Investigation - Flat Classroom Project

The Flat Classroom Project was created in 2006 through the combined efforts of Vicki Davis, who teaches at Westwood Schools in the USA, and Julie Lindsay, who now teaches at Beijing International School in China. I know Mrs. Lindsay because she used to teach here at my school Qatar Academy and she taught me IT for two terms. Today, schools from USA, China, India, Germany, Spain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar all participate in this global project. The project is based upon the book "The World is Flat", written by Thomas L. Friedman and first published in 2005. Chapter 13 in the latest edition of this book refers to Flat Classroom Project 2006.

The concept of a 'flat classroom' is that the world today is one where the walls of a classroom are flattened and students from different classrooms in different countries all over the world can interact with each other and learn in one big global classroom. The project involves these students being assigned different topics that they research and make a video about. Both the research and video they make will be displayed on the flatclassroom wikispace. They also use outsourcing; meaning they ask someone from another class to make part of their video, telling them exactly how they want it to be, before fitting it all together. In turn, they also help with part of another's project by filming part of their video for them. Outsourcing is one of the many activities which go beyond the classroom walls and are called 'world-flatteners'. There are 10 world-flatteners in total, and these will be described more in-depth in a powerpoint I will upload in my next post.

This term, my fellow students in my class and I will participate in the first Flat Classroom Project of 2010. The exact dates for the project have not been set yet, but it is to be completed within one or two weeks of the end of this term, sometime in March. All my progress I will record on this blog, making it part of a process journal. So, welcome to my blog :)

Sources:
http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/About