<![CDATA[Eracism Project - Eracism Project Blog]]>Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:01:00 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Eracism Project 2012 Forming Now!]]>Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:42:46 -0800http://www.eracismproject.org/1/post/2012/02/eracism-project-2012-forming-now.htmlEracism Project 2012 Forming NowPress Release February 1, 2012.

Announcing, the Eracism Project 2012 - a global student debate that joins diverse cultures and includes authentic debate for global competence and international mindedness.

Fact based debate is a very essential skill with students who often equate the term "debate" with argument.  The Eracism project: A Flat Classroom ProjectTM was envisioned by the winning student team from the 2009 Flat Classroom Conference held in Doha, Qatar and their concept was to hold debates using Web 2.0 tools to improve cultural understanding.  

Schools selected for the Eracism Project 2012 will be asked to enter a 4 person debate team, with the remaining students in the class being researchers around the topic,

"Government regulation requiring immigrants to adopt the beliefs, habits, and language of the dominant culture does more harm than good."  

The initial debates will be held asynchronously but in what organizers are calling a "simulated synchronous" environment with the final winning teams debating live in a virtual world.  This project was carried out in 2009 and is being run again starting in March 2012. A limited number of applications will be taken.

We welcome applications NOW from teachers and their classrooms around the world. We also need judges and volunteers to help with debate coaching.
To apply for this project as a class or judge or volunteer or request to be involved in the teacher information meeting, please complete this form - (http://tinyurl.com/eracism2012)

Classrooms in Upper Primary, Middle and High School are encouraged to apply (students of age 11 and above). Organisers will create two strands in this project based on demand.

Application deadline is February 29, with announcement of project classrooms by Friday March 2, 2012.

The first teacher online meeting will take place near March 5, 2012. Actual date and time to be advised.

Tentative Timeline
This project has a planned start date of March 5, 2012 with debates beginning March 25 and  concluding with the final debate held in a virtual world (and to be streamed live) in May 2012.  Schools applying must specify their school holiday dates so that they can be best placed in the project on the debate grid.

Phase 1 - Research & Coaching - This will happen at the school level as classrooms research the topic and practice debate at their local level.
Phase 2 - Asynchronous Debate Round - Students will use VoiceThread to debate with each round taking approximately one week.  
Phase 3 - Synchronous Debate - The top two teams will debate live in a virtual world with the debate streamed live on the web for students and educators around the world to watch.  
Phase 4 - Reflection - Students and teachers will reflect on ways to improve the methods for  global debates.
Process
Due to the asynchronous components used, Eracism will use a hybrid debating style that is based on Conflict or Initiative Debating. 
The teams prepare their cases; they present their arguments and evidence; and, they rebut the other team's arguments and evidence. The debate cycle will generally align with the Middle School Public Debate Program found at http://www.middleschooldebate.com

Each debate will be adjudicated by 3 judges and the winning team advances to the next round.

Most of the debates will be carried out on VoiceThread with the final debate being streamed live in a virtual world.

Thank you to the sponsors of this project: Voicethread, Wikispaces, Blackboard Collaborate. (Virtual world platform to be announced soon.)

Co-founders of Flat Classroom (TM) Projects, Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis, have been planning for two years to once again run this ground breaking and inspirational global collaborative project. The project opens eyes and hearts as students debate on an issue that will bring together diverse ideas, develop transferable skills and create lasting friendships.

More information about Eracism: http://www.eracismproject.org
Application Form for Eracism 2012: http://tinyurl.com/eracism2012
Flat Classroom Projects: http://flatclassroomprojec.net
Contact us: fcp@flatclassroom.org
Directors, Vick Davis and Julie Lindsay
For more about the pedagogy and benefits of adding global collaboration to your curriculum, buy Julie and Vicki's book Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds from Pearson Publishing.  www.flatclassroombook.com

 ]]><![CDATA[You're invited to the Book Club!]]>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:38:37 -0800http://www.eracismproject.org/1/post/2012/01/youre-invited-to-the-book-club.html Picture
Global collaboration starts with connecting yourself to the world. Students are the greatest textbook ever written for each other. The same is true for teachers. We are passionate about connecting and facilitating effective collaborations between classrooms because we’ve seen the power of how it can engage students and teach them the skills they need to be successful in the 21st century.

We want to bring in people who are nervous, who don’t know how, or who have tried to connect and were frustrated. We also want to bring back those teachers who tried it and got burned out. Now it is time to enlarge the circle of global collaborative excellence in a massive way.

It is our vision that if we can have enough educators linking together and learning about this at the same time, that a natural byproduct will be the creation of many new, exciting global collaborations. It is time to get past the cute stories of global collaboration into the nuts and bolts of the pedagogy that makes it happen. (Although there are a lot of powerful stories to tell.)

To help facilitate this conversation, we felt like that it would be best if we, the authors (Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis), step aside, and invite our friends Ben Curran and Neil Wetherbee of  @engaginged to facilitate the conversation. They’ve done book clubs before and this is another pedagogy that we want to work out: that of having a book club that is truly global. We’d like to do this to promote conversations that transcend borders. The easiest way to get this out of the box is to get out of the classroom and connect with other educators.

Every week for 10 weeks we will meet at an alternating time - 12 hours apart. (For the East Coast USA it is Sundays at 6 pm Eastern or Monday mornings at 8 am eastern - Visit our Book club calendar to convert these times to your Time Zone. Subscribe to this calendar via Google calendar to keep up with events.) This is Sunday evenings at 22:00GMT alternating with Monday mornings at 10:00GMT in our Blackboard Collaborateroom http://tinyurl.com/BookClubRoom .It is free and everyone is welcome. 


We’re also inviting the educators featured in each chapter to be with us for the conversations about “their” chapter. You’ll meet people from all over the world just like you who are doing wonderful, amazing things. This is a global story that transcends just one project, although we’re mighty proud of ours.

While you are welcome to just “drop in” you can register with the Book club mailing list  and we’ll remind you each week about the session, let you know who is coming, and we’ll mention any special events that we’ll be having as part of the launch. If you run your own book club, you’re welcome to come by the club anytime for ideas and discussion points.

The hashtag for our conversations is #flatclass and the book club is, of course, free. Anyone can join us. There’s no homework - just conversation and learning. We’ll all be there to discuss the future of education with each other. We hope global collaborators from around the world will join us and share their stories too. Conversations will hinge around our new book, Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds. The book will be available in ebook format, although we’re not sure yet which ebook formats.

So, to get ready:
  1. Order the book                                                                                                                                                                                    Amazon             Barnes and Noble           Pearson Publishing              ebook format
  2. Sign up for the book club - run by Ben Curran & Neil Wetherbee from @engaginged 
  3. Mark your calendar with the dates and times
Thank you to everyone who has made this possible Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher
Julie Lindsay@julielindsay 
Co-founders 
Flat Classroom Projects
@flatclassroom
Ben Curran & Neil Wetherbee @engaginged
4th and 5th Grade teachers 
Co-founders of Engaging Educators LLC 

How will this global book club work? Will it really transform my teaching?

Have you ever read a book about teaching and thoroughly enjoyed it, only to get done and ask yourself "Now what?" Or maybe you've read something that was motivating, inspirational and chock-full of ideas, only to find after sharing it with colleagues that they "just aren't that into it?" If so, this book club is for you. We hope it will be a gathering of inspired, motivated, similarly driven friends from around the globe. 

Here's how it will work...each week we will focus on approximately one chapter.  Each meeting will be divided roughly into three parts. The first part will focus on implementation--how all of us have or can implement the main theme of the week. We'll also dive into and discuss the activities (Vicki and Julie refer to them as "challenges") that are embedded in the book. The second part will be more of an open forum for everyone to discuss other topics in the chapter or other issues pertaining to the subject. This will be a great time for making connections with other teachers for possible collaborations and getting answers to questions that you have. Finally, and perhaps what we are most excited about is that each week we hope to be joined by the friends mentioned in each chapter.  They will be able to share their firsthand insight on the weekly topic as well as stories from their own experiences.

On top of all this, Engaging Educators will be providing short, free “boot camp” style webinars along the way to help you master some of the topics that might be new to you.
What we hope to facilitate is a perfect companion to Julie and Vicki's book, an experience that goes beyond "just reading" and demonstrates what a network of connected educators can learn and accomplish.

Welcome to the club!

Ben Curran & Neil Wetherbee @engaginged
4th & 5th Grade teachers and Co-founders of Engaging Educators LLC
technorati tags: flatclass engaginged bencurran neilwetherbee coolcatteacher julielindsay 
]]><![CDATA[Meet the Flat Classroom®]]>Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:16:43 -0800http://www.eracismproject.org/1/post/2011/08/meet-the-flat-classroom.html 
We are delighted to invite you to an online ‘Meet the Flat Classroom®’ meeting early next week. This is an opportunity to learn more about Flat Classroom® Projects LLC and our non-profit organisation, Flat Classroom® Conference and Live Events Inc.
 

At this gathering we will

  • Explain and review all current projects
  • Share Flat Classroom® Certified Teacher course details
  • Detail our upcoming live events and workshops
  • Talk about how to get involved with Flat Classroom® as a classroom teacher, as a leader as a pre-service teacher and as an expert advisor
  • Share excitement and details about our book, “Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time”, due for release January 2012
  • and more…..!
Come and join us in BlackBoard Collaborate and hear how you can connect with other educators and students globally and embed collaborative learning into your curriculum.

Time and Date: Monday August 29 8:30pm EDT, Tuesday August 30, 8:30am China
Check your time at Meet the Flat Classroom on timeanddate.com

For those who have already applied to projects for 2011-12, this is not the project launch meeting, but an opportunity to learn more about Flat Classroom®. We hope you can join us!

The online meeting room URL:
http://tinyurl.com/flatbusiness1112


 ]]><![CDATA[Calling Virtual Participants]]>Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:25:31 -0800http://www.eracismproject.org/1/post/2011/02/calling-virtual-participants.htmlWe are looking for students and educators who are interested in joining us virtually for the Flat Classroom Conference 2011, to be held in less than 3 weeks time.

All details on the wiki at http://conference2011.flatclassroomproject.org/Virtual+Participants

There will be TWO online meetings in the next 2 weeks to discuss this further.  Come and join us!  If you have students who are interested please let us know and encourage them to sign up.

The first information/ training meeting is tomorrow morning, Tuesday February 8, 2011 at 7am Eastern with Julie Lindsay.
]]><![CDATA[Flat Classroom and Eracism Project News]]>Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:16:18 -0800http://www.eracismproject.org/1/post/2010/07/flat-classroom-and-eracism-project-news.htmlNEWS Update
Vicki and Julie were very busy at ISTE last week with various presentations and sessions including a 7-hour DigiTeacher Workshop, Flat Classroom ‘Birds of a Feather’ and the ‘Seven Steps to Flatten your Classroom’ presentation that was attended by over 200.

Flat Classroom Workshop, St. Louis
St.Louis. July 13-14, 2010
http://flatclassroomworkshop2010.flatclassroomproject.org/

Special announcement! The Flat Classroom Project 10-3, running from September - December 2010 will be our 20th global collaborative project since joining classrooms together using Web 2.0 tools in 2006. We are delighted to announce David Warlick, one of our main sources for inspiration and a supporter of our projects and events, will be creating the keynote for this project. Consider joining your classroom today, applications close September 1, 2010.

Flat Classroom Conference 2011, Beijing, China February 25-27, 2011

The NEXT Flat Classroom Conference is in Beijing, February 25-27, 2011. Join us at the W.A.L.L. - We All Learn and Lead in China!

The Flat Classroom™ Conference is a unique limited-seating conference including students and educators to envision the future of education as they use leading technology tools such as wikis, blogs, social networking and multi-media storytelling. The conference is diverse in participation while allowing smaller groups with leading world-class presenters in a "flattened" environment where virtual participants join in the conversation from remote corners of the world.

Educators will leave the conference understanding how to collaborate globally and with contacts in hand to start projects. Students will leave the conference with leadership skills, technology skills, presentation skills, and a better understanding of diverse cultures and collaboration.

Educators come and join the Leadership Workshop! Teachers apply to bring students to the Student Summit and allow them to be challenged to find a voice while collaborating with others from around the world.
Early Bird registration until September 15! All details, including online Registration at http://www.flatclassroomconference.com/.

Are you interested in sponsoring a Flat Classroom Workshop or Flat Classroom Conference? A range of sponsorship opportunities are available to ICT and education vendors as well as other companies and individuals interested in supporting the event. See http://www.flatclassroomconference.com/sponsors.html.

Announcing New Projects

We are delighted to announce the re-opening of applications for the Digiteen Project 2010-2011. Each project is offered three-times per year and runs for 8-10 weeks. The Digiteen™ Project is a global hands-on project for middle and early high school students, (typically Grade 6-9, 11-15 year old). This project studies digital citizenship with students researching current topics, writing a collaborative report on a wiki, and performing and documenting offline action educational projects to promote effective digital citizenship at their local schools. Topics of study include digital: access, communications, literacy, security and safety, etiquette, rights and responsibilities, law, health and wellness, and commerce.

One of the main goals of the project is to 'flatten' or lower the classroom walls so that instead of each class working isolated and alone, 2 or more classes are joined virtually to become one large classroom. The project is designed to develop cultural understanding, skills with Web 2.0 and other software, experience in global collaboration and online learning, awareness of what it means to live and work in a flat world, while researching and discussing the ideas developed in Friedman's book, ‘The World is Flat’. Projects are constructed with an international set of classrooms (as mixed as we can make it depending on applications). Students also have the chance to interact with expert advisers and other classroom teachers and sounding board classrooms in a true flattened learning mode.

Information about the project can be found at http://tinyurl.com/flatclassroomguide
Application form found on the Apply tab of http://flatclassroomproject.net. Read more details on the New Projects Wiki.

Information about the project can be found at http://tinyurl.com/digiteenguide

 Application information is found on the Apply tab of at http://www.digiteen.org/

 Applications close September 15 for the Digiteen 10-2 project.

Watch this space for further announcements coming about:
  • Eracism Project: A global collaborative debate, to be offered Semester 1, October-December 2010
  • NetGenEd Project: Another Flat Classroom Project that joins students to research emerging technologies in an increasingly digital world
Read more about this award winning set of projects and live events http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/About

 Download our 2-page brochure to share with others http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/file/view/Flat_Classroom_Brochure_July2010.pdf

What are others saying about Flat Classroom Projects, Conferences and Workshops?
http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/Flat+Classroom+Participants+Speak+Up

Is there a Flat Classroom in your future?

“We are building bridges between students that our future can walk across”.
]]><![CDATA[Eracism Finals This Thursday on ReactionGrid]]>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:40:30 -0800http://www.eracismproject.org/1/post/2009/12/eracism-finals-this-thursday-on-reactiongrid.htmlWe are so excited about this Thursday and the Finals of the Eracism Project!  Our presentation for k12 online will also be going online this week as well, so you can "look under the hood," so to speak! 

The 2009 global debate project for middle schoolers, the Eracism Project (a Flat ClassroomTM Project www.eracismproject.org) will hold the finals of Eracism on the private Eracism grid on ReactionGrid on Thursday, December 17 at 9:15 am EST – 10:15 EST.  

 Although the students and judges for this project will be in-world, the presentation will be streamed live with a backchannel as part of the K12 Online Conference 2009 to CCiTV Live – http://ccitv.cciu.org/ and ReactionGrid  http://livestream.com/snowcrash.

 Student finalists will be debating “Differences Make us Stronger” in the impromptu style debate moderated by Bernajean Porter (http://www.digitales.us) with the final vote on the winner taken from the judges and student participants in the project who will be in the virtual world.  This final debate is the culmination of an 8 week debate project that began with sixteen teams from 12 classrooms in 7 countries and is now down to two debate teams from Shorecrest Preparatory School in Florida and Westwood Schools in Georgia.

The organizers of the project recently shared a presentation as part of the K12Online Conference about how the project was founded, the methodologies and tools used to make the debates “feel” as synchronous as possible, even when in the asynchronous environment of VoiceThread.

Sponsors of this project include: Elluminate, VoiceThread, ReactionGrid, and Wikispaces.

Date: Thursday December 17, 9:15 am EST – 10:15 EST. (click the link for time/date conversion)


]]><![CDATA[Debate 1 Announcement!]]>Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:17:06 -0800http://www.eracismproject.org/1/post/2009/11/debate-1-announcement.html . Eracism Debate 1 Announcements
The pilot program of the Eracism Debate project (http://www.eracismproject.org) is proud to announce the winners and competitors in Debate Brackets 1 and 2.

First round winners include:
Corpus Christi School (CA, USA), Shorecrest Preparatory School (FL, USA), Bawlf School (Alberta, Canada), Maintou Springs Middle School (Colorado, USA), St. Paul the Apostle School (CA, USA), Longfellow Middle School (WI, USA), Eastchester Middle School (NY, USA), and Westwood Schools (GA, USA).  These eight schools are now in the semifinal bracket of Debate Bracket 1 and two of these schools will compete in the finals in a virtual world the week of December 14 as part of the K12 Online Conference 2009.

This debate has presented the judges and teachers with an enormous challenge.  The judges expressed concerns because of difficulty determining the "winners" in these competitions because of the incredibly strong abilities of both teams.  In order to facilitate further competition, fun, and learning, Debate Bracket 2 is including all of the excellent schools who did not win the first competition but who deserve an additional opportunity to compete.  Debate Bracket 2 Winners will be faciliators and participants in the final debate to be held in the virtual world for Bracket 1.

Bracket 2 Competitors Include: Choithram International School (India), Berwick Lodge Primary School (Melbourne, Australia), Nespelem Middle School (WA, USA), Qatar Academy (Doha, Qatar), ISG Dammam (Saudi Arabia), and the International School of Beijing (Beijing, China).  One of these schools will win the Competition for Debate Bracket 2.

The second series of debates will commence on Sunday, November 15- Tuesday, November 24th so that all 16 teams in the project will be debating a second time and in almost all cases will debate the opposite side as done previously with the topic "Differences Make Us Stronger."

This is a pilot program and teachers and judges of the competition will be providing feedback to improve all processes used in this debate with plans to run a second project in March 2010 implementing improvements.  Please contact organizers through the Eracism Project Website.

All winners and brackets are on the Eracism wiki at http://eracism.flatclassroomproject.org/Debate+No.2
]]><![CDATA[Project Forming]]>Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:15:16 -0800http://www.eracismproject.org/1/post/2009/10/project-forming.htmlOur wiki is live and we are moving ahead with forming the classes now.  See our new wiki at http://eracism.flatclassroomproject.org. 
]]><![CDATA[The Eracism Project]]>Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:13:55 -0800http://www.eracismproject.org/1/post/2009/09/eracism.htmlEracism was envisioned by a group of students at the 2009 Flat Classroom Conference and we are excited about piloting this project.  This is the first project completely designed by students and we're very excited about the potential for encouraging fact-based debate between schools around the world.

A world-class educator and former debate Coach, along with other organizers, are working with this project to make this happen.  View the student video and share your thoughts!
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