When? Tue Oct 15 at noon UTC at one of the regular events that take place 4 times a month in the Teachers’ Room
Steven Herder sent me a few questions in advance
During the interview Steven started with the first question and the interview proceeded organically from there. However, I did get through most of the narrative of my teaching journey.
How did you get where you are today?
In a nutshell, I graduated from the U of Houston with a BS in Biology in 1971, which was a long time ago. I got a job working as a purchaser in a company that made seismic sensors. I used that job to accumulate enough money for me to quit it and travel for two years, hitchhiking mostly through Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I returned to Houston with a desire to do something that would enable me to travel more, so I walked into a branch of English Language Services at the U of H and convinced the director there to hire me to teach ESL, part time. He must have been desperate for staff because he asked me to start the next day. I turned up and was told, there’s your class. I said, huh? what am I supposed to do? Someone told the class to chill for an hour while someone else answered my questions, and that’s how I started my teaching journey.
In March of 1976 I went to New York to the TESOL Conference there. Having only a bachelor’s degree in biology I was not that much in demand, as MA’s were preferred. But someone else over there was desperate for staff, and UPM in Dhahran, KSA, made me an offer. I was in KSA for the next 5 years. By the time I left to get my MA/ESL at another U of H, this one in Hawaii, I had been put in charge of the Language Center’s first ever computer-assisted language instruction development effort
(see Stevens, V. (1981). What’s an ESL teacher doing with a computer? TEAM. Dhahran, KSA: University of Petroleum and Minerals, pp. 3-11. Available: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nIEE3Wj-wl-3yObPjMgK4KaDVf5bN9-ZQPyqlkPoeIE/edit?usp=sharing)
At U of Hawaii I did my thesis on CAI in ESL. There was a TESOL Conference in Honolulu while I was there where a small coterie of CAI enthusiasts was forming, and I was invited to join them in Toronto the following year for a symposium on computers in language learning. This group set in motion an effort to form a CALL Interest Section in TESOL. A chair was easily selected but one by one all nominees for an associate chair position declined the nomination. Finally my name came up along with one other and I was elected. The chair dropped out later in the year for personal reasons and I was left to shepherd the group’s petition to become an interest section in TESOL. When the application succeeded I became the first chair of the CALL-IS in TESOL.
When I graduated with my MA/ESL from UHM (University of Hawaii at Manoa) I moved to the Big Island of Hawaii to implement a program designed to address the academic needs of ESL students there. I got the school to buy some computers but they didn’t budget for software so I learned enough BASIC programming to be able to adapt public domain software to our purposes. I had some publications by now on top of my MA (the first 15 publications in this list of 133 to date, here, http://vancestevens.com/papers/index.html#publications). I was attending TESOL conferences where I met potential employers, and I got a job as an instructional developer and lecturer of EFL at the under-construction SQU, Sultan Qaboos University, in Muscat Oman.
I was there for ten years and when I left it was to move to California to work as Director of ESL Software Design for an upstart start-up company there. The year was 1995 and I had by then been teaching for 20 years, but working at a software company, for the first time in my new career, I had no students. and I missed teaching. But a teacher at Berkeley was organizing students and teachers around a website at study.com and I became a teacher of courses conducted by email on writing and grammar. One of my students created a web page for the course and it wasn’t long before I had learned HTML and was making my own web pages.
I stayed at the software company long enough to work on the speech recognition aspects of an interactive adventure game our team was developing for the ESL market called Traci Talk, but the company did not pay regularly, and a friend soon recruited me as a consultant and then CALL Coordinator for a Military Language Institute in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Part of my work I was to ensure the fit of our technical specification in support of the academic side, and when the military installed a LAN in our facility I was able to hang out online and pursue my volunteer work with study.com in a connected environment. To make a long story short, this led to my online classes for language learners morphing into Writing for Webheads (WfW) at a website that I created and that remains online here: http://prosites-vstevens.homestead.com/files/efi/webheads.htm
Meanwhile I continued going to TESOL conferences and remained closely connected to CALL-IS, and when the interest section started its Electronic Village Online (EVO) program in 2001, I was asked to do a workshop on how I had developed and sustained the WfW community. In 2002 I created the Webheads in Action (WiA) community of educator-practitioners, whose associated websites are here http://vancestevens.com/papers/evonline2002/webheads.htm.
This community remains viable to this day, and a few years ago I was asked to write this article about it. It took a few years for the article to be published as:
Stevens, V. (2018). Webheads. In Liontas, J. (Ed.). The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching. Wiley-Blackwell. 5824 pages. Available: http://www.vancestevens.com/papers/archive/9781118784235eelt0458webheads.pdf
From this point in my career, how I was earning my living in my paid jobs became less important to me in the long run than my work in my online communities. The two were inextricably related though. My work in connecting teachers online kept me at the peak of this aspect of my profession and helped me bring CMC and other connectivity tools to bear on my face-to-face work life. I became known for my expertise in technology in the places I worked and this helped me to get real teaching jobs, keep at the top of my game, and thrive in them.
In 2005 the WiA community mounted its first of three Webheads in Action Online Convergences (WiAOC). These were significant efforts to put on entirely free, crowd-sourced, 3-day (72 hours running) online conferences with hundreds of registered participants who came together online using the CMC tools we had been exploring in WiA. We ran these conferences three times, in 2005, 2007, and 2009 (http://vancestevens.com/papers/evonline2002/wiaoc_index.htm; they were too intensive to do annually).
These WiAOC’s occurred at a time when people were experimenting with online conferences, but up to 2005, these required a credit card; almost none were done for free (one exception, John Hibbs’s annual Global Learn Day events, http://www.globalschoolnet.org/GLD/overview.html). The first significant effort at free online conferences for educators was the K-12 online conference which started in 2006 (https://k12onlineconference.org/). The first WiAOC in 2005 predated George Siemens’s first free Online Connectivism Conference in 2007, https://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=38808, and was three years ahead of the Connectivism and Connective Knowledge course (CCK08) at https://sites.google.com/site/themoocguide/3-cck08—the-distributed-course which is widely acknowledged to be the first connectivist MOOC, the term connectivism having been coined in 2004 by George Siemens, https://www.academia.edu/2857071/Connectivism, and the term MOOC having been coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier, who was helping George and Stephen Downes put on the CCK08 course, including how they were going to deal with 2200 participants, about 2K of those unexpected.
Having dealt now with “how you got there” this brings us to my current position. After doing my last WiAOC in 2009, I realized that 3-day marathon conferences were too taxing and I hit on the idea of breaking this down into a weekly webinar/podcast series which I started in 2009 but began to do regularly in 2010. All 425 podcasts produced between 2010 and up through today are indexed here: http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/34456755/archiveindex.
I ended my teaching career in July, 2018, with my last job in the UAE. I moved to Malaysia and got an apartment in Penang and now I call myself founder and coordinator of Learning2gether.net. It doesn’t pay well, nothing at all actually. In fact I have to support it with an Internet line, computer equipment, and hosting services for its various aspects, including the WordPress site that hosts https://learning2gether.net. I am prevented from working for local currency in Malaysia, but I am beginning to be offered opportunities to go on English Language Specialist assignments for the US State Dept.
The four teachers who have influenced me most in my career path after my formal education, when I really began to learn on my own, have been Jeff Lebow, Dave Cormier, George Siemens, and Stephen Downes.
Jeff Lebow has developed the Worldbridges network, at http://worldbridges.net/. At about the time of the first MOOCs one of his most active channels was http://edtechtalk.com/. Another of his projects was http://webcastacademy.net/, which derived from his conviction that by teaching others the art of webcasting, or more specifically having others teach themselves, he would relieve himself of trying to hold together a band of cats and channel their energy into productive outcomes (which I often express as “a teacher should never work harder than his/her students”).
As one of his Webcast Academy participants (students is not quite the right word) I learned how to do webcasting as opposed to being taught. Jeff helped me to come to grips with Hangouts on Air and get them streaming over YouTube. YouTube eventually made this easier through tweaks to its own software, but then pulled the rug on everyone, forcing us now to provide out own streaming tools and figure out how to use them. Thanks to Jeff’s modeling, I was able to work out how to get OBS (Open Broadcasting Software) working in this direction, and I also compiled a manual of sorts for others, https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12KL1390JLzBsopdsMLMi6ZHNC23CEzT2biNp0mCOV3M/edit?usp=sharing
Dave Cormier was Jeff’s partner in http://edtechtalk.com/. Dave has interesting theories on teaching and how learners need to share with one another in order to learn in a connected manner. This is too complicated to explain in the time I have available right now, but before he started producing kids and got focused on that, Dave’s last MOOC was on Rhizomatic Learning, a topic on which he publishes, some pieces of which I have preserved on this very page, http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/32206114/volunteersneeded#Rhizo15and16APracticalViewMOOCbyDaveCormier
This has guided my own teaching as with EVO MInecraft MOOC, which we will be doing for the 6th year this January. The ‘syllabus’ for our course is laid out here, http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/.
But the syllabus is what we produce to get ourselves accepted as an EVO session so we can run our MOOC another year. However, a MOOC by its very nature is community driven. In other words, once the MOOC begins, the syllabus is neither here nor there. We do what the community of participants most active at the time wants to do. We don’t worry about the syllabus. We keep it in mind, but it is not dogma.
There are the five stages of coming to terms with a MOOC as delineated by Dave Cormier in this video https://youtu.be/r8avYQ5ZqM0
Our syllabus at http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/ is distributed over five weeks, each addressed at one of Cormier’s five stages of achieving success in MOOCs, which are: orient, declare, network, cluster, focus
At some point in a MOOC, the participants network and cluster around their own goals and projects. The syllabus brought them together and started them on their learning journey in the MOOC, but that journey departs from the journeys of others and leads to like-minded people to collaborate in clusters into developing their own learning outcomes.
This was George Siemens’ idea when he conceived of connectivism. He has said he was reacting to the fact of the matter where in his classes he would have no idea why individuals in a lecture hall were there. Each must have a reason, but as the sage on the stage he could not possibly cobble one shoe to fit all those feet. Connectivism makes it possible for learners to utilize their networks to get from them what they need to know at any given time. The pipe is more important than the content of the pipes; if the pipes are working the content is available.
Siemens and Stephen Downes have explored the nature of knowledge; e.g. Knowing Knowledge by George Siemens (2006). There are at least two sources for this book as of Oct 8, 2019
I have always liked Stephen Downes’s Where’s Waldo analogy of what knowledge is. You can stare for some time at a picture where Waldo is concealed and not be able to see him. But once you see him, then you “know” where he is, and then you understand the corollary to what knowledge is, which is that it’s something you cannot “not know” as Downes puts it, or that you cannot ‘unknow’. In other words, once you KNOW where Waldo is, you cannot again NOT know, and you will always find him quickly in that same picture.
Siemens’s book offers a connectivist perspective on what it means to “know” and the book is about knowledge in this day and age. Siemens and Downes suggest that any one node in the network is as knowledgeable as the most knowledgeable node in the network. Thus “knowing” is largely a byproduct of being able to connect in this day and age, and this is what teachers need to grasp, and what they need to teach their students.
Steven asked me to encapsulate these beliefs during our conversation so I repeated the mantra I have often used, based on the work of Stephen Downes in conjunction with David Warlick, whose blog posts and recorded presentations have been another significant influence on my beliefs.
I related how Stephen Downes appeared at our WiAOC in 2007 and gave a talk on Personal Learning the Web 2.0 Way, which Jeff Lebow still hosts at the Drupal site he set up to harvest recordings of our WiAOC conferences (but then his site was hacked, we suspect, by a minions of a certain state actor because Jeff was hosting materials there relating to his prior work and interest in Tibet, and we lost all our WiAOC recordings and much else that was there preceding the hack): http://www.webheadsinaction.org/wiaoc2007/StephenDownes
And there you can find Stephen’s slide 22, which looks like this:
Stephen has often repeated this neat and comprehensive characterization of the two things that teachers do and the two things that learners do. I have added value to it by incorporating Warlick’s definition of teachers being master learners, from his post here:
Warlick, D. (2010, October 8). Are they students or are they learners? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://2cents.onlearning.us/?p=2762
So I often point out that teachers, in their true role as master learners, but in fact incorporate all four roles that Downes so succinctly shared with us in 2007; i.e. they must constantly percolate all the four actions, modeling, demonstrating, practicing, and reflecting, in an ongoing iterative process of learning and re-learning through teaching.
The first slide in this slide deck informed the audience to whom it was delivered that “THIS IS A FLIPPED PRESENTATION ● You can read my presentation in full text here: https://tinyurl.com/icctar2019vance ● You can download my slides at any time here: https://tinyurl.com/vance2019icctar If you visit my slides you will find a link to the full text. If you visit the full text you will find a link to the slides.”
My teaching approach has two key aspects
I noted two aspects of my approach to teaching: the healthy role of chaos in teaching and learning, and the need to model, demonstrate, practice, and reflect on flipped learning.
The first key aspect is to model and practice flipped learning
I recently proposed to give a plenary on Flipped Learning. As can be seen from the example above, the plenary would be conceived as follows:
The plenary as I would envisage it would itself be flipped. I’ve done this with many of my presentations lately. When I’m about to give a plenary, or any kind of solo presentation, I usually start by writing out what I want to say. From that I produce a slide presentation. Doing that feeds back into the prose version as I work to tighten up the structure until I have a cohesive prose document and a slide presentation, both of which I can share online.
Any presenter practices what s/he does before delivery from a podium, and I might do this by offering an online https://learning2gether.net event in Zoom which would make a recording of my presentation before I actually give it (or I might just practice it in my office and make a Zoom recording there; the live audience being beside the point for this purpose). In any event, all of this, the links to the prose writeup, the slides, and to YouTube version of the rehearsal goes up online before I give the presentation live, and I announce it with its links on my social media.
Normally my audiences are not so connected to be following my social media, so when I appear before them, I tell them at the beginning of the presentation that everything I plan to say is already written out and recorded, and online, and I invite them to follow my slide show on their own devices as I present on the day, and they can see that in the slides there are links to the prose document prepared in advance and also to the video recording of my rehearsal.
To get them started on the slides, I usually make a TinyURL of the link to the slide show. A TinyURL is a mnemonic link which I generate from visiting http://tinyurl.com. Every TinyURL begins with that URL and is followed, after a slash/, by anything the creator of the TinyURL specifies. In my presentations I usually include the name of the conference, its,year, and my own name. The year is always in the middle but I transpose the conference acronym and my name for the TinyURL link to the slides and to the prose document. It doesn’t matter which way conference goers remember it because the two documents, slides and prose, link to one another.
For example at a recent plenary in Melaka I created these two TinyURLs, the first to the slides and the second to the prose document, so either link would get you to the slides:
I paused my presentation at the first slide to allow the delegates to get the presentation up on their personal devices, so they could follow the links as I mentioned them.
One nice thing here is that, if the presentation departs from script or runs out of time I can always tell the audience there is a backup elaborating on those last two slides. And of course I never have to tell an audience they can email me if they want a copy of my slides, nor do they need to take pictures of my slides during the presentation. If I’m presenting in a small room I might include a QR code on the first slide for the convenience of people who do like to photograph slides as speakers progress them.
And as the final part of the flip, there is a record, which I can add to by fleshing out links or elaborating on tangents that came up during the presentation. I always make a blog post with the video recording or at least an audio (sometimes I attempt to make one during the presentation), Often because this started with a prose document I’ve now developed cohesively, there might eventually be a publication, which also becomes a part of the record as I update it after the event that prompted the presentation.
So this is my technique and I was thinking that the plenary could itself be on the tools of podcasting and webcasting and how you can not only connect with peers, but you can put your students in touch with experts or with their peers in other countries, and not only that but you don’t have to go online while using these tools, you can use them to make recordings of yourself giving lectures, include screen shares, graphics, animations, web tours etc in the presentation and put that online as the first part of the flip, which you tell students to review before you meet them in class (and to do that you need to have a space where you can put things online where they can go to find what you want them to see and do before class, and this is where DIYLMS tools come in – Blackboard would work as well, but not everyone has Bb, and not everyone who has it likes it! but anyone with an internet connection can cobble together an effective DIYLMS, http://diylms.pbworks.com/).
Anyway, to continue, the middle part of the flip is where you meet the students in class and ideally you set those who come prepared on to the next task. Others can use the time to view your materials and do the work they were supposed to have done prior to the class. Others might have questions, so you use class time to do what students need on a JIT basis and not preach to a choir, a third of whom might be sleeping, another third not quite keeping up with the nuances. And the last part of the flip is where students go off and use your record of the event to figure out what they missed, or if they missed the whole class, to catch up. And in my plenary I would be modeling all this, well not exactly the middle part, but at least the first and 3rd stages.
This was the extent of what we discussed in the iTDi event. The quote comes from Howard Reingold’s interview of George Siemens somewhere in this video
Read the Zoom text chat for this event
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : http://www.melta.org.my/
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Sounds like Vance caught travel bug 😉
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Minecraft
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : HI Hanaa Khamis. Welcome to The Teachers’ Room 🙂
Hanaa Khamis : Hi Phil
Hanaa Khamis : Wonderful to catch u jst in time
MikeのiPad : Other countries Language teaching markets seem so much more dynamic than Japan.
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : MUVE = Multi-User Virtual Environment
Hanaa Khamis : Hi Vance
Hanaa Khamis : Always wonderful to work w u
Hanaa Khamis : Learning experience watching u in a tion
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Great to collaborate 🙂
Hanaa Khamis : *action
20:22:26 Barb : When I first got online (thanks to Webheads) I remember other newbies like me would ‘discover’ something amazing about learning and teaching online…and it would turn out that Vance had written about the same thing years earlier lol. Ahead of his time.
Barb : And really gracious about us discovering stuff that was old news for him 🙂
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Here’s the Learning2Gether:
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/32206114/volunteersneeded#Nextupcomingevents
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : EVO = Electronic Village Online
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : http://evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/10708567/FrontPage
Barb : http://evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/10708567/FrontPage
Barb : beat me 🙂
Barb : That’s the first online course I took! Becoming a Webhead
Barb : 2009 🙂
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : World Bridges: http://worldbridges.net/
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Learning2gether is also on Facebook for anyone interested: https://www.facebook.com/groups/learning2gether/
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Webheads in Action: https://www.facebook.com/groups/webheadsinaction/
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : MOOCs = massive open online courses
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Connectivist MOOCs
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Stephen Downes – Connectivism, MOOCs and Innovation: https://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?presentation=388
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Missions for EVO MC: http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/103905181/FrontPage
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : *Authentic interaction
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Chaos involve disorientation and perhaps different learners’ ambiguity tolerance is a key factor in determining whether they like the approach you mentioned
Hanaa Khamis : I did some work on concordancing in 2000
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Tom Cobb – Compleat Lexical Tutor: https://www.lextutor.ca/
Barb : So cool to have a chance to hear Vance talking about himself! Usually he’s encouraging others to be in the spotlight 🙂
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Welcome to The Teachers’ Room, Iman Elbahay
Barb : It’s hard. Things are changing, but teachers still expect to get things for free online
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Welcome to The Teachers’ Room, Jane Chien
Barb : Different mission and goals, I suspect
Jane Chien : Thanks 🙂 Hi from Taipei!
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : #JALT2019 Plenary Sessions will be live streamed! See https://jalt.org/conference/jalt2019/livestream for complete details.
Two sessions on Saturday, November 2nd, and two sessions on Sunday, November 3rd:
David Barker
Sponsored by englishbooks.jp
Plenary Session: Exploring Teacher Efficacy in Japan
Saturday, Nov 2, 09:45- 10:45 JST
Donna M. Brinton
Sponsored by Soka University and JALT
Plenary Session: Learner Agency, Then and Now
Saturday, Nov 2, 14:00- 15:00 JST
Oussouby Sacko
Sponsored by JALT
Plenary Session: Diverse Leaders in Japanese Education
Sunday, Nov 3, 10:30-11:30 JST
Mari Nakamura
Sponsored by JALT Junior
Plenary Session: Collaboration Across Borders Is “Nothing?”
Sunday, Nov 3, 14:10- 3:10 JST
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : We’ll share the recording next Tue via our iTDi Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/iTDi.Pro/
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : And this will be up on Learning2Together courtesy of Vance 🙂
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : *Learning2gether
Jane Chien : Thanks for the info! This is great!
iman elbahay : Great
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Please note, everyone, that you can save this chat by clicking on the 3-dot menu in the top-write of the textbook here
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Hi Rhett!
Rhett Burton : I give a month at a time.
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Welcome to The Teachers’ Room, SS 🙂
Rhett Burton : YouTube rocks
Vance Stevens : thank you, haven’t been following the chat that much but appreciate your all being here
Hanaa Khamis : I’m interested in d leadership seminar
MikeのiPad : Awesome talk.
Rhett Burton : I try to be a leader of 1(me).
Hanaa Khamis : Can we plan a mini-workshop on d?
Jane Chien to Vance Stevens(Privately) : Came in late but enjoyed last part of discussion! Thanks!
Jane Chien : Came in late but enjoyed last part of discussion! Thanks!
MikeのiPad : Do you have a favorite face to face conference.
Vance Stevens to Jane Chien(Privately) : thanks Mike, any questions fire away
MikeのiPad : ?
Hanaa Khamis : I prefer IATEFL
iman elbahay : It would be a great idea if we could have such conferences in the evening. I am actually in the kitchen and can’t enjoy the talk while I am interested 😁
Hanaa Khamis : Thailand was also interesting
Hanaa Khamis : France TESOL n TESOL Greece
Rhett Burton : korea
MikeのiPad : Thank you
Hanaa Khamis : Eman n I: Egypt
Hanaa Khamis : I’d rather not
Hanaa Khamis : Multi lingual
Rhett Burton : they are very strategic
Rhett Burton : teachers are good for double checking their work.
Hanaa Khamis : I assume their experience is more immersive
Hanaa Khamis : They sort of pick up language
Hanaa Khamis : Rather than learn it
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : https://www.ted.com/talks/lydia_machova_the_secrets_of_learning_a_new_language/transcript?language=en
Hanaa Khamis : I believe they must be young before puberty when they have had exposure to languages
Hanaa Khamis : Wts yr take on homeschooling?
Rhett Burton : I saw Andrew Cohen. he talked about his process for learning.
Hanaa Khamis : I’m prepping for a debate in two days
Hanaa Khamis : We should abolish schools n universities n study from home
Hanaa Khamis : painfully a d word
Hanaa Khamis : That’s it
Hanaa Khamis : I’m taking this segment
Hanaa Khamis : to share w my Ss
Hanaa Khamis : Do u mind
Hanaa Khamis : statement s in debates need to be strong
Hanaa Khamis : Thx all
MikeのiPad : Thank you!
iman elbahay : Thx 👍
Hanaa Khamis : wish I could join JALT one day
Phil Brown (iTDi TESOL) : Indeed!
Vance Stevens : http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/
Other postings organizing and responding to this event
Join us in The Teachers’ Room for an interview with the illustrious lifelong teacher/learner, Vance Stevens, hosted by Steven Herder Herder: https://lnkd.in/eE8P9y2
Vance started teaching #ESL #EFL #ESOL in 1976, and has over 40 years experience in #CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning). As Founder and Coordinator of #Learning2gether, he is forever sharing and supporting fellow #ELT professionals. He has recognised expertise in #edtech, #leadership in #online #CommunitiesOfPractice, teacher training, and instructional technology; plus extensive publications and presentations both online and as an invited speaker at international conferences.
Oct 8-12 – the 2019 annual Online Facilitation Unconference
From an email received at 9 am in Malaysia Oct 28:
This year’s Online Facilitation Unconference (OFU) kicked off at midnight last night.
We have 125+ people registered from 30+ countries from around the globe.
Our first two welcome sessions took place earlier today. Session planning has gotten under way, and most unconference sessions are expected to take place Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week.
New this year, we’re offering a “trainer track” of four pre-scheduled sessions with virtual facilitation trainers.
We also have a brand new online venue where you’ll be able to meet your fellow participants, brainstorm session topics, and schedule sessions.
It’s not too late to join! Use discount code “oldschool” (exclusive to this very special Yahoo! list of early adopters and innovators in this space) for a special discount, (and through the wonders of copy/paste, now extended to followers of Learning2gether)
Last but not least, OFU is a not-for-profit endeavor. We have low/no income options available. Around 15% of our registrants have already taken advantage of this opportunity, and we encourage everyone who might need it to do the same. Anyone interested in the exciting world of facilitating in the virtual – we really want to have them attend and contribute their experience and insights!
Oct 8 Braz-TESOL webinar
This information arrived in my email unfortunately after the event.
The registration asked if I was a Braz-TESOL member but the checkout cost was RS 0.00
But, for the record …
Wed Oct 9 1400 ET – EnglishUSA Associates free webinar on Assessment Providers & Services Part 2
The following was posted on myTESOL Lounge on Sept 17, 2019. If you can access that list you can find the thread here:
ESL Assessment Providers (Part 2)
Description:
This is the second of two complimentary webinars on assessment. Expecting further information to be posted before the event
The 6 Principles for Paraeducators webinar will take place on October 9th from 10:30 am – noon eastern time. The webinar will discuss professional development for this important group of educators who work closely with our English learners and will expand on the 6Ps Paraeducators Quick Guide that TESOL published last March.
This event carries a $50 charge for non-TESOL members
The event was recorded
If you registered for TESOL Virtual Seminar, the recording titled “The 6 Principles® for Paraeducators” is available here. Their email sent to registered participants says you have to log in to get it (but try and see 🙂
The second event, which I was more personally involved in and had set up to be L2g episode 425, occurred on Monday, Oct 7, 2019 at 8 pm in Maine. This was the October rendition of VSTE Minecraft Mondays. The time of the event in Maine is always midnight Tuesday in Europe and in countries to the east, so for much of the world this event took place on Tue Oct 8 midnight UTC.
The event on this day was scheduled on the East Coast Miners’ server. Because that server is populated by students, I was asked not to stream the event, though I’ll try to stream a Minecraft Monday event one of these days, if participants will permit that.
Here is how today’s event was announced:
MINECRAFT MONDAY!
October 7th 8 PM Eastern (World time -5)
Creative builds by kids at spawn, Halloween 2019, and in the ECM City
Dark’s mysterious waterlogged journal page recovery program
Nazi Concentration Camp recreation for school credit
The East Coast Miners server is locked to a whitelist but was opened for an hour Monday night, so that VSTE and Learning2gether, and EVO Minecraft MOOC miners could attend as well.
From there they pasted in rather nicely into the space here on this post. Then to further decorate this post I brought additional pictures in from my .Minecraft screenshot folder, and interleaved those with the large pics to enhance the presentation of what follows.
Our spawn point for the day was set underwater in the Coral Garden. Since we were in creative mode we had no issues wandering around in water to look around, and we hit the space bar to surface and begin today’s East Coast Miners magical mystery tour
Here’s what it looked like up on dry land
We followed the crowd over to nearby EMCCity
By now Cats_4_change had joined us. Cats was a student who had executed a faithful replica of a German WWII concentration camp. To create the build she had to research the topic and view photos taken of inmates and the conditions they lived in. One difference was that her camp was patrolled by giant spiders.
From the concentration camp we flew over to an area where pixel art had been created by kids. The teachers involved explained how the kids had made their creations collaboratively without any arguments over creative issues; they just worked spontaneously, had fun, and left an interesting build for us to tour.
Our next stop was a house where ancient scrolls were stored in chests. The kids had to retrieve the pieces of the scrolls and mount them on the walls and then re-order them and orient them so that their messages emerged. The pieces stored in separate chests were all parts of a larger story. Cats_4_change showed us how quickly she was able to work with the puzzle pieces, and it was also apparent how focused she was on the task.
Reconstructing and deciphering ancient texts
What does it say?
Someone had constructed a giant roller coaster ride on the premises. The ride took several minutes and went in and out of underground tunnels. To start the ride we were given minecarts and then we just had to move forward and let the redstone take over to propel us through the course. At one point the track ran out and dropped us into a deep hole, where the cart came out upright on track at the bottom of the hole, and the ride continued.
This was fun
By far the most interesting presentation on this day was the build created, if I recall correctly, by The18thDoctor. Being a space case, he spaced on the time as well and came to the event just as we were all leaving, thinking that 9 pm, where he was, was the start time. I was ready to leave as well so I switched off my Discord mic but listened in as he explained the set of rockets he had constructed there.
His attention to detail was phenomenal. That detail was not only to the outer surfaces, which were to scale, but to the interiors too. Someone helped me enter ‘spectator’ mode, a game mode setting in creative mode in Minecraft, that allows the player to pass through textures as if they were, well, pixels on a computer screen. In this mode you can just beeline through objects and come out the other side.
The student explained the rockets he had constructed and how they had evolved over time, from the earliest NASA rockets to some of the later models. One of the rockets on display was the Redstone, which is described on p.7 of this document, https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/153410main_Rockets_History.pdf. I remember the student saying that the Redstone was a one-stage rocket that was not able to put objects in orbit, and I recall from my childhood when in 1961 Alan Shepherd became the first American in space, having been shot in the air on a trajectory that brought him back to earth to an ocean splashdown after a 15 min. ride.
I asked if the student had done this as a class project. The answer was no, he had just done it as an obsession. It’s these obsessions, empowered by tools as creative as Minecraft, that enable students to follow their passions down paths of true learning that mark the difference between following a curriculum and just getting through school vs. finding one’s own learning pathway that leads to achieving brilliance while there.
While we were in the area, Dak had a special request. He wanted someone to take his picture standing next to his namesake.
I had never realized before that the Redstone rocket was named after an essential element in Minecraft
Time for the requisite selfie: Gang’s all here
In case we don’t see you till November, Happy Halloween
I was told in Discord that I was welcome to use the pictures that K4sons and Mainecakes had posted there. They copy / paste so easily from there to here … tempted … oh, go on! why not?
K4sons
Mainecakes
Basic directions to join VSTE Place, VSTE’s Minecraft world
You must have a computer Minecraft account from https://minecraft.net/en/ to join. There is a one time fee of $26.95. Download and install the software. Choose multiplayer and add a server: Name VSTE Place IP 69.175.17.26:25565 Our server is protected. You will need to be whitelisted to enter. Email Kim Harrison at K4sons@gmail.com from an educational email address with your real name and Minecraft account name.
Discord
Discord is a voice and screen sharing application that will run on your computer or mobile device. Download and install it for free. Create an account. Many of us use the same name for our Discord account as our Minecraft account to keep things simple. Our channel is https://discord.gg/nDX4mZv . It helps us to be able to play Minecraft in one screen and listen via Discord with earbuds or headphones.
Sat Oct 5 from 0900 to 2045 UTC – IATEFL World Teachers’ Day Web Conference
Where we find this information, copy/pasted from the website. It’s pretty succinct.
Join us for the World Teachers’ Day ELT Web Conference
Join IATEFL and British Council on Saturday October 5 to celebrate World Teachers’ Day with a one-day web conference, featuring 16 separate sessions on a wide range of themes and issues, including inclusive education and materials development, life skills, learning technologies, classroom tips and advice and many more.
Plenary talks
Practical workshops
Discussion forums on key topics
Q&A sessions with plenary speakers
Starting at 10.00 am UK time and running through until the evening, the web conference will provide useful and practical advice that you can apply to your own context, whether you are a teacher or a teacher educator. Attendance of the web conference is free and open to all. Sessions will also be recorded and made available after the event.
I missed most of it but I attended the following events
10.00 – 11.00
Plenary 1 – Seminar Room 1
Antonia Clare – Taking Flight from the Intermediate Plateau
Many learners encounter problems when moving from Intermediate (B1) to Upper Intermediate (B2). They struggle to perceive their language progress and often feel frustrated. This webinar looks at why this happens and offers strategies to help your learners take off from the Intermediate plateau.
This was an interesting presentation with many practical ideas. Several interesting web sites were introduced. Two that captured my attention were
Answer garden, where on this page https://answergarden.ch/about-AnswerGarden/ you can read this succinct description: “AnswerGarden is for anyone interested in using an easy and powerful way to get brief feedback from a group. AnswerGarden is used by teachers to establish the knowledge level of a class on a certain topic. It is used at conferences and workshops to break the ice with the audience in a fun and interactive fashion. AnswerGarden is used by creative teams for digital brainstorming sessions. People who maintain websites and blogs use it to poll their visitors in a brief and to-the-point matter.” You can see screen shots on that page.
Chunky dictation was an interesting idea. You read sentences to your students but where there is a blank you insert a sound (the bell perhaps). The students have to write down the word that is missing. But then the follow up is, when the students have written down the words, then get them to recall the sentences.
Florence Muluh – Challenges to teacher professional development in low resource contexts
This talk aims to explore some of the challenges that teachers in low resource contexts face regarding professional development. This concern has emerged from my interaction with teachers of varying levels of experience within the framework of my local teachers association and a survey I carried out in 2016 which revealed that in service training, skills up grading, and acquisition of new knowledge wasn’t on the agenda of most respondents. This is the fate of most teachers in low resource contexts who are often limited in their attempts to achieve this goal. Underlying factors to be discussed are demotivating working conditions, systematic challenges and poorly designed professional development programmes, limited teacher autonomy, among others. These often lead to frustration and burnout, leaving teachers with no zeal to improve on their performance. However, this situation could be improved through a number of policy and practical changes.
13.15 – 14.15
Plenary 2 – Seminar Room 1
Konstantina Ntomprou – Life Skills: Lessons taught; lessons learnt 21st Century Skills, Life Skills, Soft Skills are all popular concepts, but how far are we from fully implementing them in our teaching? Are these enough to equip learners for success in their future endeavours? We will explore how concepts like motivation, positive thinking, stress management and personal values fit in a language learning environment. I will be sharing my experience from delivering a series of skills workshops to young graduates and entrepreneurs for the British Council in Athens. We will discuss how ideas can be adapted for various contexts, for teachers and learners.
Here is the program for the day copied out for convenience
(to me, so I can fix this event chronologically with others taking place at around the same time)
Programme Overview with time frames linked to YOUR time when each event occurs
A 10:00 am start in UK is 9 am UTC and 17:00 in Malaysia. Again for convenience I’m linking each of the times given to the worldclock for that time. So you can explore the topics in the table above and if you find one you like, you can click on its time in the leftmost column and see when that event happens where you are.
Need to paste a link into a mobile device? Copy this one for Room 1
Certain panels and keynotes from the Connected Learning Summit being held onsite in Irvine, California are being livestreamed. And indeed, a follow up email links to a blog post where there are
Just prior to this event, I announced it this way:
It seems like the last one was only yesterday, but it’s almost time for another #learning2gether free online event. Episode 424 takes place at noon UTC today, when Hanaa Khamis interviews Georgios Chatzis, past chair of TESOL Greece as the second of September’s #NileTESOL #PD_Committee and #LTSIG webinar series. This time the topic is
The music of our humanity: Using YouTube videos to highlight social problems about the DE-desensitization of the YouTube generation to social issues
Eman EL Difrawy : Hello George Georgios Chatzis : hello! Vance Stevens : hi we need to keep everyone on MUTE mic until you wish talk.
Vance Stevens : hi Lilika Lilika Couri : Hi Vance Hanaa Khamis : Shawshank Redemption movie Vance Stevens : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shawshank_Redemption Hanaa Khamis : thx vance Vance Stevens : 🙂
In this 5 min. 36 sec. snippet Hanaa notes that she is not herself a great opera fan and how then does George make an opera like Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro appeal to his students.
Hanaa Khamis : feel free to post Qs or raise a hand at any point dear audience Eman EL Difrawy : Sure Dr.Hanaa
Eman EL Difrawy : Loved their Words Hanaa Khamis : yes Eman EL Difrawy : How creative!
Eman EL Difrawy : Wow!
Eman EL Difrawy : How do you let them interested as some of our students are not interested in social issues?
Hanaa asked George how he managed to make movies like the Shawshank Redemption relevant to his students. This snippet is 6 min 09 seconds. George mentions the element of surprise in his answer, and how this piques their curiosity
Lilika Couri : George in actuality uses the real function of EFL teaching by enabling his learners develop as sensitive and responsible individuals, aware of the various social issues. Hanaa Khamis : Eman n lilika u r next
Likika took the mic and spoke about George’s impact his students and on his audience at the most recent Greece TESOL Conference. This segment is 3 min. long
Hanaa Khamis : Eman u go next Eman EL Difrawy : Yes,I attended this one.My eyes was full of tears. Vance Stevens : Eman would you like to comment or ask a question? Hanaa Khamis : Yes she is, Greta Thunberg, climate activist
Hanaa Khamis : Noah Trevor interviewed her
Hanaa Khamis : oxymoron
Hanaa Khamis : Student Conference: How yr profession can help by 2030
Hanaa Khamis : Eman, Ask away
Hanaa Khamis : Stephen Krashen
Hanaa Khamis : A personal story Eman EL Difrawy : Do you ask them to use the grammar or vocabulary point you are teaching to comment on the videos? Lilika Couri : I’d like to say something. Hanaa Khamis : Sure Lilika, u go next Eman EL Difrawy : Thank you so much George! So happy to talk to u again. When is your next webinar. What about coming to present in Egypt. Hanaa Khamis : any further comments Eman? Eman EL Difrawy : No Thank you. Hanaa Khamis : Would u like to add to the wrapup Lilika? Vance Stevens : as in David Crystal’s book Txtng: the Gr8 Db8, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Txtng:_the_Gr8_Db8
Hanaa asked me to go back to this reference later in the conversation, and she extracted a 3 min. 42 sec. snippet from the longer video where I did that and uploaded it to YouTube:
Lilika Couri : No, thank you, Hanaa. I believe I said what I felt was important re. George’s ideas and work.
Lilika Couri : Love your shirt, Vance. Hanaa Khamis : Thx:-) Vance Stevens : https://edpuzzle.com/ Eman EL Difrawy : Thank you so much Lilika Couri : Thank you, Hanaa and Vance. Mohamed Nagah : Thank you George for this informative webinar! Georgios Chatzis : Thank you all! Eman EL Difrawy : Thank you! Lilika Couri : George, dear. Thank you. See you soon. Georgios Chatzis : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYGd-llxHJE Eman EL Difrawy : yes please.we need more webniars Vance Stevens : https://learning2gether.net/2019/09/28/nile-tesol-ltsig-webinar-hanaa-khamis-interviews-lilika-couri-on-whether-or-not-to-teach-literature/ Eman EL Difrawy : Thank you George for sharing! Mohamed Nagah : We will need a tutorial later
I don’t usually say much during the webinars so Hanaa has taken to check if I’ve been listening by asking me to do a wrap-up toward the end. She made a video snippet of this one, 4 min 44 seconds.
The fourth annual Virtual Worlds MOOC (VWMOOC19) will take place from September 1-30, 2019. The theme of the current MOOC is peace through learning and connecting online for instruction and learning via web technologies such as Second Life and Virtual Worlds. The MOOC will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world through Virtual Worlds.
(Click on the title to access the live Zoom session if you can’t join us in Kitely)
Join us to explore a completely new way of creating learning environments in minutes without any knowledge of building or coding.
We will present 5 example Apps, small focused applications, assembled using our application building blocks.
These example Apps will demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach for enabling educators to focus on educational content creation rather than on the laborious building of virtual environments.
The environments that will be presented have been created to illustrate the application of our tools across various learning domains. Attendees will also discover that our approach is relevant for Business and Entertainment applications as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxW2OyuFtPY
Attendees will win a Garden creation App and a presentation App. The tour will end with a short hands-on practice session in which attendees will be able to create their own virtual learning environments and save the work as a file that they can import for reuse later.
Meeting point is Kitely welcome center from where we will hypergrid to our RezMela Grid.
It is recommended to make a Kitely avatar beforehand in order to travel safely.
HG Kitely welcome center: grid.kitely.com:8002:Kitely Welcome Center
HG RezMela Grid: ( Link will be added later.)
Please register with your RL name and avatar name until September 26th with an IM to TR5 in SL. Further tours upon request, the sim will stay open until October 15th.
Mon Sept 30 1900 UTC – Closing ceremony at the 4th annual Virtual Worlds MOOC VWMOOC19
On Saturday, September 28, 2019, Hanaa Khamis hosted the latest event in her NileTESOL Professional Development Committee / LTSIG twice-monthly webinar series when she conducted a quasi-interview with Lilika Couri, former chair of TESOL Greece, in a session entitled: To Teach or Not to Teach Literature: That’s the Argument!
To teach or not to teach literature: The argument aimed to give perspectives on a debate among ELT practitioners whether or not to integrate literary excerpts in their General English or English for Academic Purposes classes.
As part of her preparation, Hanaa posted this poll to FB
Hanaa used https://ytcutter.com/ to cut the long video of the session into snippets and uploaded those to YouTube. These appear interspersed throughout the text chat approximately where they are most relevant to the discussion in progress in the Zoom chat room.
Hanaa Khamis : Dr Heba will you test yr mic
Hanaa Khamis : Can u hear us Heba Mohamed Nagah : Hello! Sounds good.
Hanaa Khamis : Hello Dr Aleya Aleya : Hello Hanaa. no sound for me Vance Stevens : I’ve muted everyone in the seminar in order to cut down sound interference. If you need to speak you can unmute yourself at any time.
Vance Stevens : But literature is not necessarily old, it can be modern lara edward : hello Vance Stevens : If you wish to speak you can unmute your own mic, but please do not activate your mic unless you wish to say something lara edward : ok fine
Vance Stevens : I don’t see where the music is coming but it has stopped now Hanaa Khamis : Im d culprit Vance Stevens : ah HAH 🙂
Hanaa made her first video snippet at about this point, where she shared her experiences reading Shakespeare as a young student.
The conversation prompted me to ask what kind of literature we were talking about.
Vance Stevens : what is literature?
Vance Stevens : I mean, Hanaa implied that it was ‘old
Vance Stevens : Ahmed has raised his hand Waleed Mandour : Literature is language of a superior or lasting artistic merit heba sharobeem : i can hear you all, but something wrong is with my phone. I agree with every word said about the importance of lit. It is indispensable for a language class Waleed Mandour : It’s language anyway Vance Stevens : Ahmed Hussain, would you like to type your question or comment here?
Vance Stevens : 🙂
Hanaa created this 9 min. 30 sec. video snippet in which Ahmed asks his question and gets a long answer 🙂
Hanaa Khamis : Plz start asking Qs dear audience
Hanaa Khamis : Either in chat box or using a mic Vance Stevens : If you want to use a mic please unmute yourself. Please keep yourself on MUTE if you aren’t using the mic (as I’m doing 🙂 lara edward : could you give us please recommendations of some literary books that go well with teenagers , i mean your own experience Hanaa Khamis : Good Q Lara lara edward : thanx heba sharobeem : Actually I do not have a question, but rather a comment. I fully agree with Dr. Lilka’s words, as I have personally noticed that students’ English gets better though literature. Even when you teach grammar, it is much better through lit. even if it is not the national literature. In fact different forms of lit make students feel that people are more or less the same everywhere. i believe literature creates this general affinity Vance Stevens : I googled Lara’s question (not my experience, but Google algorithm) and found this https://bookriot.com/2017/10/10/classic-books-that-teens-will-like/ lara edward : yes sure Vance Stevens : My question was what is literature? We talk about the literature of, say, technology in Language Learning
Vance Stevens : I agree with Heba, I enjoy reading literature in French though these days I read extensively but mostly about social concerns, non-fiction
Vance Stevens : Rosetta Stone, a classic technique Hanaa Khamis : Plz take d mic n contribute if u like Vance Stevens : So, what literature are we talking about here? Not Shakespeare …
Vance Stevens : Lara’s question is relevant at this point: “give us please recommendations of some liteary books that go well with teenagers , i mean your own experience” Shaymaa Younis : I agree with the importance of teaching mother tongue language before foreign language , my question is should the reading skills planned parallel
Shaymaa Younis : literature ** heba sharobeem : i agree that Shakespeare as such should be taught to literature major students, but simplified versions of Shakespeare could also be taught to younger non literature major students Vance Stevens : to Shaymaa Younis You can ask your question. I’ll tell them you have a question Hanaa Khamis : Dr Heba, would u like to talk to Lilika? Mic? Vance Stevens : Shayma has a question, I agree with the importance of teaching mother tongue language before foreign language , my question is should the reading skills planned parallel heba sharobeem : i also believe that the choice of the literary texts is conditioned by the time and place during and at which we are teaching. Some texts appeal to the students at a certain time and place. Shaymaa Younis : should we teaching literature on mother tongue parallel to the foreign literature as skills heba sharobeem : i hope you had read my answer as I have a problem with the microphone Vance Stevens : Thank you Dr. Heba, your response will be preserved in the text chat here Hanaa Khamis : I’ll include d Q Heba heba sharobeem : exactly. I believe that with literature we hit many birds with one stone; critical thinking, empathy, civic education and above all improve the language Hanaa Khamis : In a few’ Vance Stevens : lara and Shayma have both posted questions here Hanaa Khamis : I asked Lilika to take Qs Vance Stevens : 🙂
Vance Stevens : So, be ready with your questions everyone Shaymaa Younis : tool heba sharobeem : I am so sorry, i will have to leave this interesting chat as something urgent has come up. thank you Lilika and everyone Vance Stevens : dark meaning? Shaymaa Younis : so in order it’s better to star teaching literature to 11 Years with poetry then ? Hanaa Khamis to Vance Stevens(Privately) : Plz end the session by yr own conclusion
Hanaa Khamis to Vance Stevens(Privately) : final comment n closing lines
Here is Hanaa’s snippet of that 2 min. 30 sec. wrap-up, which in fact I think I delivered not here, but a bit later in the conversation.
Vance Stevens : my teacher made us recite and record French poetry. It was an excellent way to come to grips with pronunciation Vance Stevens : Stanley Kunitz Hanaa Khamis : Thz Vance lara edward : the approach to themes . is it correct Vance Stevens : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kunitz Shaymaa Younis : thanks Hanaa Khamis : Vance. U shared a few lovely lines of a poem
In this 4 min 16 second snipped, Hanaa shares her experiences with poetry in her classrooms and Lilika expounds on her approach to themes
Vance Stevens : Yes a poem by Ginsberg, a simple one Shaymaa Younis : should we introduce a whole class story at once first or better to go through chapter by chapter lara edward : thanx Vance
lara edward : I think asking critical thinking questions
lara edward : is the key word Vance Stevens : this is for Hanaa, https://www.screencast.com/t/sHaalvSs5nUg lara edward : thanx every one for this awesome webinar Vance Stevens : Ginsberg writes:
I high on laughing gas
I’ve been here before
The odd vibration of
The same old universe
The universe is a void In which there is a dream hole The dream disappears The hole closes
Its the instant of going
Into or coming out of
Existence that is
Important-to catch on
To the secret of the magic
Box.
Hanaa Khamis : beautiful lines Vance ahmed farouk 1 : Thanks a lot
ahmed farouk 1 : very informative ,really. Shaymaa Younis : thanks a lot Georgios Chatzis : Sorry I’m outside the house but I’m looking forward to tomorrow lara edward : great
Launched in 2018, The Teachers’ Room is a safe and supportive, collaborative online space to explore the art and science of teaching. We host teacher interviews and open mic sessions, share stories and discuss ELT topics of your choice together.
Participation in The Teachers’ Room is available on a freemium basis –
Global Collaboration Week is a series of free online education events taking place during the week of September 23 – 27, 2019. Students, teachers, and organizations will get online to celebrate global collaboration as back-to-school season begins in the northern hemisphere.
During this week (and beyond), experienced global educators and other professionals will host connective projects and events and invite public participation. The primary goals of this event are to demonstrate the power of global connectivity in classrooms, schools, institutions of informal learning and universities around the world, and to introduce others to the tools, resources, projects, and networks that are available to educators today.
A current listing of events you can join is below. To see an updated calendar of events, go to https://www.globalcollaborationweek.org/join-an-event.html and scroll to the bottom to find your time zone. Register here to get updates and information. If you would like to HOST an event for Global Collaboration Week (it’s not too late, but hurry!), follow the directions here. Interactive tutorials are here.
Please let others know about this free set of events! You can also follow the event on Twitter @GlobalEdCon and using the hashtag #globaled19
The Global Education Conference Network believes in the power of connected, globally competent learners of all ages. During Global Collaboration Week you can show others what connected learning looks like around the clock. This event is brought to you by GlobalEd Events and TakingITGlobal.
Online link to an email sent on Sept 20 by Steve Hargadon to members of the network and to the people registered for Global Collaboration Week, which includes all the projects and events submitted by Friday morning: https://www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw
Fostering Global Sustainability ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Asynchronous Long Term Project, Survey AUDIENCE: secondary grade students (14-19) LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: Using the Climate Action, Affordable and Clean Energy, Clean Water + Sanitation, Life Below Water, Life on Land Global Goals for Sustainable Development, students from different countries are invited to share which environmental issue(s) are the most prevalent in their communities and how their community is addressing these issue(s). LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Pascack Valley Regional HS District – Montvale, NJ (EST) ORGANIZED BY: Noemi Rodriguez, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Alert! Fake News! ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time AUDIENCE: intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: In this asynchronous collaborative short term project and debate, my students and their families ,as well as global guests will be expressing themselves through a collaborative Zeetings session with a Google Slides presentation among many other embeds. We will reflect on the importance of understanding global issues as a way of directing our personal and professional projects based on collaboration, tolerance, mutual respect and protection LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Academia de Inglés Internacional – Quemú Quemú , La Pampa, Argentina (GMT-3) ORGANIZED BY: Stella Maris Berdaxagar, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Class-to-Class K-12 Global Connections ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Asynchronous Long Term Project, Informational Session, Tool Demo AUDIENCE: primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: This event is asynchronous, multilingual, interactive and open to K-12 teachers and students from around the world. Teachers and students may participate ANY TIME during or after Global Collaboration Week. Through the event, hosted in a VoiceThread, teachers and students will Asynchronously interact with each other by posting text, audio or video greetings and/or multimedia content that informs other participants about their class, school, town or cultures. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:OneWorld Classrooms – Andover, MA ORGANIZED BY: Paul Hurteau, A non-profit organization
Global Cookies ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Survey AUDIENCE: primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19) LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: This project is an asynchronous event. We are baking chocolate chip cookies in class, and want to learn more about cookies from around the world! This project will show the submitted favorite cookies on a map so participants can compare and contrast cookies from around the world. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Fort Worth Academy – Fort Worth, Texas UTC -5:00 ORGANIZED BY: Lauren Parker, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Global Issues ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Other AUDIENCE: primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), teachers, administrators LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: Teachers and students nationally and internationally will discuss global issues from social and political perspective through social media. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Eduproject – Louisiana. CT ORGANIZED BY: Rochelle Scott, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Global Project Partnerships ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Asynchronous Long Term Project, Birds-of-a-Feather Virtual Meet Up, Mystery Hangout, Mystery Skype Call, Survey, Other AUDIENCE: teachers, administrators, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: Classroom teachers are looking to use technology to connect their students to other classrooms around the world. The educational benefits of globally connected teaching and learning are many; students learn about cultures, practice language skills, and develop collaborative skills through project-based learning. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:GlobalEd Events – UTC/GMT-6 (Central Standard Time) ORGANIZED BY: Lucy Gray, A non-profit organization
Homes Around the World ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Asynchronous Long Term Project, Survey, Other AUDIENCE: early childhood students (0-4), primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: This is an asynchronous project in which any class can participate before, during, or after Global Collaboration Week (September 23-27, 2019). The goal is to provide a wide array of pictures of homes that can be used by classes as discussion prompts. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:North Shore Country Day School – Chicago, IL CST UTC/GMT-6 ORGANIZED BY: Lucy Gray, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
War on Drugs’ Debate ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Debate AUDIENCE: secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, parents LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: Under the premise of the Philippine government’s ‘War on Drugs’ campaign, which has been criticized by many Human Rights Organizations worldwide but has been approved and supported by the majority of Filipinos, participants in this event will debate on whether or not they are in favor of ‘War on Drugs’ campaign to be implemented in their respective country. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Alternative Education Center – Odessa, TX and Central Time ORGANIZED BY: Reynaldo Duran, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
What Are Your Language Learning Tips? ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project AUDIENCE: intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: This is a collaboration of language students around the World. The goal is to gather ideas on how to learn new languages the best way. We hope that many schools will participate in this project. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Sequoyah High School – Madisonville, Tennessee, Eastern Time ORGANIZED BY: Ruth Valle, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
My School, Your School project- An IEARN project ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Guided Virtual Tour, Informational Session AUDIENCE: teachers LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: This session will give information on how to take part in a telecollaborative global project for students to see similarities and differences among students around the world. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Mother of Mercy School/ Escuela Madre de la Misericordia – GMT-3 ORGANIZED BY: Silvana Carnicero, An educator or educators at a for-profit school
One Day in our World ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Long Term Project AUDIENCE: primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19) LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: The ONE DAY IN OUR WORLD project is suitable for grades K-12 as a starting point for global collaboration. The topics are student-generated to start the interactions, and are intended to promote discussion. We encourage teachers and students to return to the topics to see responses and respond to each other. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:William J. Johnston Middle School – EST ORGANIZED BY: Laura Krenicki, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Fri Sept 27 0200, 1300, 1400, 1730, 1900 UTC – Global Collaboration Week Events scheduled for today
Important notice. The events listed below were registered as of Sept 21, 2019. There could be additions or changes to the dynamic program.
When Fri, September 27, 2am – 3am
Title of event/project: Global Youth Debates
Participants should go to this link to start the project.
URL to project/event starting point: https://zoom.us/j/4492605901
Project/event description: Join Flat Connections CEO and Founder, Dr Julie Lindsay, and Project Manager Amy Jambor for an information session about online global collaboration with a focus on the Global Youth Debates project that will run from October-December 2019. Project/event directions for participation: This session is being held in a virtual room using zoom.com. Information will be shared and discussion encouraged around how to implement online global collaboration into the K-12 classroom. Additional information about Global Youth Debates project will be provided with the goal of encouraging schools to join in this semester.
This event can be categorized as a: Informational Session
This event is intended for the following audience(s): pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, organization leaders
Primary language(s) to be spoken at this event: English
Contact First Name: Julie Contact Last Name: Lindsay Contact Email: lindsay.julie@gmail.com Contact Twitter Handle: http://twitter.com/julielindsay
Host school or organization: Flat Connections Host School or Organization Website URL: http://flatconnections.com
Host Location and Time Zone (UTC): Sydney, Australia
This event is organized by: A for profit company Optional field for additional pertinent information:
Please see the latest Flat Connections Global News for more updates – https://www.smore.com/9v8ry
Also the Global Youth Debates website – http://www.globalyouthdebates.com/ Units : 1 Team member : Member name YCBM link ref: da61e92b-b71d-44a9-965a-fecfa5c46517
Project/event description: Every nation has its awe-inspiring characters. They might have been artists, inventors, explorerer, and everyday heroes that overcome every obstacle and make meaningful contributions to our society. For instance, did you know that the wrist watch is claimed to be invested by a Brazilian? We are eager to tell you about some of our past and present, and to hear you talk about the amazing people from your country too.
Project/event directions for participation: 1. Think or research about some of the outstanding people from your country, or even your family. 2. Join us on the video call (https://zoom.us/j/525565219). 3. Watch to our short presentation about some Brazilian personalities and feel free to ask questions and make comments. 4. Share a little of your own history with us.
This event can be categorized as a: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Birds-of-a-Feather Virtual Meet Up, Informational Session, Lecture
This event is intended for the following audience(s): intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders
Primary language(s) to be spoken at this event: English
Contact First Name: Athalo Contact Last Name: Carrão Contact Email: athalorc@gmail.com Contact Twitter Handle: @AthaloCarrao
Host school or organization: GLOBAL English School Host School or Organization Website URL: globalingles.com
Host Location and Time Zone (UTC): Lagoa Santa, MG – Brazil (GMT-3)
This event is organized by: An educator or educators at a non-profit school Optional field for additional pertinent information: Units : 1 Team member : Member name YCBM link ref: 6ecac537-c6bf-4911-9220-3f927801ad12
HiGiFeel – Woman’s Health and Sanitation ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Birds-of-a-Feather Virtual Meet Up, Informational Session, Interview with an Expert, Lecture, Panel Discussion, Survey AUDIENCE: intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-27 14:00 – 2019-09-27 15:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: HiGiFeel is a community which aims at spreading awareness about Women Health and Hygiene among the people. It aims at eliminating the myths about the women health from the society. Therefore, in this event we hope to connect to teachers and students from many parts of the world to understand and involve them in this important issue. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:HiGiFeel – New Delhi, India (UTC+5:30) ORGANIZED BY: Prakshi Goel, A non-profit organization
Special Event: Science of Sound, Fizzics Australia ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Guided Virtual Tour, Informational Session, Interview with an Expert, Other AUDIENCE: early childhood students (0-4), primary grade students (5-10), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-27 17:30 – 2019-09-27 18:30 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: Join us to view a distance learning program from the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC). Our content provider, Fizzics Education in Sydney, AU, will be presenting a live, streamed program for both students and educators. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:CILC Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration – Louisville, KY USA . Eastern ORGANIZED BY: janet zanetis, A non-profit organization
Amazon Rainforest – A Panel Discussion ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Informational Session, Panel Discussion AUDIENCE: intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-2719:00 – 2019-09-27 20:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: Students, teachers, and people from anywhere in the world can enhance their knowledge about Amazon and environmental issues with this panel made by students from Greece and Brazil. English language learners are welcome, too. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:GLOBAL English School – Lagoa Santa, MG – Brazil (GMT-3) ORGANIZED BY: Athalo Carrão, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
The fourth annual Virtual Worlds MOOC (VWMOOC19) will take place from September 1-30, 2019. The theme of the current MOOC is peace through learning and connecting online for instruction and learning via web technologies such as Second Life and Virtual Worlds. The MOOC will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world through Virtual Worlds.
(Click on the title to access the live Zoom session if you can’t join us in Second Life)
Starting at the Nonprofit Commons at 8:30 AM SLT, we will arrive at Zinnia’s sim to explore the game Marylou teaches using Zinnia’s art and interactive lessons.
(Click on the title to access the live Zoom session if you can’t join us in Second Life)
In this talk, we will discuss how having an artistic eye can compliment mathematical explorations. In particular, we will discuss the leveraging of found mathematics to generate interest and deeper understandings of mathematical concepts. Using the past activities teaching online classes which blended math and art, I will introduce my current project with a group of BGSU freshman math education majors here in Second Life.
Starting point: to be announced
Sat Sept 28 1600 to 2300 UTC – Three live events at the 4th annual Virtual Worlds MOOC VWMOOC19
(Click on the title to access the live Zoom session if you can’t join us in Second Life)
We will demonstrate the multi-faceted “Journey” approach we have developed for increasing engagement in learning and skills practice through focused, interactive, fun immersive experiences.
(Click on the title to access the live Zoom session if you can’t join us in Second Life)
About Magnolia Gardens of Knowledge
Join us for a tour of the new Magnolia Gardens of Knowledge under construction! Dr. Georgia Laxton (Magnolia Ayres) envisioned using virtual worlds for interactive self-paced learning. Lisa Laxton (Shelenn Ayres) has brought this vision to life with Non-Playing Characters in a fun “live” virtual garden where all users can learn how to use the viewer software and interact with a virtual world at their own pace.
This is a demonstration of how a virtual world system can be used for instruction. You will find various plants commonly found in gardens. Most plants know their names. Some may show their names in text floating above them. A click will probably open the plant’s descriptive web page- many of which are sourced from the site of The National Gardening Association. All of the web-sourced plants are also “locally grown” in the gardens.
These gardens show how a virtual place can be set up to introduce a subject. Almost any course of instruction begins with at least one unit about the parts. The learner needs to be able to name any instance of an important part and, given the name, to find instances.
In this virtual place, multiple immersive and interactive activities are demonstrated. Aside from learning about the plants from web sources, visitors can participate by attending to the plants virtually or by becoming engaged in more advanced learning about medicinal or scientific uses for the harvests. In particular, interactive items on the redwood tables help visitors interactively learn about one multi-step extraction process using the plants harvested from the gardens. Activities like these can also improve collaborative teaming skills, planning skills, and logical or critical thinking skills – all of which are valuable and are often difficult to teach in a classroom alone.
Virtual places can provide instruction and self-testing on all of these skills. And it can do that without any instructor time after the initial build and programming. This version of the garden is designed for initial familiarization. Other versions wouldfade the support and relocate the plants so that the learners would not use position as a cue for identifying the plant.
There are 4 specialized attendants of the gardens. R2D2, Azalea Ayres, Antonio Ayres, and Anemone Ayres. They move around talking to themselves in R2D2’s language while they attend to the needs of the garden. There are also multiple Digital Teaching Assistants (DiTAs) visitors can interact with who not only teach basic skills but guide other interactive learning to make items from the garden’s products. One can easily imagine courses designed for new users or as an enhancement to any course of instruction from climate change to chemistry. See you there!
Using any account on a hypergrid-enabled grid like OSGrid, Metropolis, 3rd Rock, Avacon, or Kitely, put this address in your viewer’s world map to teleport to the cabin deck. From there as others arrive, we will step through or click the direct teleport gate to Magnolia Gardens of Knowledge located beyond the marina.
On Thursday, September 26, at 1500 UTC in the Global Collaboration Week, Vance Stevens, Heike Philp, Mbarek Akaddar, and Hanaa Khamis joned forces, and more substantially, joined networks, to discuss Connective and Collaborative Tools for Impacting Social and Climate Change.
The following video is made from files recorded on PC from a Zoom recording started while we were setting up, almost 15 minutes before the session began.
Here’s what is looked like on the Global Collaboration Week website
Connective and Collaborative Tools for Impacting Social and Climate Change ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Long Term Project, Synchronous Long Term Project, Guided Virtual Tour, Informational Session, Panel Discussion, Tool Demo, Webinar AUDIENCE: college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-26 15:00 – 2019-09-26 16:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE)
DESCRIPTION: Learning2gether, let’stalkonline, Electronic Village (EVO), TESOL and IATEFL interest sections, Global Education Conference Network, and other online communities of practice have been connecting thousands of teachers and students through their overlapping networks to create significant change in themselves and their students via the Internet. Looking back on these two decades of connectivism, educators have been bringing to the table their know-how to bring peace to this planet, to reverse climate change, to reduce plastic waste and to reverse this warfare against nature. HOST SCHOOL: Learning2gether.net – UTC + 8 ORGANIZED BY: Vance Stevens, A non-profit organization
Here’s the link to the event description as a calendar event
The cloud recording shows the event with its accompanying chat displayed in synch with the video, as shown here:
What is GCW, Global Collaboration Week?
Global Collaboration Week is one of two conferences hosted annually by the GlobalED network coordinated by Steve Hargadon and Lucy Gray among others The two conferences are this one, GCW and GEC, the annual Global Ed Conference, overviewed at https://www.globaleducationconference.org/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
Accepted proposals are promoted via the Ning to the schedule. Almost anything that qualifies is accepted if proposed in time, as long as it meets at least one of these criteria:
introduce teachers and their students to the potential and excitement of our global project-based learning
educate fellow teachers about various connective and collaborative tools and resources
call attention to the need and importance of fostering global competency in students
Proposal submitted to GCW
This is similar to what we submitted, modified slightly
Learning2gether, let’s talk online, Electronic Village Online (EVO), TESOL and IATEFL interest sections, the Global Education Conference Network, and other online communities of practice have long been connecting thousands of teachers and students through their overlapping networks to create significant change in themselves and their students via the Internet. Looking back on these decades of connectivism, educators have been bringing to the table their know-how to bring peace to this planet, to reverse climate change, to reduce plastic waste and to reverse this warfare against nature.
The moderators of this session represent communities that have been meeting and collaborating online for well over a decade now. In this event we discuss
how we have formed, developed, and intertwined our online communities;
how we are continuing to keep each other up to date about the latest developments in connective, social, and collaborative tools and resources;
and how we are leveraging them to effect positive changes in education, and for the climate and planet.
Why September 26?
The 26th of September, 2019 is the European Day of Languages organized on high ministerial level by European Commission for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe. This event is being announced for Sept 26 on the European Day of Languages website https://edl.ecml.at/.
More critically GCW takes place during an entire week of global climate strikes either side of the UN Climate Summit on Sept 23
Accordingly, Vance Stevens, Heike Philp, Mubarek Akkadar, and Hanaa Khamis have joined forces, networks actually, to discuss for an hour how our PLNs have been involved for decades now in exploring social networking and CMC tools to help raise consciousness about climate and social issues across our networks.
Learning2gether is a participant-driven professional development series that has produced over 420 podcasts since its inception in 2009. L2g derives from the ongoing Webheads in Action (WiA) community of practice and professional development movement, http://webheads.info, which has been putting teachers and students in touch with one another digitally, at a distance, since 1998. Stevens (2014, p.162) characterizes L2g as
“an ongoing project where presentations are organized weekly by volunteers collaborating on a wiki. They are free for all, online, recorded, and archived at http://learning2gether.net. There is also an index that gives a clear overview of all presentations so far and how to access their recordings (http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/archiveindex). Learning2gether events perpetuate the spirit and goals of Webheads in Action … and are an excellent example of teachers continuing to learn from one another how to experience connectivist ways of sharing expertise in distributed knowledge spaces. It often happens that teachers present projects with their students which are examples of how they are transferring what they learn from each other online to their blended and hybrid classroom learning ecologies.”
Learning2gether has connected over the years with numerous communities of practice worldwide, including two whose representatives will appear in our discussion
Let’s talk online http://www.letstalkonline.com/ has been involved in language teaching and learning at a distance in real-time via internet for more than 15 years.
Electronic Village Online (EVO) has developed as a community of practice that in 2001 facilitated a program of online discussions and workshops that have been held every year since then each January-February. According to its website, http://evosessions.pbworks.com/, EVO sessions can serve as
“a discussion of an issue in the field of teaching language, or experiments with and pedagogy of new technology tools … or to carry on a discussion of topics important to your member group … EVO is a long-standing project of TESOL’s CALL-IS, and we have joined forces in our coordination and moderation teams with IATEFL and national Teaching Associations to offer sessions that relate to IATEFL’s special interest groups (SIGs) and the IATEFL conventions and webinars.”
Our topic for the discussion
The moderators of this GWC event have chosen the important topic of climate change to focus our discussion, and as a bridge to illustrate how the communities of practice we have been building over the past decades can be directed through connectivist means at collaborating on addressing one of the world’s most intractable yet, as far as the members of our communities are concerned, least controversial conundrums (e.g. this CNN The Daily Show where Trevor Noah interviews Greta Thunberg): https://youtu.be/rhQVustYV24
Clearly, there is a role for educators here, if not an imperative, in helping society discern fact from fake news.
Vance first became aware of Greta Thunberg when Amy Goodman interviewed her for Democracy Now on Dec 11, 2018 at the 24th World Climate Summit taking place in Katowice, Poland at that time:
This event is organised for Global Collaboration Week and this seems to coincide with the climate change action week by Greta Thunberg. Thousands will walk the streets. Public school strike too.
On top it also coincides with the European language day, an annual event. There happens to be a calendar advertising around 430 events in the whole of Europe in 53. On this calendar there are only 31 online events and none in real-time, so this is only the beginning but perhaps it helps carry our message which should be read those in the streets following Greta. edl.ecml.at
Online collaboration is the most eco friendly way of CPD and conversing online (especially when done in real-time) the cheapest way of learning a language and again the most eco friendly way. So we rightly belong to the call for action to reverse climate change and if we could help this movement with our know how best to collaborate online.
I almost feel that this climate change movement is what we have been preparing ourselves for during decades of online collaboration of communities of practices.
If Greta approached any one of us and asked us: how could I best collaborate online with thousands of people? What should I do and what kind of tools should I use to advertise and to work together…what would we answer?
I hope that the result of this event is not only to show off who we are but to constructively come up with a list of the top 5 tools for online collaboration. It’s a kind of looking forward to what we can do now… to assist those who currently go in the streets to protest. A show case for best practice.
Host School or Organization Website URL: https://learning2gether.net/
This event is organized by: A non-profit organization
Screenshots provided by Hanna Khamis
Our goal for the event
To focus our discussion, we aimed to come up with a list of the top 5 software / connectivity tools that might help impact social and climate change (and by extension, to help any CoP promote and sustain any agenda).
In Tricider you can mention the tool and a short description of the tool. Participants can then elevate or demote the tool’s list in the ranking of all the tools proposed.
We had asked our panelists to please consider, if they were to list 5 tools which they think are a must for connectivist online collaboration, which ones would they be?
We made it clear in promoting the event that this was a question we’d like both our panelists and participants to address.
Hanaa suggested (in a Facebook chat)
Facebook and Facebook Live
Google Apps (Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms …)
Twitter
Video conferencing tools like Zoom
Polling apps
You Tube
Vance and Mbarek were thinking of
Trello
Slack
And Mbarek added other tools that we have used in the past 20 years of organizing EVO (Electronic Village Online)
Wikis
Google Drive
Yahoo Groups
Google Sites
Flipgrid
Whatsapp
During the event we invited the audience to contribute their ideas
Carrie proposed the following tools for our consideration. She originally distinguished them as being for project work or classroom use, but as the lists expanded their purpose seemed to overlap. She posted some of these tools in Zoom chat and others were added on the fly as we discussed the possibilities in Zoom:
Padlet map
Google Slides
Adobe Spark
Chromebook,
Screencastify
Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets
Powerpoint
Zoom
Google Meet, and lots more from Google….
Edmodo,
Snapchat
Instagram
Lucy Gray was sitting in on our session, but when Heike asked her a question, she joined our discussion, and recommended the following tools:
Zoom
Flipgrid
Padlet
Google Classroom (with some reservations, which are recorded in the video)
Canvas
Blackboard Collaborate (which she said was ‘pretty awesome’)
The Weight is on us
Panelists
Introducing our original panelists
Vance Stevens representing Learning2gether.net
Heike Philp representing lets talk online
Mbarek Akaddar representing EVO, Electronic Village Online
Hanaa Khamis representing NileTESOL LT SIG, which maintains a free webinar series presented sometimes with support from Learning2gether
Our communities of practice result in occasional serendipitous meet-ups at international conferences
Chat logs from Zoom
Here are the Zoom chat notes from the event, with hyperlinks
Hanaa Khamis : I ll be back in 2 min
clsnyder-renfro : Howdy from Oklahoma USA ! ^
Heike Philp : What’s your name?
clsnyder-renfro : Some years are better than others. This year is the best so far and today there are enough syncronous events all my classes can participate!
clsnyder-renfro : Chef Carrie Snyder-Renfro – I teach Career & Technology and Family & Consumer Sciences at an inner city low SES school for a major school district in the state of Oklahoma.
clsnyder-renfro : First Career – Certified Executive Pastry Chef 🙂
Hanaa Khamis : im back
clsnyder-renfro : We have an asyncrounous project for GCW – The Pollinator Project.
Heike Philp : And what kind of tools are you using Carrie?
Vance Stevens : nice to meet you carrie, do you want to speak to us?
clsnyder-renfro : For project: Padlet map, Google Slides, For class: chromebooks, screencastify, Google docs, slides, sheets, PPT, zoom, Google Meet, lots….
Vance Stevens : may I share my screen for a moment?
Heike Philp : yes
Vance Stevens : thank you
Heike Philp : Carrie, you are here in the room twice, it is possible that you get double audio ….
clsnyder-renfro : Sure, I can chat when you have a break in conversation 🙂
Heike Philp : Can you also add a tool to tricider?
clsnyder-renfro : I am not on double audio. One screen is for classroom view and one is for mine.
Hanaa Khamis : Hi
clsnyder-renfro : Actually – now I am in my second career so I have a BA and two Masters in Ed and I am a NBCT 🙂 I figure if I am going to do something I am going to be the best I can – Knowledge is power!
Vance Stevens : monarch butterflies that migrate at certain time of the year
Heike Philp : more tools mentioned: Edmodo, Snapchat
Vance Stevens : I’ll add them
Heike Philp : hi Maureen, I just muted you briefly
Heike Philp : you can still speak … if you want to
Maureen Cropper : Thanks; interested in learning more about what others are doing 🙂
Heike Philp : Instagram
Heike Philp : Hashtag in Instagram
Heike Philp : Twitter is built for hashtags
clsnyder-renfro : It depends on the population you want to catch – older population – us tend to use Facebook then the next younger generation would be twitter – then the youngest I think use instagram and snapchat – then their are some tumbler people out there that are in the middle someplace – of course that is what I think.
Heike Philp : Tumbler, another tool
Hanaa Khamis : Hi there!
Hanaa Khamis : I can cya!
Hanaa Khamis : introduce yrslf?
clsnyder-renfro : Hello my name is trynity
Hanaa Khamis : Hi dear trynity
Hanaa Khamis : Yr call Vance
Heike Philp : hey Lucy!
Heike Philp : great to have you
Vance Stevens : Hi Lucy
Heike Philp : hi Trinity, you look great
Lucy Gray : hi everyone!
Vance Stevens : Hi Trinity, are you enjoying this?
Vance Stevens : who is your favorite teacher?
Heike Philp : Trinity can you help us to find the top 5 tools for online cooperation which we could share with Greta Thunberg?
Lucy Gray : Hi I’m watching while in another meeting….
Vance Stevens : no worries
Lucy Gray : Thanks for hosting an event!
Heike Philp : Thanks for having us
Vance Stevens : Alejandro, Lorraine, Maureen, would you like to share web cams?
Vance Stevens : google sites, another for our list
Heike Philp : Google sites – free for NGOs
Vance Stevens : I’m adding these here at Mbarek speaks, http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/32206114/volunteersneeded#Ourgoalfortheevent
Lucy Gray : I love Slack
clsnyder-renfro : From Trynity: Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Electronic billboards, Skype, Textnow
Heike Philp : Thanks Carrie
Heike Philp : never heard of Electronic billboards
Heike Philp : or Textnow
Heike Philp : can you perhaps add these here?
Heike Philp : https://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/368pPXLkXtp
Heike Philp : Zoom, flipgrid,
clsnyder-renfro : yup- Flipgrid in the U.S.
Vance Stevens : Lucy’s tools: zoom, flipgrid, padlet,
Heike Philp : Padlet (Lucy’s recommendation)
Alejandro Espinosa : good morning I’m sorry, I don’t have a microphone on my computer and some problems with the camera, the most important project is a geogebra course with a Colombian school and my school in Quito Ecuador
Vance Stevens : Welcome Alejandro
Heike Philp : thanks Alejandro – we are hearing you
Heike Philp : Edmodo (Lucy)
Hanaa Khamis : Google Classroom?
Hanaa Khamis : Better than Edmodo?
Hanaa Khamis : Personal Gmail account to work on G Classroom
Maureen Cropper : Canvas is popular; we use Blackboard
clsnyder-renfro : Adobe Spark is pretty aweseome – This year they added a lot of new features
Lucy Gray : The new Blackboard conferencing tool is really lovely.
Lucy Gray : Love Adobe products
Vance Stevens : this is 422
Lucy Gray : You are always welcome to publicize your events in our discussion forum within globaleducationconference.org
Lucy Gray : I have a few thoughts on this.
Heike Philp : Have MOOC connected many?
Heike Philp : iEARN
Hanaa Khamis : Not many finish till the end – dropouts, lurkers
Heike Philp : How about Twitch?
Heike Philp : How about YouTube Livestream?
Heike Philp : Winfrey Oprah managed to get Millions on her livestreams
Maureen Cropper : using Skype for guest speakers
Lucy Gray : I don’t know much about Twitch… I should know more about it
Lucy Gray : I don’t know about that, Vance! We are trying
Heike Philp : Some 110 Mill users are on Minecraft, some 330 Mill on Fortnite, Millions on Word of Warcraft…
Maureen Cropper : I think part of the difficulty is that there are so many options/opportunities, it can be difficult to get large numbers at any one thing
Lucy Gray : How are we inspiring the students?
Lucy Gray : Look at the Climate Strike, too!
Lucy Gray : Yes, Maureen. I agree!
Lucy Gray : Teachers also don’t have time to filter through the good stuff.
Lucy Gray : I think my son is in Twitch… I’ll have to ask him.
Lucy Gray : That’s a good question…
Lucy Gray : There definitely is inconsistent levels of knowledge
Hanaa Khamis : I agree Mbarek
Hanaa Khamis : Similar here in Egypt
Maureen Cropper : Yes; that’s right, Lucy. I find it sometimes hard to remember all the various options, despite the interesting names ( twitch, etc!)
Hanaa Khamis : Social change 1st
Just after Heike brought up Twitch, Hanaa interjected with a description of how the tools under discussion were contributing to social changes in her context in Egypt. She used https://ytcutter.com/ to snip that part of the video and put it up at YouTube, where I was able to retrieve it and embed it here:
Lucy Gray : I had someone in our GCW chat ask me what it meant to collaborate!!
Heike Philp : nice one… haha
Lucy Gray : In general, we’ve actually had a good number of people participating in GEC activities in general from the MENA region.
Heike Philp : so maybe the synchronous way of doing things is not the right one?????
Heike Philp : look at MOOCs
Heike Philp : etwinning is also a great example for online collaboration/ cooperation acress Europe
Lucy Gray : I think people are over networked… and it makes sense to go to the most popular network where people are already are
Maureen Cropper : That’s true
Alejandro Espinosa : Thank you all, I have to leave a few minutes, a good day
Lucy Gray : There are some channels out there that really leverage YouTube and FB for live events.
Lucy Gray : For example, explore.org. One of my favorite resources.
Lucy Gray : I also think it’s a problem that traditional educational groups don’t necessarily partner and promote more grassroots efforts
Lucy Gray : Also, on the other hand, the EdCamp movement here in the US started as grassroots and has been really embraced by teachers.
Lucy Gray : https://www.edcamp.org/
Lucy Gray : Where is everyone from?
Lucy Gray : I’m close to Chicago Illinois USA.
Maureen Cropper : Thanks; no comments other than this was interesting and informative. I am a librarian in Lex KY
Lucy Gray : Yay, Lorraine!!!
Lucy Gray : 🙂
Lucy Gray : I tried to get our music teacher at my school to participate, Lorraine.
Lucy Gray : https://www.facebook.com/groups/741169739394984/
Lucy Gray : 🙂
Maureen Cropper : I feel like I need to learn more about this to share with my students, because I also teach 🙂
Lucy Gray : Here’s Lorraine’s Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/Lorraine_L
Vance Stevens : @vances on Twitter
Lucy Gray : @elemenous #globaled19
mbarek akaddar : twitter @mbarek
lorraine : World Peace Song Project: https://tinyurl.com/yyntfw49
Maureen Cropper : @mtcropper
Vance Stevens : thanks lorraine
Lucy Gray : http://globaleducationconference.org
Lucy Gray : #globaled19
Lucy Gray : Thank you so much!
Lucy Gray : I really enjoyed the conversation!
Hanaa Khamis : hanaakhs@aucegypt.edu
Vance Stevens : https://learning2gether.net will have the chat transcript
Lucy Gray : lucy@globaledevents.com
Lucy Gray : Gridpals
mbarek akaddar : flipgrid gridpal
Vance Stevens : hi trinity!
lorraine : Thank you!
Lucy Gray : Bye everyone!
clsnyder-renfro : I will email you Hannaakhs
Carrie has just said she would email us the thumbs-up snapshot that she had just taken. But afterwards Hanaa used https://ytcutter.com/ to make a video snippet of the last 9 minutes of our conversation from the thumbs-up point onwards, and including our goodbyes to Trinity, Carrie’s enthusiastic student. Here it is
clsnyder-renfro : Trynity said bye
Lucy Gray : Hi Trinity!
Maureen Cropper : Bye,all
Lucy Gray : Have a good day, everyone!
Lucy Gray : Thank you for doing this, Vance and friends!!!
Lucy Gray : Really enjoyed it
Here is the start of the announcement I posted on Sept 24 on the above Facebook groups:
#Learning2gether Episode 422 goes online Sept 26, 2019 as part of GCW, the Global Collaboration Week event taking place now and through Sept 27. Sept 26 happens to be the European Day of Languages this year, but more critically GCW takes place during an entire week of Global Climate Strikes either side of the UN Climate Summit on Sept 23. Accordingly, Vance Stevens, Heike Philp, Mubarek Akkadar, and Hanaa Khamis have joined forces, networks actually, to discuss for an hour how our PLNs have been involved for decades now in exploring social networking and CMC tools to help raise consciousness about climate and social issues across our networks.
Miscellaneous notes
Here are a few miscellaneous items associated with our presentation Reference
Stevens, V. (2014). Connectivist Learning: Reaching Students through Teacher Professional Development. In Son, J.-B. (Ed.). Computer-assisted language learning: Learners, teachers and tools. APACALL Book Series Volume 3. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Available: http://www.vancestevens.com/papers/archive/2014connectivist_learning.pdf
Feedback from a group of students in Uruguay
I received a PowerPoint slide show sent me out of the blue on behalf of a group of students in Uruguay, by their teacher, Flavia. In their cover email message, they said, “We are pleased to send you our collaboration for the Global Collaboration Week regarding the Climate Change event. What you will find attached to this email is what our students have been working on so far. Best regards, ALI – American Language Institute.” http://www.ali.edu.uy/
I wrote back for more information, and they replied::
We are Mateo, Mateo and Germán from ALI (American Language Institute) in Uruguay. We send this presentation because the planet is very affected because of the Climate Change and we would like to make an impact in the society. In the presentation you can see what the Climate Change is and how it affects the planet.
I wasn’t able to find their presentation in the GCW schedule but I assumed they had presented there. Eventually, Flavia wrote back:
Thank you very much for including us there!!! It looks awesome! We didn’t “present”… I guess. It’s our first time in this event, and what we did was work in class investigating and producing the ppt, and we sent it to you in the hopes that that was what was expected from us….
Well Yes!! Why not!? I am proud and happy to include their presentation in this post, in keeping with the inclusive spirit of Global Collaboration Week. Through this blog, Flavia, Mateo, Mateo., and Germán have mounted their presentation and achieved inclusion as part of the archive of record of GCW 2019.
More from Hanaa Khamis
When Hanaa Khamis joined our panel, I asked her to write a one or two sentence blurb about the NileTESOL LT SIG and PD committee that she will represent, so I could include a sentence or two characterizing it in the proposal. At that moment (we were chatting in FB) I was filling in the online form. But she was crossing Cairo on a bus, and could not respond before I sensed that if I didn’t submit the form I had open in a browser window I’d be timed out and have to copy/paste the whole thing in again. So I hit submit. Just after that, Hanaa FB’d me this very nice description of why she was interested in joining this proposal. I couldn’t resist appending it here, though Hanaa’s description, even in reduced form, did not reach me quite in time to make it into the proposal:
This year (2019) witnessed the official launch of the NileTESOL Interactive Webinar series, a long-awaited dream come true. In May 2019, the Professional Development (PD) Committee and Learning Technologies Special Interest Group initiated a collaboration with Vance Stevens, the Founder of Webheads and Learning2gether initiatives. So far, six international speakers have participated in one-hour Q/A sessions on Zoom:
Dr. Deborah Healey, TESOL International President (2019-20);
Vance Stevens, Webheads and Learning2gether Founder;
Nik Peachey, digital guru and author;
Csilla Jaray-Benn, TESOL France President (2016-17);
Lilika Couri, TESOL Greece Chair (2017-18);
and Georgios Chatzis, TESOL Greece Chair (2018-19).
Hanaa Khamis, NileTESOL PD Chair and LTSIG Co-coordinator has interviewed these distinguished TESOL experts about topics of interest to NileTESOL community members, e.g. being a teacher researcher, gamification, publishing ESOL materials, empathy in the classroom, literature and language learning, and desensitizing students in the age of YouTube. Vance Stevens has kindly supported this series with his amazing technical and professional expertise through his Zoom account.
My pleasure 🙂 Vance
How did we plan this thing?
Short answer: by the seat of our pants.
Earlier events
Sun Sep 22 1400 UTC – Nick Koretsky discusses Grammar Cube
With an increase in English language learners in our classrooms, the number of English learners with disabilities (ELSWD) is also growing, leaving many teachers unsure of how to support these twice exceptional students. This is often even more difficult with writing, an incredibly complex academic task. This webinar will give a brief overview of ELSWD and common challenges in writing, while also highlighting the diversity and variability of these students. A framework for support and strategies, which teachers can implement across content areas and grade levels to support ELSWD in writing, will also be introduced. Many of the recommendations can also be applied to struggling writers, including ELs without disabilities, who often face similar challenges with writing, and native-speaker students with disabilities.
Caroline (Cary) Torresis an assistant professor at Kapi’olani Community College in Hawai’i, teaching Second Language Teaching to pre-service and in-service teachers and Writing to non-native speakers of English. She also provides professional development on supporting English learners and culturally and linguistically diverse students to K-12 teachers. She has worked in schools across the Hawaiian islands and in Japan. She has a master’s degree in Second Language Studies and a PhD in Exceptionalities/ Special Education with a focus on language learners with disabilities. Her research interests include culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students, including ELs and CLD students with disabilities, Universal Design for Learning, Evidence-Based Practices, grit and growth mindset, and writing instruction, including Self-regulated Strategy Development. #SecondLanguageWritingInterestSection
Global Collaboration Week is a series of free online education events taking place during the week of September 23 – 27, 2019. Students, teachers, and organizations will get online to celebrate global collaboration as back-to-school season begins in the northern hemisphere.
During this week (and beyond), experienced global educators and other professionals will host connective projects and events and invite public participation. The primary goals of this event are to demonstrate the power of global connectivity in classrooms, schools, institutions of informal learning and universities around the world, and to introduce others to the tools, resources, projects, and networks that are available to educators today.
Please let others know about this free set of events! You can also follow the event on Twitter @GlobalEdCon and using the hashtag #globaled19; search on Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23globaled19
The Global Education Conference Network believes in the power of connected, globally competent learners of all ages. During Global Collaboration Week you can show others what connected learning looks like around the clock. This event is brought to you by GlobalEd Events and TakingITGlobal.
Online link to an email sent on Sept 20 by Steve Hargadon to members of the network and to the people registered for Global Collaboration Week, which includes all the projects and events submitted by Friday morning: https://www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw
Fostering Global Sustainability ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Asynchronous Long Term Project, Survey AUDIENCE: secondary grade students (14-19) LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: Using the Climate Action, Affordable and Clean Energy, Clean Water + Sanitation, Life Below Water, Life on Land Global Goals for Sustainable Development, students from different countries are invited to share which environmental issue(s) are the most prevalent in their communities and how their community is addressing these issue(s). LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Pascack Valley Regional HS District – Montvale, NJ (EST) ORGANIZED BY: Noemi Rodriguez, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Alert! Fake News! ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time AUDIENCE: intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: In this asynchronous collaborative short term project and debate, my students and their families ,as well as global guests will be expressing themselves through a collaborative Zeetings session with a Google Slides presentation among many other embeds. We will reflect on the importance of understanding global issues as a way of directing our personal and professional projects based on collaboration, tolerance, mutual respect and protection LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Academia de Inglés Internacional – Quemú Quemú , La Pampa, Argentina (GMT-3) ORGANIZED BY: Stella Maris Berdaxagar, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Class-to-Class K-12 Global Connections ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Asynchronous Long Term Project, Informational Session, Tool Demo AUDIENCE: primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: This event is asynchronous, multilingual, interactive and open to K-12 teachers and students from around the world. Teachers and students may participate ANY TIME during or after Global Collaboration Week. Through the event, hosted in a VoiceThread, teachers and students will Asynchronously interact with each other by posting text, audio or video greetings and/or multimedia content that informs other participants about their class, school, town or cultures. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:OneWorld Classrooms – Andover, MA ORGANIZED BY: Paul Hurteau, A non-profit organization
Global Cookies ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Survey AUDIENCE: primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19) LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: This project is an asynchronous event. We are baking chocolate chip cookies in class, and want to learn more about cookies from around the world! This project will show the submitted favorite cookies on a map so participants can compare and contrast cookies from around the world. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Fort Worth Academy – Fort Worth, Texas UTC -5:00 ORGANIZED BY: Lauren Parker, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Global Issues ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Other AUDIENCE: primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), teachers, administrators LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: Teachers and students nationally and internationally will discuss global issues from social and political perspective through social media. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Eduproject – Louisiana. CT ORGANIZED BY: Rochelle Scott, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Global Project Partnerships ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Asynchronous Long Term Project, Birds-of-a-Feather Virtual Meet Up, Mystery Hangout, Mystery Skype Call, Survey, Other AUDIENCE: teachers, administrators, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: Classroom teachers are looking to use technology to connect their students to other classrooms around the world. The educational benefits of globally connected teaching and learning are many; students learn about cultures, practice language skills, and develop collaborative skills through project-based learning. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:GlobalEd Events – UTC/GMT-6 (Central Standard Time) ORGANIZED BY: Lucy Gray, A non-profit organization
Homes Around the World ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Asynchronous Long Term Project, Survey, Other AUDIENCE: early childhood students (0-4), primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: This is an asynchronous project in which any class can participate before, during, or after Global Collaboration Week (September 23-27, 2019). The goal is to provide a wide array of pictures of homes that can be used by classes as discussion prompts. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:North Shore Country Day School – Chicago, IL CST UTC/GMT-6 ORGANIZED BY: Lucy Gray, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
War on Drugs’ Debate ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Debate AUDIENCE: secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, parents LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: Under the premise of the Philippine government’s ‘War on Drugs’ campaign, which has been criticized by many Human Rights Organizations worldwide but has been approved and supported by the majority of Filipinos, participants in this event will debate on whether or not they are in favor of ‘War on Drugs’ campaign to be implemented in their respective country. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Alternative Education Center – Odessa, TX and Central Time ORGANIZED BY: Reynaldo Duran, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
What Are Your Language Learning Tips? ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project AUDIENCE: intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: This is a collaboration of language students around the World. The goal is to gather ideas on how to learn new languages the best way. We hope that many schools will participate in this project. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Sequoyah High School – Madisonville, Tennessee, Eastern Time ORGANIZED BY: Ruth Valle, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
My School, Your School project- An IEARN project ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Guided Virtual Tour, Informational Session AUDIENCE: teachers LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: This session will give information on how to take part in a telecollaborative global project for students to see similarities and differences among students around the world. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Mother of Mercy School/ Escuela Madre de la Misericordia – GMT-3 ORGANIZED BY: Silvana Carnicero, An educator or educators at a for-profit school
One Day in our World ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Long Term Project AUDIENCE: primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19) LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 120H | Monday – Friday(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: The ONE DAY IN OUR WORLD project is suitable for grades K-12 as a starting point for global collaboration. The topics are student-generated to start the interactions, and are intended to promote discussion. We encourage teachers and students to return to the topics to see responses and respond to each other. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:William J. Johnston Middle School – EST ORGANIZED BY: Laura Krenicki, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Mon Sept 23 1230 thru 1530 UTC- Global Collaboration Week Events scheduled for today
Important notice. The events listed below were registered as of Sept 21, 2019. To see an updated calendar of events, go to https://www.globalcollaborationweek.org/join-an-event.html and scroll to the bottom to find your time zone. Register here to get your own updates and information.
Global Scholars Diploma ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Synchronous Long Term Project AUDIENCE: intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), teachers, administrators, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 3H | 2019-09-23 12:30 UTC – 2019-09-23 for 3 hours to15:30 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) at 20:30 in Malaysiahttps://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=GCW+event+Sept+23%2C+2019+at+1230+UTC+for+3+hours&iso=20190923T1230&p1=1440&ah=3 DESCRIPTION: The World Affairs Council of Austin offers a Global Scholars Diploma program for qualifying high school students. A Project Based Learning System Possessing the knowledge, skills, and mindset to thrive in our global society is no longer an optional component of responsible citizenship or successful employment. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:World Affairs Council of Austin – Del Valle, TX Central ORGANIZED BY: Michael Cunningham, An educator or educators at a non-profit schoolGlobal Kitchen Project ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Focus Group, Informational Session AUDIENCE: primary grade students (5-10), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-23 13:00 UTC – 2019-09-23 for 1 hour to 14:00(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 21:00 in Malaysiahttps://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=GCW+event+Sept+23%2C+2019+at+1300+UTC+for+1+hour&iso=20190923T13&p1=1440&ah=1 DESCRIPTION: Global Kitchen Project (GKP) is for educators who would like to integrate global education, media education, 21st Century teaching skills (http://www.p21.org/) into their curriculum. It outlines innovative and interdisciplinary projects using social interaction media; offers creative strategies for producing media with elementary students and developing global education projects integrating media and health skills. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:New York Institute of Technology – Eastern Standard Time ORGANIZED BY: Melda Yildiz, An educator or educators at a non-profit schoolGianni Rodari 100 yr + Collaboration ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Debate, Focus Group, Panel Discussion, Asynchronous Collaborative Long Term Project – you can participate at any time, Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Asynchronous Long Term Project, Survey AUDIENCE: early childhood students (0-4), primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), teachers, parents LANGUAGE: Italian, English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-2313:00 UTC – 2019-09-23 for one hour to 14:00(YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 21:00 Malaysia timehttps://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=GCW+event+Sept+23%2C+2019+at+1300+UTC+for+1+hour&iso=20190923T13&p1=1440&ah=1 DESCRIPTION: To celebrate the 200 years since the birth of Gianni Rodari (born John), born in Omegna October 23, 1920 and died in Rome on 14 April 1980 since he has been one of the best Italian writers (and educationist, journalist and poet), specializing in children’s literature, were dedicated many streets, squares and schools (by the way is even the only Italian winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award and one of the greatest theorists of the art of inventing stories ), I decided to create this page which has been inserted a presentation in which all the other schools so teachers can collaborate freely and, specifically, the teachers of the province of Palermo (Villabate in particular). LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Rodari – Italy (Rome UTC +1) ORGANIZED BY: Massimiliano Minaudo, An educator or educators at a non-profit schoolBuilding connection and inspiring action around the Sustainable Development Goals ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Tool Demo, Webinar AUDIENCE: teachers LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 30M | 2019-09-2313:30 UTC – 2019-09-23 for 30 min to 14:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 21:30 in Malaysiahttps://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=GCW+event+Sept+23%2C+2019+at+1330+UTC+for+30+min&iso=20190923T1330&p1=1440&am=30 DESCRIPTION: Are you ready to connect everyday lesson plans and activities to the SDGs? Do you want to inspire and encourage your students to take action and make the world a better place? During this project we’ll work through how to design SDG research projects, build partnerships with community organizations and collaborate with other educators passionate about the SDGs. Using the Teach the Global Goals community as a framework, we’ll connect around the goals and explore new ways we can bring relevancy to students. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Participate – EST ORGANIZED BY: Kimm Murfitt, A for profit companyStories Around The WorldACTIVITY CATEGORY: Synchronous Long Term Project, Book Discussion, Informational Session, Poetry Slam or Reading, Other AUDIENCE: intermediate grade students (10-13) LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 30M | 2019-09-2313:30 UTC – 2019-09-23 for 30 min to14:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 21:30 in Malaysiahttps://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=GCW+event+Sept+23%2C+2019+at+1330+UTC+for+30+min&iso=20190923T1330&p1=1440&am=30 DESCRIPTION: As every person has a story.This event is concerned with putting powerful ideas in the world through Story Telling. The purpose of story teller is not to tell you how to think but to give you questions to think upon. Its a simple activity where stories around the world are shared across the world. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Vidya Niketan Birla Public School, Pilani – +5:30 GMT ORGANIZED BY: Poonam Sharma, An educator or educators at a for-profit school10 Ways to Easily Integrate Global Collaborations in Your Daily Curriculum
ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Informational Session, Interview with an Expert, Panel Discussion AUDIENCE: intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 30M | 2019-09-2315:00 UTC – 2019-09-23 for 30 min to 15:30 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 23:00 in Malaysia
Tue Sept 24 0030 and 1330 UTC – Global Collaboration Week Events scheduled for today
How to Globalize US History ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Guided Virtual Tour, Tool Demo AUDIENCE: secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 30M | 2019-09-24 0:30 UTC– 2019-09-24 for 30 min 1:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 08:30 in Malaysia
iEARN Project Book Release Party ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Informational Session, Webinar AUDIENCE: pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-2413:00 UTC – 2019-09-24 for 1 hour to 14:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 21:30 in Malaysia
Wed Sept 25 1400, 1900 and 2130 UTC – Global Collaboration Week Events scheduled for today
Important notice. The events listed below were registered as of Sept 21, 2019. To see an updated calendar of events, go to https://www.globalcollaborationweek.org/join-an-event.html and scroll to the bottom to find your time zone. Register here to get your own updates and information.
4:30am UTC – Global Warming – A Panel Discussion
When – Wed, September 25, 4:30am – 5:00am (30 minutes)
Description – Title of event/project: Global Warming – A Panel Discussion
Educon International School is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Educon International School’s Zoom Meeting Time: Sep 25, 2019 10:00 AM India, 12:30 in Malaysia
Join Zoom Meeting https://us04web.zoom.us/j/118040668 One tap mobile +14086380968,,118040668# US (San Jose) +16465588656,,118040668# US (New York) Dial by your location +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose) +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) Meeting ID: 118 040 668 Find your local number: https://us04web.zoom.us/u/fWvTwshMq
Project/event description: Join Educon International School for a Panel discussion on Global Warming. This discussion is happening between groups of students of Std. 7. of EIS. The main topics disccused will be; 1) Issues face by a particular country 2) Government initiatives/policies to address the issues faced by global warming 3) The Action plan/ Framework and the efforts put in by particular country with collaboration and support from other countries to minimize the ill effects of Global warning. Project/event directions for participation: This session is being held in a virtual room using zoom.com. A panel discussion will take place on the topic of Global Warming. Zoom video conference call. Meeting ID https://us04web.zoom.us/j/118040668 Feedback are welcome on flipgrid.com/school6314
This event can be categorized as a: Informational Session, Panel Discussion
This event is intended for the following audience(s): primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders
Primary language(s) to be spoken at this event: English
Contact First Name: Hemali Contact Last Name: Madan Contact Email: educoninternationalschool@gmail.com Contact Twitter Handle: @educon_school
Host school or organization: Educon International School Host School or Organization
Project/event description: The game is devoted to the UN summit on September 25 in 2015, where the list of 17 goals for sustainable development were announced.
Project/event directions for participation: The participants will get a set of online tasks on SDG to discuss and fulfill. This event can be categorized as a: Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Gaming Experience
This event is intended for the following audience(s): secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students
Primary language(s) to be spoken at this event: Russian
Contact First Name: Kate Contact Last Name: Donskova Contact Email: ccesd2018@gmail.com Contact Twitter Handle:
Host school or organization: Belarusian State Pedagogical University Host School or Organization
Life after NSLI-Y Virtual Event ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Webinar AUDIENCE: secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-2514:00 UTC – 2019-09-25 for one hour to 15:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 22:00 in Malaysia
URL to project/event starting point: http://www.akerleyspaceexploration.com Project/event description: This will be both a Webpage connection and a ZOOM Conference Call. The Webpage will be available after the Conference call (pass word is SA)
Project/event directions for participation: ZOOM Conference Call for Global Collaboration Event Proposed Lunar Science Base Date: Sep 25, 2019 Time: 3:00 PM Eastern 2:00 PM Central 1:00 PM Mountain 12:00 PM Pacific Join via Internet: https://zoom.us/j/502814706 Join via Smart Phone: (Mtg ID Auto Entered) US East +16468769923,,502814706# US West +16699006833,,502814706# Join via Land Line US East +1 646 876 9923 US West +1 669 900 6833 Meeting ID: 502 814 706
This event can be categorized as a: Informational Session, Lecture, Panel Discussion
This event is intended for the following audience(s): intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, teachers, parents
Primary language(s) to be spoken at this event: English
Contact First Name: Stevan Contact Last Name: Akerley Contact Email: stevan.akerley@outlook.com Contact Twitter Handle:
Host school or organization: Kepler Space Institute, and NSS Host School or Organization Website URL: https://Keplerspaceinstitute.com
Host Location and Time Zone (UTC): 7:00 PM UTC
This event is organized by: An educator or educators at a for-profit school
Optional field for additional pertinent information: The Proposed Science Base is more than what has been suggested in past lunar base renditions. This proposal supports both scientific and settlement missions. It is a permanent settlement approach not just an expeditionary mission.
Units : 1 Team member : Member name
YCBM link ref: 3aab7e77-9453-4d04-9ef4-2d4604910303
iEARN Global Educator Hangout (this event is no longer listed in the dynamic calendar on Sept 25 as of midnight UTC) ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Other AUDIENCE: teachers LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-2519:00 UTC – 2019-09-25 for one hour to 20:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 03:00 in Malaysia
Documentary on Globalizing Education (this event is no longer listed in the dynamic calendar on Sept 25 as of midnight UTC) ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Asynchronous Long Term Project, Focus Group, Survey AUDIENCE: college or university students, teachers, administrators, parents, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-2521:30 UTC – 2019-09-25 for one hour to 22:30 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 05:30 in Malaysia
Project/event description:
A cultural exchange between countries so that students learn to appreciate and respect the culture and traditions of other countries.
Project/event directions for participation:
Participants will confirm their participation on google forms. Skype sessions will be organized for students to exchange their culture w.r.t. food, clothing, greetings, traditions. Participants will be taken through a gallery walk of the different countries with performances by our students within the school and asked for feedback. Other countries can also share their native dance or song or poem.
This event can be categorized as a:
Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Performance
This event is intended for the following audience(s):
early childhood students (0-4), primary grade students (5-10)
Primary language(s) to be spoken at this event: English
Contact First Name: Kavita
Contact Last Name: SANGHVI
Contact Email: kavitasanghvi2013@gmail.com
Contact Twitter Handle: sanghvi_kavita
Host school or organization: C.N.M School & N.D. Parekh Preprimary School
Host School or Organization Website URL: http://cnms.ac.in/
Host Location and Time Zone (UTC): Mumbai GMT+5:30
This event is organized by: An educator or educators at a for-profit school
Optional field for additional pertinent information: We wish to promote Global Goals by sensitizing students on different cultures across the world at a young age so that they grow respecting one and all. This can only happen if students communicate pertinent information about their country with each other and in due course collaborate on further events.
Thu Sept 26 – other Global Collaboration Week Events scheduled for today
Important notice. The events listed below were registered as of Sept 21, 2019. To see an updated calendar of events, go to https://www.globalcollaborationweek.org/join-an-event.html and scroll to the bottom to find your time zone. Register here to get your own updates and information.
Kultural Konnection 360 ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Performance AUDIENCE: early childhood students (0-4), primary grade students (5-10) LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 3H | 2019-09-26 04:30 UTC– 2019-09-26 for 3 hours 7:30 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 12:30 pm in Malaysia DESCRIPTION: A cultural exchange between countries so that students learn to appreciate and respect the culture and traditions of other countries. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:C.N.M School + N.D. Parekh Preprimary School – Mumbai GMT+5:30 ORGANIZED BY: Kavita SANGHVI, An educator or educators at a for-profit school
RRC Teacher Education Global Collaboration 2019 ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Survey, Tool Demo, Other AUDIENCE: primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-26 14:00 UTC – 2019-09-26 for one hour to 15:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 2200 pm in Malaysia DESCRIPTION: Student teachers at Red River College in Winnipeg, Canada are preparing to design learning for their students. A huge part of this learning is for the pre-service teachers to experience global collaboration and to grow their passion for teaching and learning. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Red River College – Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada – Central time zone ORGANIZED BY: Eva Brown, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Teaching the SDGs in the Classroom ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Webinar AUDIENCE: secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, teachers, administrators, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-2617:00 UTC – 2019-09-26 for 1 hour to 18:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 0100 am in Malaysia DESCRIPTION: Join the United Nations Association of the USA for Global Collaboration Week to discuss teaching the SDGs in the classroom. Learn about the resources UNA-USA offers through its Educator Affinity Group and share best practices with other educators. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:UNA-USA – Webinar, 1 pm EST ORGANIZED BY: Anna Mahalak, A non-profit organization
ConnectED: Birds-of-a-Feather Virtual Meet-Up for Teacher Educators and Their Future Teachers ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Birds-of-a-Feather Virtual Meet Up AUDIENCE: college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-2618:00 UTC – 2019-09-26 for 1 hour to 19:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 2 am in Malaysia
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=GCW+event+Sept+26%2C+2019+at+1800+CST+for+1+hour&iso=20190926T18&p1=1440&ah=1 DESCRIPTION: This global meet-up is designed for teacher educators and their future teachers who would to develop global collaborations. Professor David Stoloff at Eastern Connecticut State University will briefly discuss his experiences connecting with other global teacher education programs as archived at http://interconescu.wordpress.com . Participants will be encouraged to discuss their experiences with global collaborations and their aspirations for future project. We will also discuss the uses of Google Hangouts, Google Forms for gathering information, and wordpress for establishing a web presence for a project. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Eastern Connecticut State University – Willimantic, CT USA Eastern Coast (GMT-4) ORGANIZED BY: David Stoloff, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Global Buncee Book Vol. 2 ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Collaborative Short Term Project – you can participate at any time, Informational Session, Tool Demo, Other AUDIENCE: primary grade students (5-10), intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), teachers, administrators, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 30M | 2019-09-2619:30 UTC – 2019-09-26 for 30 min 20:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 03:30 in Malaysia DESCRIPTION: Check out last year’s first ever Global Buncee Book project that kicked off as part of World Read Aloud Day 2019 (https://michaeldrezek.com/2019/01/30/something-different-for-world-read-aloud-day/). Back by popular demand, Vol. 2 will launch as part of Global Collaboration Week. This year’s book will again focus on creativity, imagination and digital storytelling where classes around the globe can create a page and bring it to life with Buncee. In the end, each page will be read aloud by the participating class and stitched into a single digital book. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Lake Shore CSD – Angola, NY, USA (EST) ORGANIZED BY: Michael Drezek, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
MY HERO: Stories, Art and Film Celebrating Heroes Around the Globe ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Informational Session AUDIENCE: teachers, administrators, parents LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-2620:00 UTC – 2019-09-26 for 1 hour 21:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) 0400 in Malaysia DESCRIPTION: In our globally connected world, we have a great opportunity to learn from one another, to exchange stories, art, and films that honor those who are tackling the great challenges of our time and working to improve the quality of life for all. Learn how to integrated MY HERO with your students. We use media, art and technology on MY HERO to celebrate the best of humanity, one story at a time. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:MY HERO – United States EDT ORGANIZED BY: Laura Nietzer, A non-profit organization
and the one blogged here, Thu Sept 26 1500 UTC – Learning2gether 422 Connective and Collaborative Tools for Impacting Social and Climate Change at Global Collaboration Week
The fourth annual Virtual Worlds MOOC (VWMOOC19) will take place from September 1-30, 2019. The theme of the current MOOC is peace through learning and connecting online for instruction and learning via web technologies such as Second Life and Virtual Worlds. The MOOC will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world through Virtual Worlds.
(Click on the title to access the live Zoom session if you can’t join us in Kitely)
Join the Community Virtual Library on a hypergrid adventure into virtual worlds on the OpenSim platform! CVL volunteer Bethany Winslow will lead a tour starting from the Kitely Welcome Center to our Hypergrid Resource Library on the Cookie II region (our sister site to the Cookie location in Second Life).
If you have a Kitely avatar already log onto www.kitely.com, put in your user name and password and put “Kitely Welcome Center” into the location field and click “enter”. The tour will start there.
If you miss the tour start, you can put the following hop SLURL into the address bar at the top of your viewer and find your way to the portals in Cookie II Welcome Center and look for the Hypergrid Resource Library on Cookie II: hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Cookie II/129/115/25 (very neat resource, worth a look at the various portals)
If you have an avatar on another OpenSim world, click on the map, search for Kitely Welcome Center and click teleport. If you make a landmark you’ll find it in the landmark section of “My Suitcase” in your viewer inventory. From the Kitely Welcome Center you can either join the tour, or catch up in the Hypergrid Resource Library. More instructions are available in the document attached below.
The OpenSim platform looks just like Second Life. Instead of being a closed proprietary world, however, OpenSim is a decentralized open source platform and it costs a fraction of what Second Life does.
On this tour you will see the major features of the Hypergrid Library, content that helps explain the concept of hypergridding (it’s like teleporting, but with important differences), and the space station where you can jump to other worlds. At the research wall, Bethany will briefly present a synthesis of her two most recent posters on virtual worlds in education. She’ll address why it’s more important than ever for educators to get in-world. Attendees can grab a copy of her posters and/or the references/recommended reading. In the Gallery are a few examples of immersive lessons. There will be time for free exploration, to try a hypergrid jump or two, and a final quick debrief Q & A session. We hope to see you there!
Mon Sep 24 midnight UTC – Dae Miami discusses Alt Space and VR at VSTE Space in Second Life
Alt Space and VR
Monday, September 23, at 5 SLT, 20:00 ET, Dae Miami discusses Alt Space, a VR social networking world you can access with your PC, mobile device, or VR hardware! Come join the fun! Maybe we’ll agree on a time to try it together.
That must be 5 pm SLT, or PDT time Sept 23; midnight UTC Sept 24 where you are
Basic directions to join VSTE Space in Second Life
If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here:https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/ Download and install the software. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this linkhttp://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58 and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.
ESL Assessment Providers (Part I)
Description:
The first of two complimentary webinars on assessment (second one will be October 9) will feature several Trinity College, Michigan Language Assessment and Pearson Language Tests, all of whom specialize in different types of assessment tools & services. Participants will have the opportunity to dialog with the experts and learn what support is available from a variety of ESL assessment providers.
Key Objectives:
1) Contextualize the relationship between assessments used by your program and the assessments used by your institutions (if applicable) for admissions
2) Identify factors used to determine assessments used
3) Connect with assessment provider representatives and learn about support available
4) Learn about the accreditations which demonstrate test quality
Presenters (September 25):
-Alex Thorpe, Trinity College London
-Gad Lim, Michigan Language Assessments
-Jennifer Manning, Pearson Language Tests
The webinar is free, no need to sign in, register with, or pay dues to EnglishUSA. You need to register with Zoom at the link above though.
Wed Sept 26 1800 UTC – TESOL free webinar – Dr. Phil Vahey on Supporting ELs Through Technology
TESOL has announced a free webinar being hosted by colleagues in the US Department of Education and the Office of English Language Acquisition on Supporting ELs Through Technology.
Connect with presenters from the Office of English Language Acquisition and Dr. Phil Vahey, director of strategic research and innovation for SRI Education on 26 September 2019, at 2 p.m. ET for an in-depth look at digital learning resources that can strengthen instruction of ELs.
In this one-hour webinar, you’ll receive an overview of the types of digital learning resources available to support ELs and learn about key findings on supporting ELs through technology from the 2019 National Study of English Learners and Digital Learning Resources. You’ll also receive recommendations and resources from two useful toolkits: the Educator Toolkit and the Developers Toolkit.
Follow up
Links to a recording of the webinar, a PDF of the slideshow, and relevant handouts were thoughtfully emailed to participants who, like me, were sleeping when the webinar took place. Here they are:
On Sunday September 22, 2019, Vance Stevens met with Nick Koretsky in Zoom to learn about Grammar Cube, Nick’s 3D model of the English verb tense system that teachers can bring up on their smart boards, and that students can manipulate on their personal devices, or in its real-word rendition, even hold and rotate in their hands.
Grammar Cube inventor Nick Koretsky is an EFL teacher with some engineering background and passion for 2D graphics (Inkscape) and 3D modeling (Blender).
Having experienced difficulties with teaching verbal grammar he developed Grammar Cube, a concept of grammar organization that cuts learning time for students and makes the life of a teacher easier: http://granav.com/
The fourth annual Virtual Worlds MOOC (VWMOOC19) will take place from September 1-30, 2019. The theme of the current MOOC is peace through learning and connecting online for instruction and learning via web technologies such as Second Life and Virtual Worlds. The MOOC will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world through Virtual Worlds.
Explore ways to highlight your virtual world work through collaboration of communities and transdisciplinary methods. (Art, computer science, librarianship, teaching, archival, music & other fields.)
3DWebWorldz approaches online education using all the tools available – virtual spaces not pages, websites, videos and application scripting. No download required, works in your web browser.
Join us for a discussion and demonstration of the available tools and options, including a working chalkboard, slideshow presentations, lesson plans, interactive objects, self-study exhibits and more. 3DWebWorldz allows the teacher and students to focus on the educational content.
Event starts at the VWMOOC19 HQ in Second Life: SLURL:
(Click on the title to access the live Zoom session if you can’t join us in Second Life)
Learn about the ideas of a “Reformpaedagogik” School in SL.
“In Germany, in the early 20th century, responding to restrictive schooling, a couple of alternative educational ideas were transferred into operating schools. While differing in detail, most approaches labeled “Reformpaedagogik” developed school communities that were inspired by the idea that students and teachers should develop their own schools and organize both, curriculum and school life around their initiatives. SL Salem School Landschulheim tries to catch these ideals into a modern virtual environment.
After presentation, guests are invited to explore school ground level via a self-guided paths. Conference attendees are also invited to gather at the campfire near the Lake of the Old House, watch a short silent movie from 1929, showing a typical day in RL Salem school, and partake in wrap-up discussion.http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Selby/119/159/2502
Fri Sept 20 1300 UTC Monthly Roundup (FB LIVE) with Philip Shigeo Brown & Steven Herder
Scroll down below this item for information on the Nick Koretsky presentation on Grammar Cube
iTDi (International Teacher Development Institute) is a for-profit teacher-training initiative that welcomes teachers to drop in free at its Monthly Roundups.
Here’s the agenda for today’s roundup
What You Might Have Missed – September highlights 🙂
Teaching & Learning Online
Don’t Miss Out on upcoming opportunities and events in October!
Sat Sep 21 0930 UTC – Global Collaboration Week event – Global Teacher Garden
Global Collaboration Week event – Global Teacher Garden ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Long Term Project, Mystery Skype Call AUDIENCE: secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-21 9:30 – 2019-09-21 10:30 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: Learning Partners at ‘Skype in the Classroom’ plant a sapling each honoring Learning Partners at each end. Everyone becomes an ‘AgriMentor’. Each sapling is twinned with a fully grown tree named after the learner, thus Global Teacher Gardens honor knowledge sharers all over the world, rewilding the world. LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:GeoGebra Institute of eSchool Kerala – India GMT + 5 hours 30 minutes ORGANIZED BY: Sebastian Panakal, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Project/event description: Learning Partners at ” Skype in the Classroom” plant a sapling each honoring Learning Partners at each end. Everyone becomes an ‘AgriMentor’. Each sapling is twinned with a fully grown tree named after the learner, thus Global Teacher Gardens honor knowledge sharers all over the world, rewilding the world. Project/event directions for participation:
Pre-register on Skype (not clear how to do this)
Sun Sep 22 0930 UTC – Global Collaboration Week event – Two events, not easily joined
Meet. Connect. Explore. ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Asynchronous Long Term Project AUDIENCE: secondary grade students (14-19) LANGUAGE: English, French, German, Spanish, Any Indian Language LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 1H | 2019-09-22 18:30 – 2019-09-22 19:30 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: Creating a chance for students across the world to connect and learn about each other’s culture and everyday experiences. Students will connect through Padlet, Instagram, YouTube and FlipGrid LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:Sanskriti School – Delhi, India (GMT +5.30) ORGANIZED BY: Sanchita Ghosh, An educator or educators at a non-profit school
Project/event description: Creating a chance for students across the world to connect and learn about each other’s culture and everyday experiences. Students will connect through Padlet, Instagram, YouTube and FlipGrid Project/event directions for participation: Students can participate as individuals or in groups.
Schools may participate in just one or all the activities. Even though it may say that the project is scheduled for September 23, 2019, we will be accepting entries right through the week (and beyond, should your students require more time).
VOICES STEM + Music Virtual Conference ACTIVITY CATEGORY: Synchronous Collaborative Short Term Project, Synchronous Long Term Project, Birds-of-a-Feather Virtual Meet Up, Focus Group, Informational Session, Interview with an Expert, Panel Discussion, Performance, Survey, Webinar AUDIENCE: intermediate grade students (10-13), secondary grade students (14-19), college or university students, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators, organization leaders LANGUAGE: English LENGTH | UTC/GMT TIMES: 3H | 2019-09-22 19:00 – 2019-09-22 22:00, 2019-09-23 14:00 – 2019-09-23 17:00, 2019-09-23 17:00 – 2019-09-23 20:00, 2019-09-22 17:00 – 2019-09-22 20:00 (YOUR OWN TIME ZONE) DESCRIPTION: VOICES stands for Virtual Ongoing Interdisciplinary Collaboration of Educating with Song and our organization aims to create a collaboration between the fields of STEM and MUSIC. This is a VIRTUAL international conference that will provide a great opportunity for any educator or collaborator at the middle school, high school, or higher education level (students are also welcome!). LINK TO FULL DESCRIPTION:www.globaleducationconference.org/page/gcw HOST SCHOOL:VOICES: Virtual Ongoing Interdisciplinary Collaboration of Educating with Song – Pennsylvania, United States (UTC – 4) ORGANIZED BY: Tiffany Getty, An educator or educators at a for-profit school
Project/event description: VOICES stands for Virtual Ongoing Interdisciplinary Collaboration of Educating with Song and our organization aims to create a collaboration between the fields of STEM and MUSIC. This is a VIRTUAL international conference that will provide a great opportunity for any educator or collaborator at the middle school, high school, or higher education level (students are also welcome!). No prior experience is needed to join our collaboration!
The virtual conference will be held over two days: September 22 and September 23. The conference is FREE to any educator or student! VOICES can provide you with a certificate of attendance if needed. A full description of the sessions for the 2019 VOICES virtual conference can be found at the following website. https://www.causeweb.org/voices/2019/program
An email will be sent to you approximately 1 week prior to the conference with a link that can be used to join the conference.
Alternatively, participate by simply going to the website link (sent to your email) on the days of the conference and virtually joining our synchronous conference. Most sessions have two presentations and then time for participants to ask the questions to the presenter.
Minecraft Monday Sept. 9 at 8 PM Eastern time (12 am UTC)
The first Monday of every month is Minecraft Monday. It happens at 8 PM Eastern time, in Maine USA. Unless that Monday is a holiday in the USA; then it’s the second Monday (like the Monday after Memorial Day in September, for example).
So on the second Monday in September 2019, at 8 in the evening on the eastern seaboard, USA, a group of miners, all educators from the looks of it, and mostly teachers of other young miners, met before bedtime for their monthly Monday play-date. By then I (Vance in Penang, Malaysia) was just waking up the following morning, Tuesday midnight Sept 10 UTC. So for me and folks in Europe and parts east of there, it’s Minecraft Tuesdays.
The event was announced by Kim Harrison (a.k.a. K4sons / Thunder in SL) as an informal discussion about ways to use Minecraft at school while building in the creative side of VSTE Place.
Basic directions to join VSTE Place, VSTE’s Minecraft world
To participate in Minecraft Mondays, you must have a computer Minecraft account from https://minecraft.net/en/. There is a one time fee of $26.95. Download and install the software. Choose multiplayer and add a server:
Our server is protected. You will need to be whitelisted to enter. For that, email Kim Harrison at K4sons@gmail.com from an educational email address with your real name and Minecraft account name.
Discord
Discord is a voice and screen sharing application that will run on your computer or mobile device. In order to talk with others in VSTE virtual environments, you need to download and install it for free. It helps us to be able to play Minecraft in one screen and listen via Discord with earbuds or headphones.
Create an account.
Many of us use the same name for our Discord account as our Minecraft account to keep things simple.
Discussion and links from the group chat in Discord
Someone asked if people in the group were planning to use Minecraft with their students next term. I was quite surprised that one or two in the group answered in the negative, giving reasons of reduced funding for licenses and adequately powerful computers for students to use to run Minecraft, and poor to negligible technical and admin support, which again are additional symptoms of under-funding for staffing and overtime for after-school activities. If schools could fund creativity through increased staffing, it seems to me they would. It seems to me a step in the very wrong direction when a school system can’t support the efforts of teachers to integrate into their curricula something as creative and promotional of critical thinking as Minecraft. As someone else said in the chat, he thought you could teach anything in Minecraft. The point was discussed, and someone else pointed out the learning was in the discussion following the meaningful play, and that it takes a teacher with experience and the instincts to be able to convert game play into meaningful discussion, and from there into learning outcomes that jibe with the curriculum.
Again, this is just my opinion, but it seems to me that the nation has a crying need to be led by someone who can let the people’s elected congress decide where the money gets spent and stop draining it off arbitrarily (from schools, from disaster relief, from the military e.g. military schools) on pet, cosmetic, and ineffective partisan projects, and someone who would appoint as secretary of the Dept. of Education a highly qualified person who was passionate about and seriously attuned to education, not ignorant of its nuances, and who rose to her position only through her wealth and whom she had graced with it.
Anyway, it would have been unseemly to have raised all this in the chat, but I did mention that though I was not planning to use Minecraft with students this year, I was planning to use it with teachers, as I have done for the past five years, in the upcoming EVO sessions (Electronic Village Online, https://evosessions.pbworks.com). I invited those present to check our website (I say ‘our’ because two present at this event, Kim Harrison and Beth O’Connell) have been moderators of our EVO Minecraft MOOC sessions. I posted the URL for more information in the Discord chat, http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/.
Speaking of discussion afterwards, as people were departing, I lingered to talk with someone named SunTzu about the comic books he was generating from his work with students in virtual worlds. Called Second Life Adventure Comics, SunTzu said he’d be “willing to do one for educators if we can come up with an interesting story narrative and visuals and hopefully have a purpose to use it”. See his work at https://sl-ac.weebly.com/
SunTzu uses Gyayzo to get the screen captures for his books, https://gyazo.com/f09ad6d02347442005b72ae974bda5e5. To read the books click on the links at top of the images that say SCAC 19-01, 02, and 03 (the book icons also appear hyperlinked, so clicking on just the text above the icons was not intuitive).
Here are some of the screen shots I made while engaged in this event. There are more screen captures uploaded to the Discord chatroom for those who wish to talk with VSTE teachers.
Most of those present just started building, all in creative mode, with unlimited tools and resources at their disposal. We start with an overview taken from across the way looking back on where the building was taking place
And moving in closer as the building was getting under way
Mainecakes made a turtle pond, complete with turtle she’d either spawned or lured there. Once done, she set about decorating the area with some of the plants available in creative inventory.
K4sons set about making a saddlery shop. Some of the local mobs came around to have a look. I right clicked on one. I could have grabbed a few dozen lumps of coal from inventory and traded them with him for the emerald he had concealed under his cloak.
SunTzu and Beth_Ghostraven created a crenelated castle and when they moved to the second floor, the ground floor started attracting spiders and zombies, who tend to emerge during periods of relative darkness, such as rainstorms. In the screenshot below someone has slain a zombie and left its rotten carcass there for someone else to collect. If you accumulate such carcasses you can trade them with villagers for things you can’t find otherwise in Minecraft.
JazMar created something with impenetrable doors, so I had to catch him/her working with screenshots made through the windows. At one point a skeleton took up a position near one of the doors. He turned and faced me as I moved around him. However, as we were in creative mode, he did not attack. But then Beth appeared on the scene and took her sword to him. Before succumbing to that he got off an arrow that caught her on the bum. Ouch!
And when Dak arrived, he set about constructing one of his signature neo-monolithic structures. Asked how he could do it so quickly, he said he had done it so many times before. He is indeed a prolific and experienced builder. I followed him through the roof on the staircase leading to the ground floor, where I watched Dakotah making hasty improvements to the decor there, ignoring a llama and a neutered skeleton who had taken up residence downstairs.
I created my own monstrosity on a plateau behind where the others were building.
At the end of the day, we all gathered, as you do, for selfies and photos. There are more group photos in the Discord chat room. Those who are members can get there using this link: https://discordapp.com/channels/154391510064824320
Coming up at VSTE
Next week, in Second Life at VSTE Space we will talk about the books we read this summer.
Basic directions to join VSTE Space
If you don’t have a Second Life account, you can get one for free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/ Here’s how
The fourth annual Virtual Worlds MOOC (VWMOOC19) will take place from September 1-30, 2019. The theme of the current MOOC is peace through learning and connecting online for instruction and learning via web technologies such as Second Life and Virtual Worlds. The MOOC will focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world through Virtual Worlds.
We will tour exhibits and examples of student learning, all connected with Information Literacy, on Infolit iSchool, including “What information/literacy means to me”; Health Literacy exhibit; Seven Pillars of Information Literacy. We will also discuss ideas for a new exhibit on the Age-Friendly Media and Information Literate City. Jointly with Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable, starting the tour at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/226/27/22
cc 4.0 by-sa 
Connective and Collaborative Tools for Impacting Social and Climate Change
Carrie’s take: 
Shailey Minocha
