Flat Classroom Workshop Overview

You are attending a workshop with a new idea: students, teachers, leaders present in a highly interactive format using the newest technologies and including virtual participants from around the world! This conference is based upon the ground breaking work from the Flat Classroom project and many other global collaborative projects co-planned by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. http://flatclassroomproject.org

Many of the world’s leading authors including Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat, Hot, Flat and Crowded) and Don Tapscott (Grown Up Digital) have featured this work and now you are going to be part of the next generation of educational global collaboration because of the vision and support of the 21st Century Learning Conference Hong Kong.
The workshop theme is the ‘Digital Divide’ in its broadest sense. This is an opportunity for teams of real and virtual participants to explore social, economic, political, cultural and other issues to do with the digital divide globally. It is also a chance to discuss the best ways to use Web 2.0 technologies to join communities with a common goal to identify and solve digital divide problems. Ideas generated at this workshop will lead to potential solutions that join classrooms around the world in projects that will ultimately make a difference to the world as we know it today. We believe that something truly special will emerge from this workshop.

The entire workshop will be documented in a variety of ways including:

Live Web Streaming – Participants in the workshop will take turns to ustream (live stream) sessions to classrooms and participants around the world that are participating virtually. The ustream.tv video will be accessible from the Ning http://flatclassroomconference.ning.com and from the wiki at http://hkworkshop09.flatclassroomproject.org/UStream.tv Archives and real broadcasts are also available from the show URL at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/flat-classroom-workshop-hk
Workshop Wiki - A dedicated workshop wiki |http://hkworkshop09.flatclassroomproject.org/ will be used to document and share the learning from the conference.
Archived Backchannel - A backchannel is a live chat that accompanies a live presentation. The workshop backchannel has been created to promote the interaction of face to face and virtual participants throughout the event. This backchannel will be archived and shared on the wiki. http://tinyurl.com/flat-hk
Workshop Ning (Blogs, Photos, Videos) The workshop Ning http://flatclassroomconference.ning.com will be used for all participants to share their reflections, photographs, and thoughts. This is an expected component of face to face participation. Every participant is encouraged to reflect on the Ning prior to the conference through the course of the conference and post conference as appropriate.

o Note: Each team will have an assigned “tag” and all participants (virtually and non-virtually) are to use that tag. Eg. Team 1 will be tagged FCHKT1
o Note to Face to Face Participants: Not all parents will allow their children to be photographed or videoed and some will want to be blurred out of any photographs and not share their photo online. Your teacher will have the appropriate forms that you must have signed to allow your photograph to be used. When in doubt, ask the student if they are OK with being photographed.