Frogs in the Pond – helping one another eat frogs!

Our first videoconference with China

The intriguing topic of “Eat that Frog” for #globalclassroom chats this month created a lot of interest, discussion and banter. One of the questions was:-

What can frog-eating teachers with global classrooms do to help their peers eat their respective frogs?

This post will explain one way in which we are trying to be frogs in the pond! Our school teaches mandarin Chinese as a second language. Over the last 6 years we have established a sister school relationship with no. 27 School in Beijing. We would like to maintain online connection with them, especially via videoconferencing to allow valuable learning across our school. However the frogs or things that get in the way of  this are:-

1. Finding a contact person, with a similar passion or desire.
2. Risk taking: finding someone who is willing to take a risk
3. Language barrier (in my experience, the Chinese people like to do things well and if they feel their English is not perfect, they will be very shy of trying to communicate using audio and video with English speaking countries, despite me not being able to speak Chinese at all!!!)
4. Losing face  if things do not go well communication or connection wise
5. finding synchronous and asynchronous tools that are able to be used by both countries. China blocks so many of our favourite tools for much of the time – google apps, blogs etc
6. Meaningful relationships and trust – establishing time to enable trust first between the teachers involved
7. Technological issues: Technology access and bandwidth
8. How to ensure understanding
9. Cultural sensitivity: Appropriate introductions, netiquette etc

Eating the respective frogs!

1. Frog no. 1 and 2 – Finding a contact person. This year our school is fortunate to have Wang-Yi a young Chinese support teacher spend 12 months in our school. She accompanied the school group on its bi-ennial trip to China. (Students in years 8-11 are offered this opportunity every two years.) The 10 students who went to China in September this year spent a few days in the sister school and had a home stay with Chinese families. Whilst there, Wang-Yi was able to find a senior teacher, Mary, willing to videoconference with us and maintain when back at our school.
2. Frog no. 3 Language barrier – Mary’s English is good and she is extremely fluent (although does not feel confident).
3. Frog no. 4 Losing face – It was important for one or two teachers from our school make an initial connection to introduce ourselves as soon as possible as Wang is about to return to Shanghai.  I emailed Mary explaining how we had communicated with and undertaken global projects with many countries including Asia where the teacher and classes spoke English as a second or third language. This reassured Mary that we were able to interact and collaborate despite possible language barriers.
4. Frog no. 5 – Tools to connect and communicate - We are really comfortable with skype for videoconferencing and messaging,  the Chinese people tend to use QQ and this is the tool that Mary is familiar with. Therefore, we will learn how to use QQ and they will have a go at skype. Our first connection  today was with QQ. On Thursday we will use skype while Wang-Yi is still in our school.
5. Frog no 6 – At lunchtime, we videoconferenced with Mary via Wang-Yi who stayed in the shadows but helped out with language when required.
6. Frog no. 7 Meaningful relationships and trust - it will be important to maintain ongoing contact via emails, text msgs on skype and qq (when I learn how to use that etc), so that a friendship forms and mutual trust is engendered.
7. Frog no 10 Technological issues – test the connections, use the tools between teachers first, then introduce the students/classes. A videoconference uses simple technology – a laptop with webcamera, will suffice, preferably connected to a data projector. Have back up plans.
8. Frog no. 9 Ensure understanding – when no interpretor is present – use the chat, google translate, use objects, use simple gestures.

Relationships like this have the potential to impact greatly on our curriculum both for Chinese but also for geography, history, technology etc. It is far easier to connect with countries that speak English but by eating the frogs it is hoped that we can work together and push learning into  new arenas or ‘ponds’!

When is a Mouse not a Moose?

The question was posed”What is your favourite food?” to a combined class of students from La Lima Cortes, Honduras and Hawkesdale, Australia. These students were in a virtual classroom using Blackboard Collaborate. Most of my students added expected responses in the chat or on the whiteboard: “pizza, pasta, roast etc” and then I saw the word ‘mouse’. Spinning around to my class, I  wondered who the smart alec was! Almost in that same breath, Jose Popoff, the teacher from Honduras questioned Australian’s eating ‘mouse’ as a food. I spun around to my students, who could sense my wrath and mounting anger!

A quiet voice in my physical room replied saying “it is chocolate mousse”! To correct his spelling, the student then put ‘moose’ into the chat. That made us all laugh!

But…. how important is spelling and the presence of typos that might occur in the chat when students from two different countries get together in a virtual room or backchannel?

And so brought to an end a connection of 45 mins with Jose and his students. It was a mystery session where my students had to work out what country Jose was from. Jose shared some photos of where they lived and students asked questions of each other. They were all 15 or 16 years of age – all curious about each other and wanting to know more of each other. It was Thursday 2pm in Australia and 10pm Wednesday night in Honduras.

Here are some student reflections on the linkup:-

1. Indi Linkup with Honduras
2. Rachel’s Linkup with Honduras

Yesterday, we tried a linkup using spreecast – a new software tool to me. Several students from our school came in during morning recess to talk to Jose’s students but bad weather in Honduras meant that we dropped out after 15 minutes.

Technology and the Future of Education

The PGL Panel

As part of the keynote sessions at the Partnerships for Global Learning conference, a panel of guest speakers was invited to share their opinions on “Technology and the Future of Education” from a global perspective. The panel consisted of Steve Hargadon, Lucy Gray, Julie Lindsay, Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano and me (Anne Mirtschin). Steve ably led the discussions and spent much time preparing the forum questions. Approximately 600 conference participants listened to the panel.

Panel discussion audienc

Here are some of the questions directed at the panel members:-

• Please give a favorite example of a use of technology in global education/collaboration
• Have our definitions of global education changed because of the internet and web/collaborative technologies, and how do we begin to identify (store) best practices we’re seeing with technology and global education?  That is, what do successful global projects [using technology] look like?
• How do we measure the outcomes of global education, and how is the technology involved?
• In an increasingly test-driven education environment, how do you find leadership support for global activities?
• Students and teachers increasingly lead parallel lives:  they are learning from and with new technologies, they are being measured in inadequate ways…  Lets’ talk about technology from the educator side
• Are there ways of overcoming technology gaps between participating schools? How do you connect with a school that has low, limited, or no access to technology or connectivity?
• Is global education our end goal?  What is your prediction for where we are headed?

Thanks Steve, Julie, Lucy and Silvia and a big thank you to the organisers of this great conference for inviting me to participate. It was such an exciting and proud moment. The conversations continue on our mighty bell space. Please join us.

Julie, Sylvia and me

Steve and Lucy ensure discussion questions go smoothly

The changing face of teaching!

This year I teach ICT or computer studies to years 4 and 5 students for one lesson per week.

Vesna's sprite

Lorraine Leo, a long term colleague,  also teaches this age group at Jackson School in USA. Hoping that we could work together on some global project, Lorraine suggested we get involved in the World Friends Scratch project.

Knowing that the grade 4/5 boys (who tend to be disengaged in the normal classroom) would like working with Scratch, I agreed.  However, I have never put time aside to sit down and learn how to use it, despite being highly interested in its use.

Soon after, grade 4/5 went to the library to watch a skype videoconference linkup with Lorraine and her student Lana from USA. It was Wed night at 7:30pm Lana’s time and Thursday 11:30am our time. Students watched intensely as Lana used the screen share facility of skype and stepped us through the creation of a sprite, how to make it move and how to add speech bubbles that would appear when it bumps another sprite.

At the end of this presentation, students were able to ask Lana questions and 50 minutes disappeared very quickly. Just as the bell went, Lana took her laptop to the window to show us the snow that had fallen outside. Despite the darkness we could see it quite clearly.

Blake's sprite

Students then proceeded to create their sprites during following ICT lessons. Lorraine created two screencasts which quite clearly demonstrated the steps required and emailed them to me. The links to these were shared on my class blog. Students were able to work at their own pace and as some students completed the tasks, they mentored the others. I became a facilitator and simply watched the learning begin and blossom.

The first group of students have now completed their sprites, tested them and some were uploaded to the public gallery on Thursday, ready to be transferred to the World Friends site global project site.

What we learnt

• Digital citizenship – the necessity to make our sprites resemble our own persona. One student had made an animal sprite, another gave their body a different colour. They were changed to bear a greater likeness to themselves for global sharing.
• How to use screen casts effectively. How to use video tutorials that Lorraine Leo created to help them learn.
• Students can become effective instructors and mentors, even when they are virtual.  They talk to each other in their own language.
• The necessity to follow each of these steps or the sprite would not talk when bumped.
• Expertise no longer matters if a teacher has a strong learning network

Why it worked so well

• The engagement of student learning with technology –
• having an American student teach them virtually
• working with a tool that is not obviously literacy or numeracy based
• having experts teach the students – both Lana via skype and Lorraine via the screencasts
• students mentoring other students within the classroom.
• A real project with an authentic audience

How does this fit the pedagogy of learning? (adpated from the ISTE NETS standards for students)

Students will

• use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively on a global scale,  to support individual learning
• contribute to the learning of others
• connect, interact, collaborate and publish with global peers, experts and general community members, including family.
• use a variety of media and digital environments to connect, communicate and create.
• share learning spaces
• communicate information and ideas effectively to a variety of digital audiences using a variety of media and formats
• develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners from other cultures.
• Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility.

Screen shot of the World Friends website

Do you have any questions? Please email them to innovatorofthemonth@gmail.com or add a comment below. Have you used scratch? If so, how? Has there been an element of global collaboration?

Oh me, of little faith!

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This week, I was fully reminded of the fact that I should never, ever doubt the ability of students and what they can achieve when highly motivated and engaged. Thinking it would be great to blend two classes – one in Boston, USA and mine in Hawkesdale Australia in a virtual classroom, it was suggested to Lorraine Leo, my great colleague in USA. Lorraine suggested Friday 16th our time, or Thurs night 15h March, their time. Yikes! That was only two days away and we had nothing organised.

The challenges

• That was only two days notice.
• the interesting mixed collection of students in my year 9/10 ICT elective class
• the student mixed ability levels
• lack of time to practise, rehearse etc.
• our continuing problems with sound on the student netbooks (they had just been reghosted and handed back to students)

As there was one single, precious lesson prior to the online session, we tested sound/audio/access/application sharing/use of web camera etc to Blackboard Collaborate, the webconferencing software tool to be used and also brainstormed some ideas on a wallwisher. However, the time was not long enough. Students were then told to bring their photos and scripts with them on Friday ready to share with their global counterparts.

Feeling quite nervous on Friday about whether:-

• anyone had brought photos and more importantly how many had not done anything
• they had anything to talk about and would they stutter, stumble and take frights (as many of these students are extremely shy)
• they would behave online
•  the webcam would be used to good effect
•  the application sharing of pivot and some stored photos on student computers work etc…
• sound/audio would all work

I was surprised to find all of them were all organised. They had taken time consuming, fascinating photos at home and on their farm, had brought products into share and wanted to come in at recess to get organised. Some of these are students who rarely complete homework! Here is what it all looked like.

• an opening comment by Lorraine : Thank you for inviting us to Australia to visit your students.
• Problems as always with sound – most students had to come to my laptop to speak and demonstrate
• in my nervousness, I forgot to go through the tool bars and elements of Blackboard Collaborate at the beginning, but most seemed to work it out as we went a long.
• A classroom of 21 participants, including Mrs Leo, the teacher from USA, 5 of her students, logging on from home (as it was 7:30pm at night for them), two adults from Japan – one  a university professor creator of a global project – World Friends with Scratch, the other a parent, a student teacher from Saskatchewan Canada; a parent of one of my students and Mrs Leo’s mother, an amazing 86 year old lady in blackboard collaborate for the first time. Such a blended classroom, made possible with technology.
• my students presenting on topics such as:- Hawkesdale, my farm, my pets,our school, my interests, pivot and demonstrating sample student work, including quilting.
• Once the initial nervousness dispersed, the obvious pride that my students took in sharing their passions, how well spoken they actually were and that they were all organised!
• the support that students gave each other
• the fast paced nature of the chat, where participants asked questions, gave feedback and generally shared across the globe.
• interacting on the collaborative whiteboard to share names, farewells, favourite technology.

Despite being  pushed outside their comfort zones, students really enjoy interactions such as this. They find it fun and engaging and are curious about each other. Each person has a voice and is able to interact in the chat. A big thank you to our global participants for coming to learn about us and to Mrs Leo for her work in making it possible.

I love this comment from a thankyou email from Lorraine:-

 Thank you again!  I really appreciated your time and all of the behind the scenes work in putting the meetup together. I know that for many of my students and for Noriko and my mom, being in a Blackboard Collaborate room was a completely new experience.  Can you only imagine what it must be like for my mom — at 86!– listening to students all the way over in Australia!  She really enjoyed the experience and I’m sure will want to be included the next time there is a meetup.

Read the student reflections

1. Georgia
2. Rachael
3. Sean
4. Tamiko
5. Kim
6. Jess
7. Ivy
8. Aza
9. Nathan

Here is the link to the recording

Advice for New Globaled Teachers

One of my Flat Classroom Project colleagues, Honor Moorman asked “What advice could be given to new globaled teachers?” See the trigger blog post Sage Advice for New Teachers

Global education is my passion and technology enables us to connect and communicate with others across the globe – sharing conversations, learning together and from each other,  solving problems together etc either in synchronous or non-synchronous time.

Following are some  tips for new globaled teachers:-

1. Seek out existing projects where experienced teachers will guide those who are new. Short simple projects are great for beginners. See Classroom2.0, Flat Classroom Projects,Global Education Collaborative, Global Classroom, Jen Wagner’s projects etc.
2. Find another teacher(s) with a similar passion. Successful outcomes occur when passionate, committed, determined, and hard-working educators connect cross countries See  Back to the Classroom (of 2.0)
3. Get to know each other and develop confidence with each other. Use emails, chat, audio and then videoconference. Be honest and open at all times.
4. Always test any connections -internet connections, bandwidth, potentially blocked sites, audio, video etc
5.  Find tools that are user-friendly to both of you eg blogging, videoconferencing, google applications, titanpad, forums, moodle, ning, wikis, voicethreads, web conferencing, edmodo etc Consider the nature of the connection and the proposed outcomes.
6. Don’t be nervous about connecting with those who do not speak English (or your native tonuge) as a first language. Sometimes the richest learning takes place in these connections.  My school is culturally and geographically isolated. We connect regularly with different classes in Indonesia where English is spoken as a third or fourth language. These can be challenging connections, taking students way outside their comfort zones, but we survive, connect, communicate by ‘hook or by crook’ and make ourselves understood with simplified English, body language, use of objects and/or miming.
7. Be completely open and honest with each other (Skype was used for videoconferencing from home to get to know another teacher from Singapore. Fortunately, she warned me that she was a Muslim. When we connected our classes, she had her head gear on and I would not have recognized her.) As issues arise from cultural, religious, ideological values between either you or your students, discuss them openly and work through them with all parties involved. One of my students offended students in Canada with some language that was becoming common place in Australia. Discussing the problems with students and editing the blog post meant that we kept working together – a much better outcome than refusing to speak to each other or continue to work together. A second problem arose, when one of my girls uploaded her avatar onto the Flat Classroom Project ning. The avatar was a photo of her in modest summer gear ie Tshirt and shorts. A teacher from Oman in the Middle East queried the appropriateness of this image as females in the Middle East have arms and legs covered. After discussion with the girl, a different photo was added.
8. Go beyond ‘meet and greet’. Greater learning outcomes will evolve if the communication and connection continues on a regular nature.
9. Make the most of all ‘teachable’ moments with your classes, wither before, during or after linkups and connections. Classroom Story: In the middle of a direct web conferencing linkup with a class from Malaysia, one of my girls ‘piped up’ and said “By the way, where is this Malaysia? At the end of the lesson students searched for Malaysia. (I had assumed that my students would all know where Malaysia was.)
10. Test, test and test again all tools and connections to be used. Technology is never, ever 100% reliable. Have a backup plan and a possible alternative tool. Classroom Story: Three years ago, our whole school was setup to linkup with a research scientist in Antarctica. Two other backup days were organised should the internet fail to work in Antarctica. DiscoverE was the virtual classroom software to be used. This was tested twice prior to the day with the creator of DiscoverE and our school. On the morning of the actual event, testing commenced two hours before hand with global teacher participants, software developers and our school. Google video chat is an alternative to skype when skype falters.
11. Be prepared to give and take, keep a sense of humour going.
12. Familiarize yourself with timezones, days of the week in different hemispheres, festivals, school terms, school holidays and any other possible interruptions. Be flexible.
13. Update parents and school leadership constantly. Keep them in the loop and encourage their participation.
14. Attend the online sessions for the annual global education conference, or  listen to the 2011 recordings of sessions, attend classroom2.0 LIVE or Australia Series webinars.
15. Build a global twitter network, follow the hashtags #globaled #globalclassroom
16. Share your experiences with the world – on a blog, a wiki, twitter, google+ etc

Global education and making connections in either synchronous or asynchronous time, can be fun, engaging and exciting but most of all enables powerful learning. Do not hesitate, jump in and learn with the world!

The Global Education Conference 2011

Dont miss this fantastic opportunity to connect and learn from global educators. As our world becomes flatter and more globalised, as we increasingly buy and sell globally, network globally, work online etc, it is vital that we look at bringing global connections and competencies into our classroom.

A Global Education Collaborative ning for networking has been set up and a Global Education wiki with some great links and resources. So make sure you check out these great sites for further information.

Sessions will run 24/7 to suit all timezones for 5 days. Will you be attending?

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Creating videos for Japanese students

Year 11 IT students have been creating videos about school and family life in Australia (well, at least where we live). These videos are now embedded on a shared, collaborative and interactive moodle with first year students from? Hokusei University Japan. These students are studying Interpretation as part of their English studies.

Initially students were shy about adding their voices to the movie, so they simply placed music – most chosen from danosongs. However, they were then asked to add their voice as the university students were to interpret the narration. This pushed my students outside their comfort zones! But, 50% of them added their voice.
Here are some of the results!
Renee – School Life

Chloe – School Life

Tessa – Family Life

Lauren – Family Life

Thorney

Liam – Family Life

There has been so much learning involved here – but that will be another post!

So proud and honoured to be a part of SMJK Poi Lam, Ipoh!

What a proud, uplifting and memorable morning I spent (together with my husband) at SMJK Poi Lam school in Ipoh, Malaysia on Monday, October 3rd.   A full cultural welcome was given to us at a  special assembly held at 7:30am as part of a presentation for certificates for the DEECD Innovations Showcase 2011, where my two Chinese friends had videoconferenced in two special cultural performances as part of my presentation there. See Malaysian Students in Real Time Performance for Innovations Showcase As we arrived at the school we were ushered into the Principal’s office. The principal, Mr Lau Swee Mun,  is one of excellence ranking in Malaysia. There we had a very informative chat discussing many educational issues some relating to technology. Next we were ushered to the assembly area to the beat of the kompang (Malay drums),  through a  student  guard of honour, including the Chinese dragons, joker and flag bearers. The students were  dressed in National Costume representing the three cultures of Malaysia – the Chinese, the Malay and the Indian. To our delight one student was dressed as an Australian! This was a very emotional moment for me, especially as I am sure that events like this are normally set aside for people or events of high importance. Once seated on the stage and facing the student assembly, the national anthem of Malaysia and the Perak anthem were sung. The treats continued with a traditional   Chinese dragon dance welcome, complete with a joker.

the Chinese dragon with Joker

This was followed by:-

• a Wushu demonstration  by 4 expert  students
• a very creative, innovative choral speaking performance “Jom! Let’s Visit Perak!”
• Choral reading and Acapella “One moment in time with the Lion King”

Choral speaking "Jom! Let's Visit Perak1"

Choral Reading

We were amazed by the confidence and professionalism of the two  MC/s who happened to also be the two students who created book trailers as part of our Globalstorytelling project for the Melbourne Writers Festival. But mostly, I loved seeing the creativity of my friend Veronica Woo and also of Yew Yan Koon and their fantastic work using  performing arts with the students.

The assembly was entitled ” Little Big Classrooms 2011 Innovations Showcase” and it was held to honour the students who took part in the Videoconference linkup as part of  the Victorian Education Innovations and Next Practise Showcase in May 2011. These students would be  issued with their certificates which had been signed by our Victorian Minister for Education.

After a speech by Veronica, myself and the Principal, I was able to give each student their signed certificate. (Veronica had withheld the issuance of the certificates until I came to Malaysia). Veronica had told me that:-

These students will  in Malaysia, students will be awarded maximum bonus points of 20 marks for their involvement in any form of extra curricular activities at the international level.

In return, Innovation and Next Practise and a number of staff, including me received a certificate signed by the Perak Director of Education. This wonderful assembly concluded with the crossing of the two country’s flags – Malaysian and Australian.

A traditional meal of Malaysian Nasi Lemak – Malaysia’s national dish was offered to invited  guests, parents and a number of staff. It was great to be able to continue conversations with the Principal, to meet face to face members of the Malaysian Writers Festival committee, the reporter from the local newspaper, parents and a principal from another school.  Special times were also spent with some of the performing students, getting to know them and learning of their ambitions. Shyness was overcome and we were able to work through our different accents and way of speaking.

Many cultures represented

What a wonderful, honourable, exciting, emotional treat and event to be actually part of. Thank you to my two special friends and colleagues – Veronica and Yew Yan Koon. Thank you for connecting, communicating and collaborating with us, taking on risks,  sharing, pioneering and innovating what technology to experience what it can do for learning on a global level.

As Veronica said:

“The classroom is my world and the world is my classroom!”

Thank you for being part of our little big classroom!

Terima Kasih

Xie Xie

I need to find the Indian word for thank you

Veronica, Evon and me

Lights, camera, action!

An excited but rather nervous audience gathered together sharing conversations whilst waiting for the TV camera team to enter the classroom and commence filming. A newspaper reporter waited in the wings to catch the news in print. One team member made sure his hair was done neatly. Others completed tasks on their computer while they waited. I was introduced to the key teachers and students involved whilst we waited for the camera crew to arrive.

This was no normal audience as it was not local but global in nature. Katherine from Austria had put a skype text into the group chat looking for people to be online with her for her first class of the day. A TV camera team was coming in to film her class using skype to  videoconference with other countries. In the wings waiting, were educators from England, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Lithuania, Peru and me from Australia online ready to be part of the action.

The newspaper reporter with Veronica in Malaysia

Veronica and Evon of Malaysia had a news reporter from Ipoh with them.  While we waited they interveiwed me and shared their plans for promoting their local region, called Perak in 2012. Using the webcam, they shared brochures and promotional material using the webcam and talked of the exciting places to visit in Perak.

The Austrian students

Soon it was time for me to come online with the students in Austria. Skype started to falter, so the Austrian classroom switched off their video. This meant that I could not see or feel what was going on the other end of the world but the connection was then stable enough to allow my webcam to project my image.

We chatted about:-

• the weather and seasons
• school
• holidays
• food and meals
• Australian culture and icons – I showed vegemite, the Australian flag and some of the beautiful Australian native flowers that are currently flowering in our spring season. They talked about eidelweiss.

Sharing Australian spring flowers

How amazing is this!  A global group all waiting in the wings to share the exciting learning and sharing that technology can bring to the classroom. My local media rarely feature the fantastic work that can be done with technology and yet we can be featured on TV on the other side of the world and be part of a newspaper report in Malaysia, both events occurring within 30 mins of each other.

What experiences have you had with media? What can you share about videoconferencing with skype?

The real life participants in this drama:-

• the teacher combing his hair was from the UK, waiting with his class.