The Flat Classroom

The Flat Classroom....

Wow, is all I can begin to say.  This is just an incredible project that students can learn so much from.  I really like how engaged students would be in a project like this.  We know that students learn best when the learning is authentic and with the flat classroom that is abundant.  In addition, the learning that will take place cannot even be measured.  Not only will students be communicating with students around the world, but they are talking to them about current events and hearing the views of others around the world.  How will this transfer to a new world understanding of each other.  This is a tremendous opportunity.  It is the "modern pen pal",  and it is immediate.

So what is the flat classroom?

Co-founded in 2006 by educators Vicki Davis (U.S.) and Julie Lindsay (Australia), the Flat Classroom® Project is a global collaborative project designed for students, typically in Grade 3 - 12, using Web 2.0 tools to support communication and collaboration between students and teachers from classrooms around the world.  It is based off of the book by Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat".

I watched some of a series of video's called "The Seven Steps to a Flat Classroom".  In one of the first video's it said that in order to work on a project like this and connect your students to students around the world that it wasn't even necessary to have a laptop per student.  As a matter of fact, Vicki Davis states that she is a co-founder of this project and in rural Georgia she depends on her technology lab.  I like that this type of communication can be so accessible no matter where you are.