Beyond School

Ms. Cofino posted an announcement that the first middle school (11-14 year-old, for non-Yanks) 1001 Flat World Tales global wiki writing workshop opened. One interesting spin-off for me was that I simply snooped into the wiki they set up for it, and saw so many improvements to my own wiki design for our current high school wiki that I see some major thievery coming in a future overhaul. Wonderful job, Ms. Cofino. When I read and watch you, I’m “Always Learning” too.

Again, real professional development just through watching each other work. Doesn’t happen very often in the physical school-building, but one click with a web 2.0 collaborative colleague takes me into her virtual classroom, where I’m watching and learning in an instant. The wows continue.

To add to that wow: Here’s how the Flat World Tales kudzu has grown in the two months since its inception:

• High school first workshop cycle: Seoul, Denver, Honolulu (in week 4, third revision)
• High school second workshop: Australia, Serbia, Shanghai (getting underway this week)
• Middle school first workshop: Malaysia, Serbia, Canada (now open)
• Elementary school first workshop: USA (Missouri), Dominican Republic (now open)

That’s classrooms in ten countries making connections, writing together, aiming toward authentic publication on the “blook”–all for nary a penny nor a conference, thanks to the read-write web and some tapped-in teachers. Talk about the “machine us/ing us.”

Go to the 1001 Reflections collaborating teachers blog for our exploration of how a “flat world faculty” team blog might help us and future participants. It’s still messy, but it’s far better than the neat boxes of the past, I think.

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