I viewed a pre-taped interactive Educational Chat featuring Julie Lindsay & Vicki Davis and their work with "Flat Classrooms". For your convenience, I have embedded the chat directly into my blog.
Reflect on the Julie Lindsay & Vicki Davis on "Flattening Classrooms" and post a blog entry that shares an idea you have implemented, or recently discovered, that fosters collaboration and helps to develop students’ respectful and ethical minds.
According to Lindsay & Davis, a "flat classroom" can best be defined as "bringing the world into your classroom and putting your classroom out to the world".
This hour-long discussion talks about Lindsay & Davis' book called Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds. Their book can be purchased here. The book itself features examples, links, materials, tips/tricks, methodology, and teacher quotes about implementing a flat classroom.
Lindsay & Davis first collaborated because they found out through Julie's blog that they were both covering the same book (in different parts of the world) in their classrooms. They decided to collaborate through Web 2.0 together and were very succesful. Since then, they have been educating teachers about how to implement a flat classroom in today's classrooms.
Lindsay & Davis suggest that "many educators mistakingly view global collaboration as extra, but the visionary educators realize that global collaboration is not a curriculum topic but an approach to pedagogy". As 21st-century teachers, I believe that we need to shift from global collaboration being an "extra" to a "necessity".
Lindsay & Davis both argue that it is important to have opportunities for students to have choices. These choices can pertain to content, process, and/or product. To allow choice in the world of a flat classroom, Lindsay & David have established a "Global Connection Pyramid". In this heirarchy, Level 1 includes- Intra-connection (within your own class); Level 2 includes- Inter-connection (within school/district); Level 3 includes- Managed (global connection); Level 4 includes- Student to student (with teacher management); and Level 5 includes- Student to student (with student management).
Watching this educational chat has really got me thinking about ways to make my own classroom more like a flat classroom. I have recently learned about the world of Edmodo. Edmodo is a web-based application that allows teachers to provide a safe and easy way for students to engage and collaborate for free, anytime and anywhere. In short, Edmodo is an educational website that takes the idea of social media and makes it appropriate for a classroom. Most importantly, just like the "global education" that Lindsay & Davis write about, Edmodo allows teachers and students to join global learning communities. What I really enjoy about Edmodo is that it is completely FREE, and always will be. It is also available on multiple platforms- which is perfect for a BYOD school like ours. Unique teacher controls on Edmodo allow teachers to first approve comments, encouraging a safe, respectful environment for students.
While there is a fear with online collaboration- stereotyping based on religion, ethnicity, countries, etc., this is a fear that we need to work through in order to provide our students with the most ideal, up-to-date learning environment.
What are you doing to lean more towards a flat classroom?
References:
[Future of Education]. (2016, Jan 14). Julie Lindsay & Vicky Davis on "Flattening Classrooms". [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVZuwIhjQvA
According to Lindsay & Davis, a "flat classroom" can best be defined as "bringing the world into your classroom and putting your classroom out to the world".
This hour-long discussion talks about Lindsay & Davis' book called Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds. Their book can be purchased here. The book itself features examples, links, materials, tips/tricks, methodology, and teacher quotes about implementing a flat classroom.
Lindsay & Davis first collaborated because they found out through Julie's blog that they were both covering the same book (in different parts of the world) in their classrooms. They decided to collaborate through Web 2.0 together and were very succesful. Since then, they have been educating teachers about how to implement a flat classroom in today's classrooms.
Lindsay & Davis suggest that "many educators mistakingly view global collaboration as extra, but the visionary educators realize that global collaboration is not a curriculum topic but an approach to pedagogy". As 21st-century teachers, I believe that we need to shift from global collaboration being an "extra" to a "necessity".
Lindsay & Davis both argue that it is important to have opportunities for students to have choices. These choices can pertain to content, process, and/or product. To allow choice in the world of a flat classroom, Lindsay & David have established a "Global Connection Pyramid". In this heirarchy, Level 1 includes- Intra-connection (within your own class); Level 2 includes- Inter-connection (within school/district); Level 3 includes- Managed (global connection); Level 4 includes- Student to student (with teacher management); and Level 5 includes- Student to student (with student management).
Watching this educational chat has really got me thinking about ways to make my own classroom more like a flat classroom. I have recently learned about the world of Edmodo. Edmodo is a web-based application that allows teachers to provide a safe and easy way for students to engage and collaborate for free, anytime and anywhere. In short, Edmodo is an educational website that takes the idea of social media and makes it appropriate for a classroom. Most importantly, just like the "global education" that Lindsay & Davis write about, Edmodo allows teachers and students to join global learning communities. What I really enjoy about Edmodo is that it is completely FREE, and always will be. It is also available on multiple platforms- which is perfect for a BYOD school like ours. Unique teacher controls on Edmodo allow teachers to first approve comments, encouraging a safe, respectful environment for students.
While there is a fear with online collaboration- stereotyping based on religion, ethnicity, countries, etc., this is a fear that we need to work through in order to provide our students with the most ideal, up-to-date learning environment.
What are you doing to lean more towards a flat classroom?
References:
[Future of Education]. (2016, Jan 14). Julie Lindsay & Vicky Davis on "Flattening Classrooms". [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVZuwIhjQvA