Have You Seen the Taxonomy of Global Connection?

In their 2012 book, Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time, Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis created a Taxonomy of Global Connection that shows a hierarchy of 5 different levels of online interaction.  It begins with connecting students in a class using Web 2.0 tools and ends with students managing their own global connections with other learners across the world. 

The interesting part of this hierarchy is that it isn't just about the technology.  It has multiple strands of complexity:

• Geographic Location: This strand begins within the classroom and then extends into the school/district and finally traverses the globe.
• Project Management: The second strand involves who is in control of the interactions.  The bottom two levels are local interactions controlled by the classroom teacher.  The middle level involves an online global collaborative experience that is managed by an external educator or group of educators.  The top two levels involve student-to-student connections in an effort to achieve agreed upon goals.  Level 4 is managed by teachers who manage, facilitate and monitor the project as well as managing the timeline.  Level 5 uses teachers as facilitators but the students are actually running this peer-to-peer project.

This is a fascinating way to look at global learning.  How does it fit your collaborative projects or your idea of how global collaborative projects should be organized?

Z

Heading for China and the Flat Classroom Conference

On Saturday, we will be flying from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Beijing, China, via Chicago. In this case, "WE" means that I will be accompanied by 8 Instructional Technology graduate students from UNI and their teacher of record, my wife Kathy Klink-Zeitz.

We are going to Beijing to participate in the Flat Classroom Conference. The Flat Classroom Conference is a celebration of the work done by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsey in creating and running the Flat Classroom Project (FCP).  I have written about FCP in previous postings. It is instructional global collaboration where students from around the world join together to interact in collaborative problem solving.

I haven't posted about this conference before this because I have been too busy trying to get it all together.  Our students are practicing professionals.  Most of them are teachers.  They have been blogging about their upcoming trip and I have listed links to their blogs below.  They will be blogging, video blogging and Skyping with their students here in the States.

Review These Blogs:

1. Jami Elliott, a graduate of Iowa Wesleyan College, teaches third grade in an elementary school in West Burlington, Iowa for the last 8 years. Her blog, Ms. Elliott's Adventure to China, is dedicated to her trip.
2. Cathy Olson, a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, is a high school English teacher in Boone, Iowa.
3. Carrie Jacobs, a graduate of Central College, is a social studies teacher and the technology specialist at Walnut Creek Campus, an alternative high school in West Des Moines, Iowa. She has a masters of education degree in Quality Schools from Graceland University.
4. Deb Bruxvoort, a graduate of William Penn University, is Director of Academic Computing at Central College in Pella, Iowa.
5. Farah Kashef, a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, is a Dental Hygiene Instructor at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, Iowa.
6. Brandi Day, a graduate of Harding University, is a Program Associate with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.
7. Jennie Kies, a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, teaches engineering technology at Jefferson high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
8. Lisa Schaa, a graduate of the University of Iowa, has taught art and technology at an elementary school in Stratford, Iowa for the last 27 years. Mrs. Schaa's Adventures in China is a blog all about her travels

A wealth of information can be found in Kathy Klink-Zeitz's Beijing Design blog which is the blog that she used to organize the course, Applied Instructional Design, which all of the students had to take.


Follow along and I will tell you how to watch us virtually and even get involved virtually as one of the attendees.