, Laughter, Skype

The Hello Little World Skypers and Global Classroom Skype groups have had a profound impact on my personal and professional life. I treasure the relationships and friendships I’ve formed through these groups, and hope to start meeting some of the members f2f over the years to come.  

Teacherpreneurs – Connect, Create & Collaborate

Part of my series of posts from the Flat Classroom Book Club earlier this year, this post was an ‘ah-ha’ moment. My engagement in the book club marked the start of an emerging, and extremely important relationship with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay of The Flat Classroom Project.

 

Publications / Articles / Podcasts

2012 has been a busy year, marking the first time I’ve had my name in print.

Contributions 

Collaboration in learning: transcending the classroom walls by Mal Lee and Lorraine Ward

I was lucky enough to contribute to the research underpinning this book, and I look forward to its’ release in early 2013. For some detail on the research, and the findings, please have a read of Mal and Lorraine’s research paper.

The Global Classroom Project –  Classroom 2.0 Book Submission

Things have gone quiet about this project; however, the more reads we receive, the more likely we are to be published in the print edition of the Classroom 2.0 Book. Your assistance has been greatly appreciated!

Articles

Teacher Feature 

Education Matters – Primary & Secondary Magazine 2012/13

Education Matters Magazine      Teacher Feature (2012) (PDF)


 

Learning, sharing and collaborating globally in the early years: Stories from the Global Classroom Project

Class Ideas K-3 Magazine (Early 2013 Release)

With contributions from #globalclassroom teachers in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, United Kingdom, and Lebanon, this was the first magazine article I’ve ever written, and I can’t wait to see it in print next year. I’ll post a link to the online version when it becomes available.

 

Podcasts

A World of Difference -The Virtual Staffroom Podcast

This interview with Chris Betcher, Theresa Allen, and Lisa Parisi was a huge confidence booster, and a great way to start the year. I forgot to link to it from my blog at the time; however, I’d highly recommend having a listen. You can find it via the link above, or find it on iTunes. Thanks Chris :)

 

Looking Forward to 2013

2013 is going to be an exciting year!

Flickr CC-NC-SA by Lυвαιв

I’ll be presenting at the Science Teachers of Western Australia Conference in May, and travelling to Doha, Qatar for iEARN 2013.

I’m hoping the Qatar trip will be the first of many, as I’d like to do a little travelling & meet a few international friends over the next few years. If that means I relief teach for a few more years, then so be it. It will be worth it.

Let’s see how we go.

Happy New Year.

 

Presenting at #ACEC2012

Cross Posted at The Global Classroom Project

On Wednesday October 1, 2012, I had the wonderful opportunity to present with Nigel Mitchell (@1nbm) on the topic: “Working in the Global Classroom” at theAustralian Computers in Education Conference. 

 

 

Despite some initial technical hurdles, including the fact that Skype was blocked at the school, the presentation was a great success.

We managed to Skype with Julie Lindsay, the co-founder of Flat Classroom Projects; and shared our global collaboration stories with a large local audience, and a small group of teachers in Taiwan, India, and the United States via UStream,

I hope you will take some time to explore our slides, and watch our UStream recording.

You can access, and contribute to our presentation notes here.

The Next Step: Presenting @ ACEC2012

Cross Posted at The Global Classroom Project

In several hours time, on October 3, at 10.15AM local time, I will be presenting (with Nigel Mitchell) on ‘Working in the Global Classroom‘ at the Australian Computers in Education Conference in Perth, Western Australia.

This is late evening of October 2 for teachers in the Americas, morning of October 3 for teachers in Asia. Please click here to find out when this is in your time-zone.

Featuring a skype link-up with Julie Lindsay, from Flat Classroom Projects, the broad goals of the session are to: 

  • Present our rationale for integrating global perspectives across the curriculum
  • Showcase our stories and reflections as connected “global educators”
  • Interact with global educators in real time to discuss the possibilities, challenges, and learning opportunities afforded by global interactions.

You can read the full outline here.

How can you get involved?

A key goal of this presentation is to involve our national and international audience through streaming the session LIVE via UStream & inviting global educators around the world to help us write our presentation notes.

Tweet

Please feel free to comment using the #globalclassroom hashtag, and chat with our session participants. This will be our official backchannel to the live / UStream presentation.

Watch

If all goes to plan, you can follow us LIVE on UStream here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-mgraffin-channel#events

Please click here to check when this is in your time-zone.

Share

We’d also sincerely appreciate it if you’d take some time to share your advice, resources, links, and suggestions for teachers new to connecting and collaborating globally.

We are crowd-sourcing our presentation notes in Google Docs, seeking to showcase the power of international collaboration in action.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1STb-xPK29WEGLBgegzxHZIOraQjlMrm2yetajXTgpec/edit#heading=h.727hoxhx6f7c

Please tweet this widely – we’d like to make this a truly global resource.

Anyone recognise these little characters?

Helping Build “The Global One-Room School House”

Logging into Twitter this evening, I came across a fascinating, thought-provoking video entitled “The Global One Room School House“.

Containing excerpts from John Seely Brown’s Keynote at the 2012 Digital Media and Learning conference in San Francisco, it explores the notion of teaching and learning within “a global one-room schoolhouse” based on networks of imagination. (Reference)

The Big Idea

Some of the key themes of this video include the idea that “Entrepreneurial Learners are fundamentally makers and tinkerers”, and that as networked learners, “we need to invent new institutions, new social practices, and new skills to enable us to use technology to enhance and inspire learning.

I believe that teaching and learning is not all about the technology.

As stated in the video, Learning the technology is the easy part. It is about building, and participating within the wider, networked community. The video describes this concept as “entrepreneurial learning”, and I’ve blogged about it before, under my musings on becoming a 21st Century “Teacherpreneur”.

In the video, Brown argues that “we are no longer isolated learners or creators … we are part of a networked community”. This means we are not creating (or teaching) skills and knowledge which are stable and unchanging, but knowledge and skills which are destined to evolve over time and across different social and learning contexts.

He concludes by arguing for the “need to build a global one-room school house”. A community where learners can connect, teach, and learn from each-other; and “play” with new tools and concepts in a supportive, safe learning environment.

Building Educational Change 

It is hard to believe that through my work in building and leading The Global Classroom Project, I am helping to make John Brown’s inspiring vision an educational reality.

We are, in effect, building educational change – by creating a network of interconnected learners, and endeavouring to engage and inspire them to participate in, and help us grow a community of 21st Century teaching and learning practice.

We live in exciting times. Who knows where they will take us in the years to come?

 

 

 

Classroom 2.0 Book Project: #globalclassroom Stories

 

This post originally appeared on The Global Classroom Project blog

We are proud to announce that our chapter submission to The Classroom 2.0 Book project is now live. With over 75 submissions from leading educators worldwide, this amazing project was organised by Steve Hargadon, Richard Byrne, and Chris Dawson of the Classroom 2.0 network.

 

 

Now, we need YOUR help!

The Global Classroom Project – Classroom 2.0 Book

We’d truly love to have the #globalclassroom story published in a print book for the very first time. (One day, we might write our own. Until then, this is the next best thing!)

If you could take a few minutes to read our submission, and share it with your networks, we’d be extremely grateful. The more readers we get, the more likely we are to be included.

Thank you to Deb Frazier, Theresa Allen, Effie Kyrikakis, and Kyle Dunbar whose contributions made this chapter submission possible. We hope you enjoy reading our #globalclassroom stories.

 

Michael Graffin and Deb Frazier – The Global Classroom Project

An Australian Teacher’s #GlobalEd Update

It is hard to believe that I am only a few months away from celebrating the second year of my first professional blog. As time has gone by, the topics have changed, and my readership has fluctuated, but I’m still here. I personally think that’s quite an achievement, considering all that has gone on behind the scenes …

In light of what has been a very busy to start to the year, I thought I’d share my first (occasional) Global Education Update …

 
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by woodleywonderworks

 

Global Classroom 2011-12 is coming to an end

Nine months after the official launch of the Global Classroom Project (2011-12), we are planning its conclusion. There are feedback surveys to prepare, a few VoiceThreads to create, a wiki showcase to work on, and the final webinar(s) to organise …

Yet, as I look back, I’m happy. This project, and the people I work with, have helped me through the ups and downs of the past year, and led to some amazing new opportunities and connections. It has been a wonderful experience, and I’m certainly looking forward to taking a few months break!

We are currently working on the final project, building a commerative wiki (http://globalclassroommementos.wikispaces.com), and sending several #globalclassroom scrapbooks around the world. It is time to celebrate our teachers’ & students’ achievements in Global Classroom 2011-12.

 

The May #globalclassroom Twitter chats start this weekend (in a few hours)

This month marks the first time our newly-formed chats team have organised the monthly #globalclassroom chats.

I’d like to thank Jennifer Fenton (@jennysfen), for organising this month’s chat, and to Andrew Thompson (@1AndrewT63), who bravely put his hand up to help out, and is on the list for next month :)

This month’s topic is: Getting a global project started … Where do you begin, and how do you make it meaningful and sustainable?, contributed by Laurie Renton (@RentonL).

I hope you will take a moment to explore (and bookmark) our new Global Classroom Twitter Chats wiki, which you will find at http://theglobalclassroomchats.wikispaces.com

The chats start today, Saturday, May 12, and run until Monday / Tuesday next week. Please see the wiki to find out when they run in your timezone. I hope to see you there!

 

Exploring new opportunities with iEARN Australia 

And finally, in what was one of the most satisfying moments of the year to date, I’ve joined the iEARN Australia management team, where I’ll help run the Australian branch of the world’s largest and longest established global collaboration community.

Drawing on my experience running Global Classroom, I am looking forward to helping grow the iEARN Australia network, raising awareness about the benefits of global education and collaboration within the wider Australian educational community. I’m determined to make the most of this very special opportunity, so stay tuned! :)

The 3 R’s of Global Collaboration (#flatclass Book Club – Part 5)

I’m a couple of weeks behind on my #flatclass reflections, but here are my thoughts on Chapter 6: Contribution and Collaboration …

Key ideas in this chapter included: “Receive, Read, and Respond“, the essential habits which underpin effective global projects; and an exploration of strategies for supporting communication, collaboration, and leadership within global learning communities.

While the focus of the bookclub was on supporting student communication and collaboration, I want to apply these ideas to the teachers in the #globalclassroom community, sharing some of the challenges we’ve faced, and the lessons I’ve learnt over the past year.

Building Community

The Global Classroom Project was designed as a meeting space & global collaboration platform, not as a single collaborative project (e.g. Digiteen). At last count we’ve hosted over 15 major projects, and welcomed hundreds of teachers into our online spaces. Yet, while we do our best to welcome new teachers into our community, we continue to confront the major challenge of connecting with our ‘lurkers’.

Our single greatest challenge is the first step: Saying ‘hello”.

While we provide the online spaces for teachers to connect, we have no control over their participation & engagement in our community & project spaces. I’ve learnt that different online spaces suit different people … and realised that less than 1/3 of our new teacher sign-ups become actively involved in our work.

This is not to say that these teachers aren’t there, but work pressures, over-zealous email spam filters, language barriers, and variations in school years are significant barriers to their active participation in global collaboration …

For me, our greatest success stories have emerged from a simple IM “hello” on Skype or Twitter. We need to establish the personal connection, translating the teacher’s name on the spreadsheet into a real human being. BUT, we need our teachers to make that first step – to receive, read, and respond to our communications; as some are finally doing – nearly 6 months after joining!

Learning for the future

As this past year has flown past, we have witnessed Global Classroom become an established feature of the global collaboration community. We fulfill a need; providing the space and connections for innovative teachers to explore new ways to flatten their classroom walls, and mentor new teachers in the art of global collaboration.

Global Classroom 2012-13 will be different, because our teachers are different, and because I’m different. We’re learning from our mistakes, and through the book club, I’m becoming more comfortable learning and working with the #flatclass community. We have separate identities and roles, but we are learning so much by learning together.

I may be a dreamer, but I believe we can make Global Classroom a world-leading educational community in the years to come.

Our work is pushing the boundaries of what is possible; and I believe that our implementation of some of the #flatclass “handshake” strategies & communication advice (Chapters 4 and 6) will enable us to improve the connections we forge with our people, who are the true leaders of educational change.

I learned a valuable lesson today (#flatclass Book Club, Part 3)

 

Chapter 4, Communication, focuses on the need to develop the “techno-personal skills”, the online habits, which sustain online collaboration and networking. For me, some key ideas from this chapter relate to the nature of online communication tools, and some handy ideas for efficient, inclusive communication between teachers and students involved in global collaboration.

While I was originally going to focus this post on ways we could improve the #globalclassroom handshakes, I’m going to jump ahead a little, and write about something I learned today (relating to Chapters 4 and 5).

The situation

Today, I invited a teacher from the Middle East to join an upcoming #globalclassroom project. A little later, I became concerned that involvement in this project might inadvertently place this teacher in a difficult situation …  relating to the volatile political situation in the region.

Sadly, I was correct.

We talked about the issue, and our teacher decided to decline the invitation.

I was disappointed, but relieved that I hadn’t put my friend at potential risk.

I had learned a valuable lesson

When we collaborate globally, our ignorance of cultural and religious differences can have dramatic, unintended consequences in the lives of real people, in the real world.

We need to learn about, and be sensitive to difference. Yes, this seems obvious, but is so much harder in practice – as we “don’t know what we don’t know”.

This is why I believe it so critical to have open, public and private communication channels for global collaborative projects, and why it is so essential to build trusting, respectful relationships with the teachers you work with.

We need to create the space for people to talk and get to know each-other. I have personally learned so much about other people through mindless conversations about our lives and families – via Skype IM and Twitter conversations. These conversations usually occur in private mediums, and help to build mutual trust and respect. This means that when potential issues arise, when we are not sure about something, we feel more confident in asking for clarification behind the scenes.

As teachers, we can’t teach our students to be ‘culturally aware’ if we don’t understand, and model this awareness ourselves.

You don’t realise what this means until you’ve experienced it first-hand. It truly seems the more I learn, the less I know.

So, looking ahead … 

I hope, over time to get to know my friend a little better. If permissible, I’d love to just chat about our work & life from time to time …  I know so little about her culture, work, and way of life. If not, I hope she can at least point me in the right direction.

Inshallah.