Putting Global Education First: Creating a World at School

On Thursday I attended my second conference titled "Creating a World at School." This presentation was interesting to me because I teach a geography class that focuses heavily on globalization and inequality. In this course I have such a hard time imparting on my students the issues associated with access to education world wide and answering their questions about why school in developing countries aren't just better! It is such a complex, intangable idea, and I really appreciated hearing about the global education crisis from an expert. This talk was hosted by Justin van Fleet, Ph.D. who currently serves as the Chief of Staff for the UN Special Envoy for Education. He was SO knowledgable and personable, even given the format of the presentation- webbased.

He started the conference by asking "raise your hand if you've ever had to worry about going to school." I couple people "raised their hands" using the chat room tool, but for the most part, people just communicated via the chat box about what a thought proviking question that was. Some people even said things like..."Only when we get huge snow storms!" It was a great way to get us all on the same page. @JustinVanFleet then began his presentation, outlining the role of the UN Special Envoy for Education and the crisis at hand.

It was fascinating to learn how the UN sets goals for education, and in 1990 they promised the world that by 2000 there would be universal access to learning. Well, as you can guess, it didn't turn out that way, and the UN had to set a new goal in 2000 to achieve universl access by 2015. "In 2000 there were 113 million out of school children, and today there are 57 million out of school children. So while we've made tremendous progress, we still have a long way to go...in 2 years!" Justin doesn't see this goal as out of reach, however, and he is calling on the world to make education a priority. He firmly believes that if it were, we could have 100% of kids accessign education by the end of next year.

Justin cites issues like child labor, child brides, conflict like the current civil war in Syria, and decreased funding as huge barriers standing in the way, but he remains optimistic that we can deliver on our promise if enough people are committed.

Justin ended his talk with the following quote: "A right won cannot be easily un-won." By that he means that if enough kids and countries are given even a tase of a quality education they will refuse to let it go. As for now, the best things we can do as global parters are the following: identify solutions for bottlenecks, ban child labor and marriage, ensure an effective delivery model for education, and build broad-band access to and engagement in learning.

You can see my full notes here.

Again, I really loved this format for accessing education for myself! I couldn't stop thinking to myself "how cool is it that I am attending a conference with the Chief of Staff for Education to the UN?!" I certainly would never have had that opportunity if it weren't for 21st Century technologies like the webconferenceing feature of Blackboard. I feel like this conference really taught me to appreciate just how valuable, and truely transformative, web-based technologies can be for all atudents, including me!

Global Education Conference - Travel as and Alternative Form of Education

On Thursday I attended a second global education conference called, Travel as an Alternative Form of Education - Life Learning on the Road. It was presented by Lainie Liberti and her 14 year old son, Miro. They left America 5 years ago. Lainie's intent was to travel for one year and return, but one year has turned into five and is now their adopted lifestyle. They have been in Central and South America traveling and learning on the road for about five years. The presentation was given from Peru, where they are stationed now. I was particularly interested in this conference because I have a passion for travel as well. I am a firm believer that one can learn more by traveling than any other form of education. Many of the things that I have come to understand about the world as a whole have come from my many travels.

Community was a huge focus of their presentation. Though Lainie has no formal teaching experience and is not qualified as a formal educator, she had a lot of amazing things to share. She recognized and explained the difference between learning and teaching. She also viewed herself as a facilitator in a learning community. 21st century skills (as referred to in the Common Core) seem to lead to the teacher as a facilitator more than an instructor. Lainie was a firm believer that learning happens through personal goals and development. In fact, I took a screen shot of this part of their presentation because I thought it best summarized their work and beliefs.

Lainie and Miro learn through their travel experiences and have an incredible perspective of the world and its people.

The online platform for learning has been incredible for me. It was amazing to be able to connect with educators from around the globe. This is something very powerful that has the capability of transforming the whole education experience.

Global Education Conference - 21st Century Pedagogies

"The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." - Alvin Toffler

On Tuesday night, I attended my first global education conference. The presenter was Jennifer Klein and the title of her presentation was 21st Century Pedagogies - Envisioning the Schoolhouse. She really believes in a solid "hook" to capture her audience from the beginning. She began the presentation with this video Playing for Change. It's an incredible video and I would recommend watching it. She did comment on the fact how in schools, we often end up creating tasks and jobs instead of looking at the bigger picture and the important pieces for learning. I loved the visual of this in her presentation.

This visual is a clear representation that the more important things to learn are the things that are more difficult to assess. As an educator, it is difficult to get caught up in assessments and meeting standards. I think what often gets lost when educators are pressed for time is the flexibility to focus on a lot of the things that lie in the circle on this diagram. Too often school days are driven by content knowledge.

She focused a lot on the importance of creating global citizens of the world. To emphasize her point she show this you tube video...another one worth viewing.

I really liked her vocabulary "glocal". I had never heard this before. To me, glocal means that even in the small communities of Vermont, if we can teach our kids to be part of the greater community, that is a huge step in the right direction. As great as it would be have them interact with people from around the globe, I think it begins with teaching them the importance of connecting with the community around them.

Global citizenship is so important in this day and age. Education shouldn't be technology driven, but rather technology enabled. Wouldn't it be better to have a student-driven, authentic curriculum that focused on the bigger picture of learning? On the things that are harder to assess?

The session ended with an incredible poem, read forwards and backwards.

Global Education Conference: Developing Empathy...

b>Walking a Mile in Another's Moccasin's By Doug Johnson On Wednesday afternoon I joined this session because it seemed like a really interesting topic, and especially relevant to the courses I teach here at CHS. I spend so much time trying to help my students build empathy, whether I am doing it explicitly, or just one of my underlying objectives, I think on some level I am always thinking about how my students can gain perspective on the world. The session followed this format: first the presenter, Doug, asked us all to introduce ourselves. Then, he took us through a series of background slides that explained his background with the topic of empathy. From there, his presentation took on two forms. First, he debunked Seven Myths About Empathy, followed by a discussion as to how we can build empathy through classroom activities. I really appreciated how Doug tied all of his points into the NETS standards, as well as the AASK standards for 21st Century Learners. He also did a great job weaving quotes from literature into his presentation, and engaging us, the audience. You can view my notes HERE! My first thought when I joined the conference (early at about 2:45 so I could make sure my technology was functioning property) was "Wow! Its so cool how everyone in this room is from ALL over the world!" The first few participants were from the Middle East, then some more Americans joined, then a group of students from (what I assume is an American school) in Japan. The presenter was from Minnesota, in fact he was teaching from his department office, but was reaching teachers from all corners of the planet- how neat! Immediately Doug asked us to start tweeting using the hashtag #globaled13. I did tweet out once, but I found it really difficult to switch between web pages, and ultimately devices (I started taking notes on my iPad) so I only tweeted once. He also asked us to communicate via the chat box. I LOVED this feature of the online class! It was so great that as the presenter was talking we, the "students" were actually able to participate as he was talking (saving time!) and provide each other with additional resources. For example, at one point Doug asked us what we think are some myths about empathy. Instead of having to raise our hands, like you would in a real classroom, we were all able to throw a few out at the same time. Later, when he asked us for ideas about how to build empathy with our students, we were al able to share resources, links to lessons we've done, respond to each other directly, and continue a conversation while he continued the presentation. Check out the image below to see what I mean: This aspect of the conference resulted in huge learning for me. Before this I would have said that the classroom experience is far richer when it is in person. This session made me reconsider that...I can clearly see how the online platform has its benefits!

Colchester High School Flash Mob

Laura's Three Week Presentation

Sent from my iPhone