Online Educational Conferences Part 2!

Online Educational Conferences Part 2!

Date: 14^th November 2016/Monday

As always it was an enriching learning experience attending the GEC Global Education Conference online by iEARN. I had a chance to attend a few sessions online and I ended up with some very interesting ideas. Below are some beautiful takeaways from these sessions. 

One of the sessions was about the International Book Club, by Fay Stump who is a library Media Specialist. The session was interesting since it provided an opportunity for participants to share a book that they have read, a book that inspires us to change the world. This is one of iEARNs 100 projects that links to UN sustainable development goals. International Book Club is one such project by iEARN. Each book share was linked to UN sustainable development goals whether poverty, education etc Librarians in most schools are observed as issuing books, keeping track of books issued, registering new books, maintaining logs, and sometimes encouraging students to write reviews of books read and sharing with whole class. Libraries could be transformed and made into an engaging and interactive learning space by incorporating such projects during library hour in schools, once a month at least. Students could be asked to read a book, think and talk about whats inspiring about the book and how could it help bring positive change to the world. Students from different schools could be asked to share their book during such online sessions in schools, either wiziq or blackboard collaborate could be used for such activities. Details in links below. 

The next session I had the opportunity to attend was by Harry G Tuttle, Ed. D., titled “Help your students climb three levels of culture”, this include levels to consider while learning about a country’s culture, these include learn about, communicate and collaborate. The presenter started with an interesting question about how you know about a country’s culture, responses from participants included virtual tours, videos, blogs, pictures etc. In the next level presenter shared ways of communicating information regarding culture, these include facebook, skype education, twitter, mystery skype, online debates, kahoot , quizlet competitions etc.  He says it has to be less about content and more about personal things food, clothing etc. The third level talks about collaboration, an activity outside the class that helps further develop cultural understanding, more about working together, achieve together and help transforming community. Some ideas for such projects include Habitat service organizations, during day out trips students can try to build something like habitats, he referred to  global garden projects where two schools make two gardens, a participant shared a project where students from one school collected donations to pay fees of students in another school, students could also do online tutoring free of cost. More projects available on United Planet, wonderment.com, participate.com, commit2act etc.  

The third session titled “Not me! Unconscious Bias in our Global Classrooms “ by Adam Holden, Head of Academic Planning & Resources  (Sheffield Institute of Education) talks about unbiased consciousness, something that is uncontrolled and is a result of immediate responses, triggered, based on past experiences, culture, backgrounds etc. Educational institutions around globe have begun to realize the performance gap that exists between students. The session considered “unconsciousness bias” and how this needs to be controlled leading to maximize the learning by each child. This gap exists at the teacher – student level as well as institution level. 

The presenter shared Harvard University’s Best Foot Forward project which aimed at using video observations to help teachers accelerate their development, cameras were given to teachers to evaluate their 3 best lessons. The purpose was to explore whether digital video made observation process more acceptable to teachers and administrators. These included 100 classrooms and 400 teachers, where teachers had the opportunity to observe own practices, 37% teachers shared they, quite or extremely often saw reactions of students which they did not observe during teaching in class.  Teacher’s performance will definitely improve if they could see themselves teach in the classroom. The presenter suggests that in order to control such bias, we need to be more aware of our behaviors and take actions to resolve, locate where this unconsciousness lies, then take measures to overcome. Using digital platforms might also help overcome such bias. Details in link below.

The fourth session I got the opportunity to attend was about “Creating Border Perspectives through Oral History” by Ryan Harwood, who is working as a Technology Integration Coach in Lincoln Community School in Accra,Ghana which is an IB school with almost 780 students. The presenter shared their project which focused on investigating about Accra by interviewing and questioning people who live there, these included drivers, policeman, housekeepers, local business man and expats. These interviews were then shared on Google drive and students were encouraged to explore about culture and space during the interviews. The project is inspired from the Out of Eden Walk which is an initiative of Project Zero at the Harvard School of Education, where students are encouraged to draw maps to take walks through the neighborhood, explore different perspectives of people, look closely at different objects and make connections with stories etc. This involves minimum technology and uses traditional forms of storytelling. The projects aims to let students situate themselves in a wider world, aiming to become more thoughtful and informed citizens. Details in links below. 

I feel all these ideas could be incorporated in schools at different levels, the International Book Project could be initiated in schools and once a month book reading sessions could be surely held online in schools or may be among different branches. Similarly, teachers need to reconsider their strategy while teaching about different cultures, the 3 levels discussed above should be incorporated and should be explored in detail. 

Most importantly the idea of teachers evaluating own lessons could be initiated in schools. The same project Best Foot Forward be initiated in schools, could be spearheaded by school heads. I am hopeful and sure this would yield amazing results both at the teacher level and student’s level.

I have come up to the conclusion that its high time conferences now need to move a step forward from just sharing of ideas to empowering participants. One way this could be achieved is by encouraging more participation from audiences, as was visible during the International Book Club session I had attended. Each participant could end with their own International Book Clubs in their schools. Volunteer presentations should be encouraged from students to share something interesting they have accomplished during their school year and has made a significant impact on their lives and has help brought a change to the society and the world. These could be linked to UN sustainable development goals. An Advisory Board comprising of teachers and presenters should be made, should suggest projects for schools as post conference outcomes. As always I have thoroughly enjoyed exploring and writing, hope you find these ideas helpful and workable.

Happy Reading J

Sheeba Ajmal

References:

1.     UN Sustainable Development Goals

Website: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs [Access on 15^th Nov 2016]

2.     International Book Club, iEARN

Website: https://iearn.org/cc/space-2/group-483  [Access on 15^th Nov 2016]

3.     Best Foot Forward Project , Center for Policy Education Research, Harvard University.

Website: http://cepr.harvard.edu/best-foot-forward-project [Access on 15^th Nov 2016]

4.      Lincoln Community School, Grade 8 Oral History Project

Website :https://sites.google.com/a/lincoln.edu.gh/grade-8-oral-history-project/   [Access on 15^th Nov 2016]

5.     Out of Eden Walk,  Harvard Graduate School Of Education

Website:    http://learn.outofedenwalk.com/  [Access on 15^th Nov 2016]