Case Studies

The case studies at the end of the “The Global Educator” consist of different opportunities for professional learning and collaboration. These case studies consist of online virtual courses and conferences along with face-to-face events. The different global collaboration events mentioned in the case studies are diverse and exciting.

Case Study 4.1

Lucy Gray and Steve Hargadon: The Global Education Conference

This conference is located in the United States and is collaborative and inclusive. It involves students and educators at all levels. This conference is meant to increase the number of opportunities to connect classrooms while also supporting cultural awareness and diversity.

Case Study 4.2

The Learning2 Conference 

This conference is innovated, engaging, and envolves there to be a number of face-to-face conferences that focus on technology that supports learning globally. Learning2 conferences are held over four continents. With some hard work from a few leaders, Learning2 has taken off within the past few years.

Case Study 4.3

THINK Global School: Learning to Be Global While Living Globally.

 Think Global School is also known as TGS. TGS moves around the globe in order to be able to implement place-based learning fully to extend. This school is unique because it is constantly moving locations every semester. THINK Global School is 12 teachers and 60 students in grades 9-12. This school is very unique, moving to a new environment every semester helps to re-develop new curriculum objectives and learning outcomes based on where they are located. To me this sounds unreasonable to have a school constantly moving around the globe, there is no way to get comfortable with your environment. This group takes global learning and global collaboration to a whole new level. It is impressive to me that this school can pull this off. I could not see myself wanting to be a part of a group like this because I personally am not a fan of change.

Case Study 4.4

Peggy George and Wesley Fryer: The K12 Online Conference

This is a free online yearly event that is run by educators who volunteer their time in order to provide a good experience for everyone who participates in the event.

Case Study 4.5

Our Global Friendship

Our Global Friendships is a global tool I could see myself using in my own classroom one day. Our Global Friendship is a small virtual community of global collaborative educators. I like that this group is smaller because you are able to learn more to be more personal with one another rather than a larger group that you do not know everyone in. Having a smaller group can be just as valuable as having a large group if everyone in the group has the same goals. This group is a community of practice with the purpose of learning from one another and alongside one another. I like this group because it is very unique and futuristic. This group brings together a group of educators who are passionate about their vision and design and who involve global projects in their classrooms on a daily basis. Having a globally connected classroom is important to me and groups such as this one makes it much easier to do so.

Case Study 4.6

Judy O’Connell: Leadership for Global Learning- A reflection on Higher Education Experiences in Australia.

Undergrad and postgraduate students in education and information studies. This program focuses on open education, social media, digital innovation, learning frameworks, and a new direction for knowledge networks in digitally enriched environments.

Writing a Blog About a Digital Storytelling app…

This weeks blog post is about my experience creating a digital story and it makes a good story.

When I first read this weeks blog post prompt I was very confused. I had no clue what a digital story was. In a past class, I made a virtual book but I quickly realized that is not the same thing as a digital story. “It is your choice of which tools to examine, Here is the website that will explain a number of different tools and how they are used.” Now I am thinking I have to make a choice oh boy… “experiment with one of the storytelling apps by creating your own story and blog about the process.” Well, I might as well check out the website with the different tools and pick the first one that pops up. Sharalike was the first one that caught my eye. I liked the idea of using photos so I decided to use that one!

“You can tell us any kind of story that is about you.” This is one of the hardest prompts to write about. I instantly convinced myself I am the most uninteresting person in the world and there is absolutely nothing I could possibly tell people about myself to interest them.

I continued reading…

“Here is a helpful link that will give you 100 ideas.” Well, I guess I need to get 100 ideas on what to make my digital about. As I began reading through the list of ideas BOOM I got an idea.

My four months I spent studying abroad will make a great digital story. This link below is the final work of my experience with making a digital story using sharalike.

https://sharalike.com/s/rH7W

Sharalike Reflection

Overall Sharalike was easy to use. It directed you through uploading pictures and let you place them in a specific order. What I did not like is that it did not let you add words or descriptions. Shatalike is a good tool for simply showing pictures and telling and story through pictures but next time I would use an app that allows you to do more.

 

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/out-of-eden-walk/the-journey/chapters/3-autumn-wars/?sort_dir=asc&editors_pick=true

Check out this link to learn about “Out of Eden Walk”

Out of Eden Walk

The Out of Eden Walk is a story about Paul Salopek who is walking 21,000-miles for almost a decade as an experiment in journalism. He is walking to the beat of his own drum as he walks the pathways that the first people that migrated out of Africa in the Stone Age walk. Along Pauls journey, he is covering the major current stories about things such as climate and technological innovation. He is also writing journals about mass migration to cultural survival by giving voice to the people who inhabit them every day. Pauls journals, pictures, videos, and audio, together create a global record of human life. This journey gives voice to villagers, nomads, traders, farmers, soldiers, and artists who do not often make the news. Paul’s goal is to slow down, observe carefully, and carefully rediscover our world.

The image below shows in red the route traveled by foot and the black dotted line is the route traveled by water.

 

“Walking is falling forward. Each step we take is an arrested plunge, a collapse averted, a disaster braked. In this way, to walk becomes an act of faith.”

Paul Salopek | From To Walk the World

Honey, I’m Dead

During this part of the journey, he found that people in the past used honey to embalm some of the bodies when people passed away. During the bronze age there were many grave sites and these people were digging up the sites to find many different artifacts.

Blood on Snow

During this part of the journey, he was walking in negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit and someone denied to let him stay with him overnight. He continued walking through some of the coldest conditions. I could not imagine how cold and tired he could have been during this part of his journey and what thoughts were going through his head at this time.

My Views

This journey is absolutely amazing. Who would have thought to retrace the steps of some of the very first people to migrate here. Seeing the route that these people traveled and the different things that they went through during their travels is incredible. Learning that someone is out there taking the route that was once traveled by people migrating here is unbelievable. Some of the different stories that he has shared on this web site are incredible. This journey is extraordinary and having it documented is even more amazing.

What is Global Communication?

“Global communication is the term used to describe ways to connect, share, relate and mobilize across geographic, political, economic, social and cultural divides. It redefines soft and hard power as well as information power and diplomacy in ways not considered by traditional theories of international relations.”

Global Collaboration Norms

Norm #1

Be Prepared! Having a plan is a critical part of being successful in global collaboration. Determine how often, what time, and what tools you will use to collaborate.

Tools you (and everyone) can use… ( These tools must be easily accessible for everyone)

1. PLNs
2. PLCs
3. Video Chatting
4. Skype (check time zone differences first)
5. Google Doc/ Drive

Norm #2

Have a purpose! All global communication must have a purpose. All ways have a set goal in mind when connected globally. Make sure everyone knows and understand the purpose of collaborating.  If everyone does not understand the purpose of collaborating it could lead to confusion. Knowing the purpose of the collaboration will allow you to determine the necessary amount of planning needed by each person.

Possible Purposes…

1. Cultural Exchange
2. Inquiry of a Topic
3. Global Project
4. Student Summit
5. Artifact Exchange

Reflect, Reflect, Reflect

It is so important to reflect on things you learned throughout the semester so far! Some of the things I discussed in last week blog post was twitter, blogging, and flip grid… but there is more.

The Wonderful World of Google

Google Classroom, Google Forms, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google My Maps, Google Sites, Google Sheets, Google Drive, Google Mail, Google Groups, Google Groups… this list could go on forever. Google has many different applications that are useful in the classroom for teachers and students. So far this semester in GEN 2108 we used many of these different tools.

Google Classroom–  is a free web service developed by Google for schools that aim to simplify creating, distributing and grading assignments in a paperless way. Students can be invited to join a class through a private code, or automatically imported from a school domain. In GEN 2108 we have used Google Classroom to submit assignments, submit quizzes, and submit projects. Google Classroom is a very useful tool to allow the students, teachers, and parents to stay connected to the classroom outside of school hours. Teachers can post homework, test, quizzes, grades, and any other information students might need at home. Students can submit work and communicate with the teacher and the rest of the class through Google Classroom. Google Classroom is a tool I will use with my students one day. In GEN 2108 we used Google Classroom to submit some quizzes and assignments.

Check out this tutorial to learn how to use Google Classroom! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0_p0fhdsTo

Google Forms- is a tool within Google Drive for creating an online survey, test, and quiz forms. Learning how to use Google forms is going to be very helpful for me as an aspiring teacher. I learned how to create a test or quiz with 3 different styles of questions on Google Forms. Besides just creating a quiz I have also been on the student side of Google Forms and I have taken quizzes using it as well. This is helpful so I can see not only the teacher side of Google forms but the students side as well. Using Google forms teachers can create a test or quiz, post it on Google Classroom, and the students can complete the assignment and submit it right online. It will also grade any none written responses for the teacher.

Check out this tutorial to learn how to use Google Forms! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxlfPLPI0wM

Google Slides- is a presentation program included as part of a free, web-based software office suite offered by Google within its Google Drive service. The service also includes Google Docs and Google Sheets, a word processor and spreadsheet respectively. Google Slides is a great way to present a lesson to the class by either posting it on Google Classroom or sharing it with someone. Google Slides can also be a useful tool to assign a group project because all students can work on it from their own computer as long as it shared with them. Making a Google Slide is simple and sharing it with people is just as easy!

Check out this tutorial to learn how to use Google Slides!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYA6GLAzz9A

 

GEN2108

What I am learning…

Technology is constantly growing and changing every day. Change is not something I am typically good with. Therefore the growing and changing world of technology is and will always be always been a challenge for me. A class that has to do with technology is probably one of the most stressful things for me. Then on top of it, the class is online so you have no choice but to use technology to take the class.

Now that we are halfway through the semester I am learning so much about technology and becoming a teacher who uses technology in the classroom.

First off Twitter

What is it?  “Twitter is an American online news and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as “tweets”. Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but on November 7, 2017, this limit was doubled for all languages except Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.”

I used Twitter in the past but I deleted my twitter years ago because it was causing unnecessary issues. Twitter is not a tool I ever thought could be used in an educational way. Little did I know when I signed up for this class I would have learned so much from using twitter. My non-education major friends all unfollowed my twitter page due to my aggressive amount of education-related post in the past 2 months. I love using twitter now! Twitter is such a great way to connect with other educators and future educators and share ideas. It is also a great place to find good articles and learn about other teachers experiences and ideas in the classroom. Twitter chats are also a really useful part of Twitter sharing ideas, answering questions, and chatting with other teachers and future teachers is so inspiring.

Blogging is Actually Fun

What is it? “A blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries. Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page.”

Writing blogs every week is one of the best ways to express yourself and your ideas. Before GEN2108 I was not familiar with blogging or even what a blog is. Now I look forward to blogging every week and responding to other students blogs. Blogging is a great way to have students reflect on a topic in their own personal way. Having a classroom blog when I am a teacher is something I will definitely do. A classroom blog will allow me as the teacher to post work from the students and share our day to day activities.

Flip Grid

What is it? ” FlipGrid is a social learning platform that allows educators to ask a question, then the students respond in a video. Students are then able to respond to one another, creating a “web” of discussion.

I never used Flipgird or even heard of it before GEN2108. Flipgird at first was intimidating because I hate making videos of myself and listening to my own voice is the most intimidating thing ever. Now, I love Flipgrid. I think Flipgrid is so much fun. My favorite part of Flipgrid is that you respond to your classmates with another video rather than just typing something. It is a lot more meaningful to respond to someone verbally rather than over messages. Flipgrid is a tool I will definitely be using in my own classroom one day!

Here is a video on how to use FlipGrid in the classroom!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch1BkotiseM

 

Share your thoughts and experiences on Twitter, Blogging, and Flipgrid with me!

P.S. Downloading Grammarly was my professors best recommendation, it is the best tool for any student.

Extra: Episode 1

I watched the Spanish Television show “Extra”.

The show starts off with the one girl (Lola) getting a letter from her pen pal (Sam) from 7 years ago that is from America. The letter he writes to her says that he wants to come and visit her and stay with her because he got good speaking Spanish.  Lola and her roommate Ana are so excited to meet Sam.

They use stereotypes about Americans and what how muscular and handsome an American boy must be. My favorite line was “an American boy coming here… that’s the same as Brad Pitt”. The girls imagine this American boy to be tall, handsome, and rich due to stereotypes. The girl’s friend Pablo even has a fantasy about what an American girl looks like.

 

 

When Sam actually arrives he has no idea how to speak English and he looks rather nerdy and not handsome and muscular at all.

Pablo has a crush on Lola so he is not happy that Sam is visiting so when the girls go out to get lunch Pablo teaches Sam how to say a lot of awful things in Spanish such as “Ana’s dog is in the oven”

Later, Pablo finds a newspaper written about Sam and his family that says his family is the richest family in all of America.

My Experiences

I felt like I could relate to Sam in this episode of Extra because I went abroad and lived in Spain for 4 months without knowing much Spanish.

One of the aspects of culture that stood out to me was that for lunch the girls went out to get ham. When I was abroad my host mom made me a ham sandwich every single day. Ham in Spain is not like ham in the United States, it is more like what we would think of as pepperoni and after eating it every single day for 4 months its something I never want to eat again.

In between scenes they briefly show the streets of Spain and the farmers markets. The streets in Spain are just like this. People are walking around everywhere and there are minimal cars driving around in the small towns. Farmers markets are a huge part of the culture in Spain. The only form of transportation that was shown or talked about was walking and airplane. Walking everywhere is very common in Europe and different small cities around Spain. All though it did not specify what part of Spain they were in the weather was very nice.

Spain

Spain is one of my favorite places to visit, people are always so nice. Everyone is always very understanding and helpful to people who do not speak fluent Spanish. When I was there it was very common that I had to ask people for help and count not communicate 100%. In the show, the characters show this to be true about them. They did not get frustrated with Sam that he was struggling they helped and was able to understand him even if sometimes.

 

 

Twitter… the good, the bad, and the ugly

Check this link to learn what Twitter is before reading!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOgu5lDbe3E

1. What are your thoughts?

Before this class, I have not used Twitter in about 7 years and when I used. it uses it I used it in an unprofessional way and just for fun. Now that I am getting used to using Twitter to develop my PLN and not in a casual way I am gaining so much knowledge and meeting so many people in the same situations as I myself every day. Today I had an education major from a school reach out to me through my twitter to find out some tips and tricks I used to study for the praxis because she stumbles upon my post that I have recently passed all four sections of the test. I thought that this was so cool that I was able to send advice and help out a fellow education major somewhere else in the country. I love talking with my classmates through twitter and learning more about their experiences.

2. How have those social media space conversations affected the way you think about learning?

Many of the social media space conversations affected the way I think about learning. Many of the different things that other students and current educators had to say on Twitter opened my mind to think outside the box about learning and not so one way. I learned a ton about different types of teaching and different teachers and this altered my thinking about learning.

3. Have you learned anything significant?

First, and most importantly I learned what a PLN is and how to develop a PLN. This was the most important thing I learned. This link below will tell you more about what a PLN is!

https://www.schoology.com/blog/personal-learning-network-pln-benefits-tools-and-tactics

In my time using twitter I learned a lot from the different articles such as teenage years are the last great neuroplastic era in our lifetime and as a teacher, I need to take the time to understand the age group of students I have and where they are in their development.

I also learned about TAG feedback. This a type of feedback that allows students to grade each other by giving one positive and two ways to help them improve. This is a type of feedback I want to incorporate into my classroom one day.

I learned about lessons other teachers learned in their first year teaching.

I learned what not to do on social media so I do not potentially lose a job one day from using social media.

4. Reflect on your twitter chat/chats

My first twitter chat was very nerve racking but after I got the hold of the concept of a Twitter chat it was much more informational. I liked the twitter chat because I was able to collaborate with other students and teachers about topics in education. I participated in the #pbischat.

My overall experience with Twitter has been very positive. I enjoy collaborating with classmates and current educators.

Have you had any good, bad, or ugly experiences using Twitter? Comment them below!

Follow my twitter for daily updates @naoum97