High Techpectations

January/February News for Global Educators and Organizations

Our curated global education resources have been updated and refreshed! Read more about this here. Find new collections containing information on projects, topics, and organizations on this page: http://bit.ly/GECresources. Note that you must be logged into the Global Education Conference Network to view! If you have resources to share with our community, post in our discussion forum or post to Twitter using the hashtag #globaled19.

We are also preparing for our fourth annual Global Leadership Summit taking place on March 15th in Chicago, Illinois. This is the second time we’ve partnered with ASCD, the leading professional learning community for educators, and we invite you to join us if you will be attending their Empower 19 conference. Learn more about the program and speakers here. If you represent a non-profit and will be in attendance, participate in our global resource fair at the Summit; email Lucy Gray at [email protected] for more information. Also, Erin Dowd will be hosting a #TeachSDGs meet up following the Summit; details to come.

Here is a roundup of projects and initiatives other organizations we’ve noticed lately:

• #globaledchat is a weekly series of Twitter chats hosted by Heather Singmaster of the Asia Society on Thursday evenings at 8 PM ET (GMT-5). The topic will be Global Competent Leaders on February 7th, and the February 21st chat will focus on Exercise for Everyone. On March 7th, participants will discuss Global Literature.
• 5 Clue Challenge - Pennsylvania State Teacher of the Year Michael Soskil hosts this project which is a great asynchronous alternative to mystery location calls. Play a video on a location, animal or habitat for your students and then allow them time to research and find the answers. Then, have your own students create their own similar videos.
• 10 Tips for Creating Classroom to Classroom Connections - This is a new blog post featuring ideas for finding mystery location call partners and project partners.
• Bye Bye Plastic Bags - Get inspired by 2 Dutch/Indonesian sisters who have started an NGO to clean up waterways and to encourage plastic bag bans. Students can start their own BBPG chapters to support the movement. Make sure to check out this NPR interview with the founders.
• The EveryWorld Initiative - An initiative from Know My World is accepting applications through February 23, 2019. The EveryWorld Initiative is a chance for schools around the world to apply for full scholarships to participate in a Virtual Cross-Cultural Exchange facilitated by Know My World.
• Flat Connections Projects - Flat Connections is leading several projects that are starting soon including Friends for Sustainability, Global Youth Debates, Windows to the World, and Poetry with Passion and Performance. Also, just announced is the Building Bridges to Tomorrow project.
• Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program - Applications are due March 7, 2019. The Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program (Fulbright TGC) is a year-long professional development opportunity for U.S. elementary, middle, and high school teachers to develop skills for preparing students for a competitive global economy.
• Global Learning Fellowship from the NEA Foundation - Applications are due February 4th. The NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellowship increases access to global training and experiences by providing global education professional development opportunities for K-12 public school educators.
• The Global Mystery 3D Print -  This challenge runs now through May 6, 2019.  Students create a “Mystery Cube” with 3D printing software. The cube should have clues about the design team’s location (i.e. city, country, coordinates, etc.). The file is then emailed to a moderator, who will send another “Mystery Cube” file in exchange. Students will have one week to use the clues given on the new “Mystery Cube” to figure out where it came from. The answer will be emailed to the teacher at the end of one week.
• The Great Kindness Challenge - Participate between January 28 - February 1, 2019, as a school or as a family. Watch a video, receive a checklist and see how many acts of kindness you and/or your school can accomplish!
• ScratchPals - Are your students using the free coding program Scratch? Connect to another classroom and collaborate on project challenges. This project is organized by Kathleen Fugle, an ed tech specialist in Virginia.
• World Peace Song Project 2018-2019 - GEC member Lorraine Leo has posted information about a new project led by Professor Yoshiro Miyata of Chukyo University. People will collaborate on a global chorus to express peace.
• World Read Aloud Day - This is an annual project that takes place on February 1, 2019, and is organized by our friends at LitWorld. Check out their site which has many resources for getting started! Educator Michael Soskil (mentioned above) is also hosting this project for making connections on this day.

Finally, here are a few reminders about how you can get involved in the Global Education Conference Network community:

• Find members from specific countries or in specific school roles by searching our member directory.
• Browse our conference archives from the past 8 years to learn from global experts.
• Subscribe to our daily Global Education Report, a digital newspaper containing global education news.
• Follow us on Twitter and "like" us on Facebook.

That’s all the GEC news that’s fit to print right now!

You are Invited to the Global Share-O-Rama!

I'm using a tool called Flipgrid to have educators respond to a series of prompts related to globally connected teaching and learning. The Global Share-O-Rama is located here and I'm looking for educators and global education organizations to participate. Consider doing any of the following:

• Promote your project, organization, or book that relates to global education
• If you are running a project and need participants or partners, let us know in this Flipgrid as well.
• Share your favorite resource (article, book, tool, website etc) for helping educators connect to the world
•  Questions about how on how to collaborate globally are also welcome.

I've created seven topics or Flipgrids within the Global Share-O-Rama; you are invited to respond to one or more of these by recording a short video of yourself discussing the topic. To participate, click on a topic, then the + sign, and allow Flipgrid to access the camera on your computer if necessary. If you are using an iPad, you can download the app, and use the code that is available in the top lefthand corner to join that particular grid. You can also leave responses for other educators who have posted to Flipgrid, too. 

Below are some examples from the Global Share-O-Rama. I hope you will join in and make some new connections to enhance your work with students! Please share this information widely.

 

 

You are Invited to the Global Share-O-Rama!

I'm using a tool called Flipgrid to have educators respond to a series of prompts related to globally connected teaching and learning. The Global Share-O-Rama is located here and I'm looking for educators and global education organizations to participate. Consider doing any of the following:

• Promote your project, organization, or book that relates to global education
• If you are running a project and need participants or partners, let us know in this Flipgrid as well.
• Share your favorite resource (article, book, tool, website etc) for helping educators connect to the world
•  Questions about how on how to collaborate globally are also welcome.

I've created seven topics or Flipgrids within the Global Share-O-Rama; you are invited to respond to one or more of these by recording a short video of yourself discussing the topic. To participate, click on a topic, then the + sign, and allow Flipgrid to access the camera on your computer if necessary. If you are using an iPad, you can download the app, and use the code that is available in the top lefthand corner to join that particular grid. You can also leave responses for other educators who have posted to Flipgrid, too. 

Below are some examples from the Global Share-O-Rama. I hope you will join in and make some new connections to enhance your work with students! Please share this information widely.

My Life as an Innovation Consultant: What Will 2016 Bring?

It's the start of a new year, and I'm re-organizing my professional life, setting goals and reflecting on nearly six years as an independent innovation consultant.

People often ask what I do and the answer is complicated. I have many professional interests revolving around innovation, educational technology,  social media, and global education. Perhaps the best title to give me is non-traditional educator.  I am an advocate for students and teachers, yet I am not employed in a traditional school setting. Instead, I partner with a variety of people, schools, organizations, and companies to lend my expertise and to promote educational change. Often educators are considered out of touch and less relevant if they leave school settings for consultancies. I would argue that my knowledge base has been greatly expanded because of my experiences.  I love what I do. 

Here's what's going on for me this spring and this may give you an idea of my current projects:

• I attended FETC last week, gave a presentation on global project-based learning, and participated on a panel moderated by the US DoE's Zac Chase on closing the access gap.
• Check out my blog post  on Participate Learning (formerly Appolearning) that highlights their unique Participate Chats feature. I've worked with this group off and on over the last years. 
• The Waukegan Public Schools is hosting their annual Google N'More conference. I'll be there Saturday to talk about global project-based learning.
• I began working with Edmodo to help guide their thought leadership around connecting to teachers. Stay tuned for more artifacts from this work. 
• The annual Student Technology Conference run by Marymount of New York students takes place on January 30th. Proposals are still being accepted from students in grades 6-12. All are welcome to attend to learn from a great group of young technology leaders. 
• Project Tomorrow runs a career exploration program for high school students in California and I'll be designing flipped modules for these students to learn about technology integration this winter. 
• The Illinois Computing Educators conference takes place at the end of February and I'll be there as a conference committee member and as a presenter. Join us! It's really a fun and engaging professional development event. Note that there is a pre-conference free EdCamp After Dark event on Wednesday evening of the conference week among other special activities.
• In March, I'll be attending the SxSWedu conference in Austin, Texas to learn and network. This conference has proven invaluable during the last few years.
• The CUE National Conference takes place in mid-March and I'll be reprising my role as the official #notatcue ambassador. This means that I strategize with CUE and virtually monitor social media for this event. I've done this for their past two conferences, and it's really fun. I learn a lot and get to help out with an incredible conference. 
• Don Buckley, Brandon Wiley, and I will be conducting a workshop for NYSAIS at Rye Country Day School in New York on April 16. Entitled Developing Global Connections in Your School, this experience will help participants apply the design thinking process to coming up with a plan for globalizing their school. We are also doing a mini-version of this workshop at the CoSN annual conference earlier in April. 
• Finally, Steve Hargadon and I are gearing up for another round of  Globaled Events, pushing the global education agenda beyond our annual Global Education Conference. We are starting a publication on Medium and a webinar series in February. Soon we will announce Global Leadership Week which will take place at the end of April with a face-to-face event in Silicon Valley and a virtual mini-conference focused on inspiring action in the global education field. We also will be reprising our Global Education Day at ISTE meetup in June. All of these events are free for teachers; if you're interested in connecting to highly motivated, tech-savvy educators through our work, consider getting involved as a sponsor. Contact Steve Hargadon at [email protected] for more details.

The aforementioned list of activities shows the range of workin which I engage. I really enjoy this variety as well as getting to know people through these projects. During the last few years, I've had the opportunity to serve as an innovation coach in several schools including Mercy High School in Michigan, D230 in Illinois, Falconer School in Chicago, and the Dwight School in New York and I've conducted several customized technology audits at schools for Educational Collaborators (EC, by the way, is a great community of ed tech leaders who can be deployed for any project). I really love helping schools strategize around innovation and this work has been immensely professionally satisfying. It's exciting to see schools move forward and tackle pressing issues, and I can help with providing resources, connections, and ideas for infusing innovation into their culture.

During my last innovation gig, I partnered with Don Buckley, formerly of the School at Columbia and now with Tools at School, to tag team the innovation process. Don turned out toe be a great thought partner; he worked with faculty using the design thinking process and advised the school's leadership team while I focused on professional development and overall management of the year-long project. This school is now positioned to take on this work themselves, and it's exciting to see new growth within this school. 

A new experience for me in 2015 was working with the startup Remind conducting teacher outreach. I love this tool, learned a great deal how it can be used in classrooms with surprising creativity, and had time to think about what teachers really need. Partly because of my work with Remind, I've also started to network more and I've particularly enjoyed a Chicago Hive meeting and two dinners with the Chicago DOLS group. I'm looking forward to continuing those activities.  And, perhaps the most out of my comfort zone experience I had in 2015 was attending an IBM data analytics conference as a social influencer and representative of the education field. This event was so different for me and expanded my interest on how data is used and perceived in the education world. I'm hoping to explore this further during 2016 and become a more active and aware data citizen. 

At any rate, I'm grateful for 2015 and am looking forward to what 2016 brings to my professional life! As always, I hope to continue to learn from and by inspired others around me, applying this knowledge to new projects. Professional generosity makes the world go around, and I look forward to working with people who share this vision on initiatives that matter. What's on your plate for 2016? 

4th or 5th Grade Collaboration Opportunities - Mystery Location Calls and Virtual LitCircles

Fourth and Fifth Grade Teacher Friends - 

I've been coaching teachers at Falconer School in Chicago for the past two years as part of a pilot project through Kajeet and funded by Qualcomm's Wireless Reach initiative.  I conduct professional development with these teachers about once a month, and towards the end of the year, I typically help out with projects in classrooms. 

Four classrooms (three currently) for the past three years have been given Android tablets to use as personal learning devices. The teachers in these classrooms have embraced educational technology, trying out various tools and growing their professional learning networks. These devices are enabled with filtered 4G connectivity through Kajeet and the students are allowed to take these devices home. It has been a great project; it has been a privilege and honor to work with the students and teachers involved.

We're in the process of thinking about culminating activities for this school year, and are seeking other classrooms for a couple of projects. Here they are:

• We would like to start holding weekly mystery location calls with other classrooms and perhaps track our calls through a Google Map. The Falconer teachers are open to using Skype or Google Hangouts. We would prefer to do this with other fifth-grade classrooms, but we are flexible.

• The students are reading two books starting in mid-May that could lend themselves to virtual literature circles in Edmodo. We would set up groups for each class, you would have your students join these groups, and teachers would post discussion questions and other activities for each class to do and share. We've done this in the past with two of Grace Lin's books, and it's particularly worked well when each teacher takes responsibility for posting lessons for a week at a time.  Since these book groups are taking place at the end of the year, we could get creative with other supplemental activities. We are planning on starting Bud Not Buddy in mid-May. Maniac Magee would be the last book covered during the last two weeks in June (Chicago Public Schools gets out fairly late, probably due to snow days.) Fourth, fifth or sixth grades with fairly good access to technology devices would be ideal. The type of device used by another school is not an issue; we'll use tools that are not platform specific.  Ideally, we'd like to hold a planning meeting with interested teachers before any of these units are taught, too. 

For more info about what this fifth grade team has been up to, check out  teacher Tasia Pena's Weebly site, her class Kidblog, and her Twitter feed.  Another teacher Jackeline Rivera also posted this Weebly site as well. 

If you'd like to work with us, email me at elemenous at gmail dot com or send me a tweet at @elemenous! Looking forward to finding new friends for my fifth grade team! 

Presentation Materials for #ISACScon

I'm thrilled and honored to speaking at the annual ISACS conference today! Please feel free to download my materials so that you don't have to take copious notes. In my YouTube and global presenations, there are many hyperlinks to resources that are clickable, including some photos. I've included my slides in Apple's Keynote format as well as PDFs. I've also added my slides to Slideshare. If you are working on an iPad, the Keynote and PDF options will probably work best for you.

If you need to follow up with me, please contact me at lucy@lucygrayconsulting, @elemenous on Twitter, or @GlobalEdCon on Twitter.

Our backchannel for questions, resource sharing, and conversation can be found at:

https://todaysmeet.com/lucygrayisacs.

 

 

Exploring Instructional Uses of YouTube from Lucy Gray

Exploring iTunes, iTunes and iBooks from Lucy Gray

Going Global: Preparing Student to be Citizens of the World from Lucy Gray

Project-based Learning with a Global Focus from Lucy Gray

Chatting with Author Grace Lin This Morning

As part of a mobile learning pilot through Kajeet, I've been coaching teachers and students using tablets this year. The kids get to take them home and are supplied with 4G connectivity. Everyone has been a joy to work with... the teachers tackle new challenges on a regular basis, and the kids are enthusiastic about their work.

As a culminating project, we've invited noted children's author Grace Lin to a Hangout on Air conversation today. These fifth grade students read her book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and participated in book discussions in Edmodo with kids in another Illinois town and in Massachuets. We're all coming together virtually today to listen to Grace and to ask her questions about her work!

You can view from our event page or right here on my blog!

 

Many thanks to all the great teachers (and their students!) participating: Donna Roman, Jen Teahan, Tasia Pena, Jeanette Franchi, Jacqueline Rivera, Sheila Clark and Dylan Underwood