Glimpse a 21st century classroom

Anne Mirtschin, Hawkesdale P12 College, Victoria, AustraliaA “show me” session prepared for the Innovations Showcase, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development May, 2009

Hawkesdale P12 College – a small rural prep-year 12 school

Connect, communicate, collaborate, create

Mt Rouse

Look at the beautiful sunset over my backyard. We had a severe drought this year. Our cows lost a lot of weight while the drought was on. My dad was awfully busy trying to keep water and hay up to them. Since the downpour of rain, they are in much better condition.

We have a mountain in our backyard called Mt Buggery. It is really a volcanic tumulus and has 2 trees - a dead pine tree and a young pine tree on top.

Flick, year 8 blog post

Comments!!!Your “backyard” is beautiful! Thank you for

sharing it with the world. Lori, CaliforniaThank you so much for sharing your

backyard. When we all share like this, it makes our world just a little smaller and better.

She Wolf

This was a great read.

I live in Washington State and when Mount St Helens erupted it was a big event around here. I went back as soon as it was safe and that was an experience I'll always have with me.If you'd like this is a USDA Forest Service Site you can visit.http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/

...I also have a clear view of Mount Rainer and unlike your volcanos  it's dormant and very much " alive"- keep your fingers crossed for me that it stays that way!

When I go back to my family home in Hawaii I see a lot of the same things that you see in your backyard.

This sounds wonderful to me. I think you have the best of both worlds, with both teaching and farming - cultivating both young minds and the earth.

• There are plenty of illegal immigrants in australia and each day many are sent home. illegal immigrants tend to have a non valid visa. some people who come here dont have a visa at all. Illegal immigrants come from all over the world. what happens to all of the illegal immigrants once they have been found out is they get relocated back to the country they came from.

Melissa // Oct 18th 2008 at 2:30 pm • That is what happens here in the United States as well. Visas are

really a big part of it because visas take a long time to get, and then people just come illegally. Where are the illegal immigrants that come to Australia from?

Juliet Pham // Oct 18th 2008 at 5:21 pm • How do you feel about the fact that the illegal immigrants are

relocated? Do you believe that it’s fair? I don’t think that it is. I really think that it would depend on the reason. Are the immigrants doing any harm really? That’s pretty interesting that Australia does have illegal immigrants because I never thought a place like Australia would because of the fact that it doesn’t have any countries near it or any land bridges.

Travis Bugge // Oct 18th 2008 at 5:21 pm • how do they get there? are they snuck on a plane or something? fur

us, its pretty much peole crossing the border, or swimming over here. which part of austrailia do they go to?

• Hello i am Kelly, from Australia!!!..i will answer these questions for you!!!

Question 1: How many meals a day are eaten in Australia? (Example: United States usually has 3 meals a day, although current days, people tend to eat any number of meals.)

kelly says: we have 3 meals a day (breakfast, lunch and tea) but we do have snacks in between these meals(morning tea and afternoon tea).

In further detail, what are the types of meals you have? Such as, is breakfast a hot or cold meal? Or is it either? From what I've learned about Germany, usually their lunch is the hot meal of the day, and they usually have the one hot meal, where breakfast and dinner tend to be a cold meal. In the United States, Dinner tends to be the hot meal.

Question 2: Are video games very popular, or, if not, what activities do most people do in their free time?

kelly says: video games are fairly popular here, yes. Other than sitting infront of the television/computer all day, a lot of people play sports,go shopping or just hang around with friends. (well thats what i do anyway!!)

(I cannot think of a further expansion for this question)

Question 3: How are the people in Australia? Are most friendly? Wide variety? Location dependent?

kelly says: well most of us are friendly, we are all pretty loud and outgoing people. But just like everywhere else we have some shy people. And just out of interest.. what do you mean by location dependent??

Students as experts:- Year 9/10 students answer questions from USA so students could develop Australian travel posters

http://projectsbyjen.ning.com/

http://es1001tales.wikispaces.comhttp://ms1001tales.wikispaces.com

Jeff Whipple teaching us how to use a wikiA teacher from Canada teaches us about wikis

Dddddddddddddddddddd

Skype and slideshare to teach students from Canada about • Australia and Culture• School• Community• farm

Student from Canada asks questionHow it all looked back in Canada

Student feedback• That was soo cool! it was real awesome of the cool things i (and everyone)

learned, I think i'm gonna do some research on more later... • i really liked the fact that we were actually talking to her. not just in email. i

thought all the pictures she showed were pretty sweet. also, i thought it was cool how we are used to different surroundings and habbits.. yes, we dont say put your bookbag in the boot... i still find it awsome, though. i love australia so much! (not to mention thier accents!)

• i loved her accent. when she said RIGHT-O ! hahaha ! • It was incredible,

Its just so different from what is normal here. I probably would of never found any of that out if it wasn't for that presentation!

• that was an EXCELENT, presentation. I LOVED IT.it was very interesting, and i think that getting to learn chineseis a very diffrent thing then what we learn here. THANK-YOU SO MUCH. :D

• i dont really understand why they learn chinese... i dont really think that makes much sense

• we wanted to know what bubble taps were.

Sharing objects that are symbolic of our countries

A Russian Connection

The class from Russia Russian Traditional Dancing

Some requests we have had..• From Russia, when our linkup was being televised...

Could you please bring in a kangaroo for the videoconference?

• For International Friendship Day linkup with Singapore...

Make sure the students wear their traditional costumes.

Vendee GlobeFollowing Rich Wilson as he sails around the world solo, not stop in the Vendee Globe

Possible learning outcomes•Latitude/longitude•Global warming•Pollution of the oceans•Oceanography•Life at sea

Ask Rich a question on his websiteQuestion How do you get fresh water? by StephAnswer: We have a reverse osmosis …… Read on at

Rich’s website.Question…Why did you want to sail? How long have

you been sailing for? By KiriAnswer…….I started sailing with my Dad when I was

about three years old … Read the rest of the answer

• Question asked by Webmaster:• How do you go get to sleep? Asked by Lachie, Hawkesdale, Australia• Answer:

• Sleep on this boat, in the four trans-Atlantic passages that I've done for practice, is difficult. For 20 years, I sailed trimarans that were level and stable. This boat is a monohull, and it heels, so if I sleep at the navigation table bench, and the boat heels, I slide sideways onto my feet. The two bunks are difficult to get into because they are behind compartment walls and you have to crawl through a small opening, plus, from the bunk, you can't see the instruments and know what is going on with the wind. So we're trying two new solutions. We have two triangular cushions for the chart table bench that keep my back up a bit, and one triangle for under the knees, which will keep me from sliding. These are comfortable, and in the early going, seemed a sure improvement. Plus we have a big beanbag, highly recommended by other skippers, since you can throw it anywhere and just crumple into it. It is made of synthetic porous material, so it's OK if it gets wet--if you've come from deck in wet foul weather gear. The beanbag is pretty comfortable and a second improvement.

Linkup with Jean Pennycook, Antarctica, researching Adele penguin

A true global classroom – a student from Hawkesdale, two from China, two from Bangkok and one from USA are taught by an optician about the eye, using discoverE virtual classroom software.

Ping – a virtual classroom using elluminate with the Melbourne Symphony OrchestraPing at www.pingmusic.com.au

Using Twitter• teachable moments • research and quick answers to questions on all

manner of topics • Learning of world events as they occur in real

time• sharing work, blog posts • establishing student networks etc

• jplaman@murcha I think every student should begin building a PLN. Twitter happens to be the first thing I turn to in the morning to learn.

• emapey2@murcha Greetings from Uruguay , in South America • mbarrow@murcha Greetings from England. It is 40 minutes past midnight here and I should be asleep rather

than twittering. Hope you’re having fun • edueyeview@murcha Love Twitter! Hello from coastal Maine, US. Welcome to the conversation! • lnitsche@murcha Hello from Chester Springs, Pennsylvania USA where is felt like spring today at about 65F • damian613@murcha Hello from Perkasie, PA, USA! It’s about 8:30pm here and 13 degrees C. • classroomqueen@murcha Hello from a very, very cold Regina, SK, Canada. It’s warmed up to -21C or -35C

with windchill. This am it was -47C with windchill. • Inpi@murcha Hello from Portugal! It’s 22 past midnight here, I can’t introduce my students!!! • nzchrissy@murcha Hello fabulous students in Victoria from Bangkok Thailand where it is very hot at the

moment • chetty@murcha Hi Vic. Nice to meet u. I’ve just realised we can use iGoogle + twitter app to tweet from NSW.

What are you working on? • jeffwhipple@murcha a chilly evening to you and your students from New Brunswick on the east coast of

Canada…twitter is about connecting and learning • MelissaShultz@murcha Greetings from America via twitter! I love AUS! Especially those Collingwood Pies!! • KarenJan@murcha Greetings from Boston, MA, USA

What if the students were studying climates, or Portugal or Thai cultures etc? Imagine the real time response that could be gleaned from Twitter colleagues and self directed learning that might occur.

ajep@murcha learning games to change the world http://tinyurl.com/bh4nvm

Flatclassroom wiki

Flatclassroom ning

The Flatclassroomproject

• wiki (http://flatclassroom09-2.flatclassroomproject.org/and ning (http://flatclassroomproject.ning.com/)

• Netgened wiki (http://netgened.wikispaces.com/)

• Digiteen wiki (http://digiteen09-2.flatclassroomproject.org/)

http://netgened.wikispaces.com

Awards Ceremony

Keynote addressCitizenship Journalism – Phillip Roth, Qatar university lecturer, experienced with skype.

Flat classroom conference

The Aussie girls meet their Omani teacher and classmates in Doha, Qatar

This is a flatclassroom!

• As a parent of a student who attended Qatar I wish to reflect on the Flatclassroom conference and what it has meant for me and my family. Before Emily adventured to Qatar I didn't know what a ning was - even though I think I am reasonably capable with a computer. We didn't have skype (I didn' think it was at all necessary). WELL the truth is, the Flat Classroom Conference has changed all that for me! Through the ning, which I was able to successfully travel through, we were able to experience some of Emily's adventures almost like we were with her. We, my husband and I were constantly reading blogs, comments etc, and couldn't wait to read someones recount of the day's adventures. While we didn't actually attend one of the online chats - my husband went into one of the rooms only to find that it wasn't operating at that specific time. We enjoyed adding comments to students and educators blogs and it was fantastic to be able to communicate at such a high level. I have become far more competent and confident with web sites, nings etc and now have the confidence to explore the computer far more than prior to the conference. I was also astonished to be able to experience different cultures and ideas without having to leave Australia. I hope for all who attended or were part of the flatclassroom have come away with lasting memories. For the students from Australia it was an experience they will never forget and neither will their families. I hope other opportunities like this presents itself so other students have a chance to experience what all you did in Qatar. Once again to the sponsors and organises of the conference - WHAT A GREAT EXPERIENCE you have created for young people (and old) all around the world.

How do we do it

• Elluminate meetings• Google groups – emailing lists• skype group – IM• Virtual worlds

Synchronous

• http://www,coveritlive.com for liveblogging – • www.skype.com for videoconferencing• DiscoverE

http://www.globaldreamers.org/discovdepth.html virtual classroom software. Uses low bandwidth and has basic tools for classroom use – chat, audio, video, whiteboard, webtours

• http://www.elluminate.com for virtual classroom use. – chat, audio, video, whiteboard, webtours, shared applications, polls, emoticons

• Virtual worlds (reactiongrid in OpenSim

Synchronous cont.....

• Back channels eg http://www.chatzy.com and http://www.tinychat.com

• http://www.twitter.com• Google applications• Bridgit conferencing software -Interactive

White Boards• www.flickr.com an online image sharing site

Asynchronous

• Blogging. • Wikis• Nings• Google groups and other applications eg

sheet, forms, document, presentation etc• Online Mailing lists• http://www.voicethread.com

Dare to Innovate

• Students have an enormous capacity for innovation.

• Take away the dinosaurs• Dont procrastinate, try it now!

Notable quotes• Building the bridges of today that the society of tomorrow will

walk across. (Vicki Davis, co-creator of flatclassroom projects)• Isn’t it amazing what students will do when teachers get out of the

way. (Estie Cueller, flat classroom teacher)• The kids asked too many questions and didnt let Jean Pennycook

(Antarctica) finish her talk!• Would you please be able to bring a kangaroo into your classroom

for our videoconference? (request from Russia)• Can you please wear your national costumes for the skype

videoconference?• My students have never seen a computer, could you please help

me teach them about computers

Some observations• Students as experts• Peer to peer mentoring• Authentic audience• Self directed learning• Project Based Learning• Performing beyond personal comfort zones• Many, many teachable moments• Engagement• Catering for all learning styles• Multi literacies

Contact Me

• mirtschin@gmail.com• Skype: anne.mirtschin• Twitter/plurk id: murcha• Teacher blog: http://murcha.wordpress.com• Class blogs: http://murch.globalteacher.org.auhttp://backyard.globalstudent.org.au• Delicious and diigo: murcho/murcha