Flat Earth? Flattened Earth?

[Linda Gibson-Langford]

Have been reading Friedman (The New York Time ) spin on globalisation and of course was interested in his perspective (it is driven by economic models raising questions centred on key indicators of globalisation - insourcing, open-sourcing, informing, offshoring and outsourcing).


For teacher librarians who have focused on connecting students beyond their classmates (1970s-1980s e-pals, electronic book raps come to mind) then his concept of the flattened world is probably a comfortable image in our bid to connect and lead our students in learning across social and geographic spaces. Up until advent of Web 2, we have not had really seamless, robust and fast ways to keep the energy, curiosity and passion up – key attributes in engaged learning.


It takes a well known writer to put a spin on something that has significant merit for teacher librarians. How does the concept of the flat world and all it conjures resonate with where you are as a teacher librarian? Like anything, we can internalise an idea and build new experiences/ new spins but where does the concept lead you?


Have a look a this at http://flatplanetproject.com/about/ - a collborative knowledge centred project for senior studnets.

[Yvonne Mattix]

You can watch a speech Friedman gave at MIT May10th at
http://mitworld.mit.edu/play/264/

[Jacquie Henry]

I think that 21st century learning skills are essential to success in the "flat world". Our students must be ready to learn new skills because their work will change and evolve constantly in a flat world. They must be able to think creatively and learn how to use every available tool to thrive in this new kind of world. I just sent you a link to the globalizatin workshop I recently did at a SLMS conference in Syracuse New York. It was called "Was Columbus Wrong After All?" I hope you are able to view it. The presentation is primarily about 2 projects that we have done in our school this year.

Here are 2 links that really resonated with me:

Did You Know? (YouTube Video)

Flat Classroom Project

Hope to chat with you regularly. You can always reach me at wanderingbooknut at gmail dot com

[Jacquie Henry]

P.S. Have you spent much time reading David Warlick's blog? 2 Cents Worth

I think you will find much of interest.

[Diane Cordell]

Will Richardson is also an educational blogger who constantly explores and expands the boundaries of the learning experience.
I keep up with Warlick, Richardson, and others with Google Reader, another wonderful application from those creative folks at Google.

[Linda Gibson-Langford]

Thank you all for your wonderful sites and ideas.... When I get a real breathing space - soon - I want to consider at a deeper level some of these ideas and then present what I hope will be a great challenge to practice the concept of flat earth in a practicall way... I will also be asking for your input into a few very short articles (300-400 words) in answer to the main topic given - as a response to a short paper I wrote - outcome is to publish your responses in a professional newsletter here in NSW Australia.... flat earth!

Will upload the aper shortly.