Online Educational Conferences Part
2!
Date: 14th 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 15th
Nov 2016]
2. International Book Club, iEARN
Website: https://iearn.org/cc/space-2/group-483 [Access on 15th 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 15th 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 15th Nov 2016]
5. Out
of Eden Walk, Harvard Graduate School Of
Education
Website: http://learn.outofedenwalk.com/ [Access on 15th Nov 2016]
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