Global education, diversity and multi-cultural appreciation are ideas that I believe are essential for our student's success. I also believe as educators we need to model this for them.  So when I used this tool to see where the folks that I follow reside, it was a little embarrassing.

A little North American centric ya think? While this tool only allows a sampling of 100 of your followers, (I currently follow about 700) it's likely a pretty reasonable indicator of who's got my attention.  Ewan's concerned about this as well. He blames time zones and short attention spans and he's got a point. Christian Long argues:

And perhaps — no matter how much Friedman and well-intentioned educators may want — the world defaults to hyper-local (scaled accordingly) rather than global when it comes to conversation over time.

While that offers some explanation I can't quite take myself off the hook. Add to the fact that a number of those outside North American are ex-pats I have to hang my head in shame. Clarence Fisher is doing wonderful things to help his students experience a global education all the way from northern Manitoba. He requires his student to have a diverse global network of students to learn with. 

So to appease my guilt and practice what I preach, I need to do some different things. By the end of the year, I'm going to find 50 new followers from outside North America. I may even look for random people as it could improve my creativity. I'm going to find 10 new bloggers from overseas and 5 new flickr contacts.  Okay, maybe there's more to do but that's a start. What about you? Happy with who you're learning with? Feel a need to expand? Have any tips or suggestions? Speak now and leave some great recommendations for new global blogs to follow.

Update: I should add the Jennifer Wagner wrote a very similar post last month which I did read and perhaps by osmosis, I've pretty much covered the same ground. I'd like to say "great minds…" but I'm not in that category. Go read Jen's post too.

Carrotmob takes Tuangou (group buying for discounts) to a more altruistic level.

Very Shirykesque wouldn’t you say? I recall Shirky stating (sorry I can’t find the page number) that although group organization is now ridiculously easy, that most organizations were reactive rather than proactive. This is the type of thing that illustrates the ability to be proactive. The democratization of economics is one idea that I hadn’t really considered. The monopolization of companies in reality or practice doesn’t need to exist.

I’m looking forward to seeing passionate, connected teachers leading students in group formation that changes our world.

Clay Burell

Clay’s been exploring “unschooliness” for a while and has taken me along for the ride. When he posted his quick chat with Chris Craft, it immediately resonated with me. “Quick in, Quick out” (this is one of many catch phrases Clay is responsible for). While I totally admire the work of projects like the flatclassroom, liferoundhere, 1000tales and such, I know the work involved and I also know that my personal network does not revolve around a project; it just revolves around learning…and socializing. Clay isn’t someone willing to think about this, he attempts to make this a reality in his classroom. I’m all ears and eyes.

So although Clay resides in Korea, he keeps some odd hours as do I so we are able to quite easily connect and on this occasion he did tell me he was recording but I soon forgot that and hopefully didn’t say anything too silly but I’m sure I did. Anyway, head over to Clay’s blog. *Warning, if you’ve never been to Clay’s blog before, I dare you to attempt a “quick in and quick out” there. His posts are filled with insights on some really interesting stuff.

Clay definitely has a good sense of design, even as podcasting goes. Audio design, is something I need to explore more as in “did you see the audio chapters he used?’. It helps that Clay has a voice meant for radio, but better than that his ideas are meant for teachers and all that is “unschooly”.

[tags]clayburell,chriscraft[/tags]

By chance I happened to be Winnipeg at another conference and was able to invade the MB BloggerCon. The event was casually put together and turned out to be a blast. About 60 people showed up and Andy Mckneil the president of their provincial technology group, organized and paid for the event. (The gave us full use of the bar, free wireless, snacks) Andy also did a great job filming and recording the entire event.  There were 5 unpresentations. I had to stick my big nose into the mix and show off my network. Alec, Jeff and Brian were able to skype in and talk very quickly but clearly, how the network works for them.

I would have liked to connect more with the others but as a guest, I felt the need to lay low. Very cool to meet for the first time Clarence, John and Chris. Nice to see Darren again. It felt like meeting old friends…oh yeah they are.

At any rate, it was great experience and pure fun. Paul Hamilton has remarked a few times about the fun I have with my job. Brian says learning is messy. I say it’s fun.

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I too often make the assumption that most of my audience is like me. Involved in education, interested in technology and change and all that stuff and live in North America. Probably for the most part that’s true. But when realize your Uncle Bill, a retired veterinarian, Jim, a radio disc jockey and Willem an technologist from the Netherlands, read your work, occasionally comment you begin to think more deeply about what you write. To ignore it would be presumptuous.

When I go to give a workshop, I  usually begin  with finding out as much as I can about the audience. What do they hope to gain from our time, what is their current level of understanding and so forth. Most good teachers work with where folks are at. I realize that with as my audience grows it becomes difficult to consider all perspectives but at the same time I think perhaps our readability ought to invite a broader, more diverse audience.

Willem wrote a comment today and a post on my previous entry on commenting. He asks a good question:

Now, also I realize it’s much easier for us to comment on a weblog in English than the other way around. So what about globalization? Should the whole world start posting in English so it’easier for everyone to comment? I’ve tried the translators from MS and Google on my weblog but after translation I could’nt understand my own posts anymore.

While I don’t think we can accommodate every reader who may speak another language, either literally or professionally, I’m thankful for readers like Willem, Uncle Bill and Jim who make me think more deeply about what I write that conversations can expand beyond the typical and more homogeneous members of my network.

Technorati Tags: danmeyer, miguelguhlin, willemkarssenburg

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So I decided to take them on a tour, using some interactive maps and showed them the power of networks, open API (don’t worry I didn’t actually use that term) and personalized learning.

At 9:17 local time I sent out a tweet looking for help. In 2 hours we managed to talk with 10 different people from mostly North America, save for Jeff Utecht who was in Malaysia at a conference.  We got to have a brief chat with each one, found out a little bit about them and even asked one or two intelligent questions.   Using Community Walk (as you can see my community is not walkable) we created placemarks and I added some video snapshots as well.

Here’s the map we created on the fly.

Wedding map to share with guests
CommunityWalk Map – Skype Me

Kids were amazingly focused, running around the room helping each other, teacher laptop in hand right beside her students asking questions, looking like a learner herself, talking to people who help me learn. The students were customizing their maps and adding items of personal relevance and also making connections to the activities and whereabouts of the various guests.

A pretty cool morning.

Technorati Tags: avonlea, prairiesouth, jeffutecht, tinasteele, sharonpeters, barrydahl, paulhamilton, jeffboulton, jamesohagan, brianmull, susanmorgan

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As I mention in my keynote and in this behind the scenes look, chroma keying has the WOW factor but with anything else it can be overused. I don’t claim to be an expert editor so for those with greater skill than I, excuse the rather crude editing and set up.

I think the potential for projects like Vicki’s and Julie’s would be to have students collaborate and create content that appears seamless;as if they were working in the same room.  I like the recent Gmail video as one example as well.

I used Viddler based on Chris Harbeck’s use and it serves as a nice interactive video tool. Go ahead and leave a comment on the video itself.

Technorati Tags: chromakey, greenscreen, flatclassroom, shareski, viddler

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• 10:00 Began an Elluminate session with Jeff Utecht, his Plymouth State students, mine and Alec Couros
• 11:00 Clarence Fisher starts a chat session with me using Google Chat about his current visit to Moose Jaw. I invite him to talk to my students in a couple of weeks.
• 11:15 Session comes to a close as Jeff tells me his Skyping with Chris Lehmann…I send a chat message to Chris just to say hi
• 11:20 Tom Turner responds to an earlier “twit“  I posted about my golf swing…requesting the raw footage
• 11:25 edit and upload a 2 second clip to archive.org
• 11:25-11:45 Commenting on my students’ blogs
• 11:45 Comment on Christian Long’s image from today’s ball game
• 11:45 Preparing for an upcoming workshop on Digital Storytelling I check my del.icio.us feed to see a great digital storytelling resource by Alan found by Will

Connected and learning all the time. I’ve got a great crew working for me.

Today while reading through my aggregator, I came across this story from Christian Long. (Christian is always a wealth of good stuff) So I quickly sent out an email to about 5 primary teachers in our division as an idea for their class. About 5 minutes later, Kathy emails me back:

Great idea, so great that we have already sent our cards.

No wonder Kathy has gained “rock star” status as a leader in developing global citizens. (she knows what I’m referring to). The opportunity for our students to connect and make a difference is unprecedented. Teachers who embrace this notion hardly discuss the issues of safety, danger of living in a global, digital world. It’s not that they don’t teach it, it just isn’t the focus anymore because the potential to make a difference is just too great.

On Monday evening, I’m going to be having a Skye call with my three of my favourite teachers and I think best examples of teacher’s developing global citizens: Kathy Cassidy, Clarence Fisher and Darren Kuropatwa. All three believe this to be a critical component of their classrooms and have many examples to share. I’ll be recording the conversation for a podcast.

In the meantime, why not send Shane a card.

[tags]shaneswish,christianlong,kathycassidy,darrenkuropatwa,clarencefisher[/tags]

• The Machine is Us…read Jeff Utecht’s take
• Brian Crosby’s class….this is what technology is for
• Franklin Police…to catch a thief

If we still think reading and writing are the cornerstones of literacy, you might want to rethink that.

This to me typifies why connections are so critical. Is this information available online? Mostly, but having a personal tour guide was much more relevant and engaging. The awareness I now have will no doubt lead me to more interest in his city. Was it the extreme distance between us that made it so engaging? Partly, but also Jeff and I share many of the same beliefs and ideas when it comes to education. We certainly connect on many levels. After reading his blog for over a year, conversation flowed easily. Jeff, what the heck are those blue rectangles north of your school on the coast?

Learning is certainly easier with a friend.

[tags]googleearth,china,connections[/tags]

• Project based learning would comprise at least half of their day. There would be at least 5 choices of projects that include:
• working with local business or community groups
• cross grade groupings
• off site work
• a final product or presentation
• Physical activity and health related study would be a requirement every day
• Daily reflective journals/blogs publicly accessible
• If there was critical content or process not included in the project, these would be taught as traditional classes
• In addition if there are skills needed in projects these skills can be taught in traditional settings as well
• Everyone has a laptop

This obviously is not complete but as Brian requested, it’s a rough outline. I encourage others to develop a similar post.

I remember Alan talking about this over a year ago and wondering if he should be having teachers create blogs during his introductory workshops or have them spend time reading first. I responded at the time saying I didn’t think order was important. I think I was wrong. If learning really is a conversation let’s talk about how we join conversations. It seems to me that more and more people are becoming aware that there is a great conversation happening. They’ve heard about it and are starting to peer into the window.

But like we’ve all been taught, when you want to join a conversation, it’s usually best you listen for a while and find out which conversations you’d like to join. Standing in the corner of the room and just talking usually doesn’t attract much of a crowd although it can get you some strange looks. The problem is the existing conversations are so engaging, most don’t notice if outsiders are trying to start new ones. So the best way for others to join and contribute is to be invited in by others, introduce them to a few people they think they’ll connect with and participate with them.

I’ve done this with a few people somewhat successfully. Thinking ahead to my goals for next year, I know I need to focus more on getting them to listen for a while. If they are adminstrators and school leaders I’ll introduce them to Will, David, Miguel, Wes, Ewan and Tim. I’ll encourage teachers to spend time listening to Clarence, Darren, Cheryl, Bob, Bud, Barbara, Anne, and Konrad.

I know at first it’s always a bit awkward. But there’s more interest in spending time in these conversations. Clarence is talking about doing this with his students. That’s the real important conversation. But if we as educators have never entered into a global conversation, it’s not likely we’ll ever create that opportunity for our students. But as we all know and I told the administrators, kids are already having them so when will we?

For those of you who have not surrendered $27.50 to Mr. Friedman, allow me summarize The World is Flat. The Indians are going to eat your children. If any remain, the Chinese will kill the rest a few years later.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with Will at FETC. He too echoes this perspective. While it may not exactly be scare tactics, many educators have used Friedman’s work to create a sense of panic and fear.  I certainly value many of the understandings of the book and like Friedman’s NYTimes writing. (until the NYTimes made me pay for it).  Many educators have embraced Friedman so an alternate viewpoint is always appreciated. The balance here seems to between gaining an understanding of our changing world from a business perspective and not completely making direct connections to education.

Like Alfie Kohn, Stager rattles chains. I like that.

Read Stager’s full article here.