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"Serendipity is really important to me. We learn so many things that weren't anticipated, weren't the anticipated outcomes, but are important nonetheless. I do focus on what things I want my kids to learn from the curriculum when I set up these connections, but it's the unexpected learning that turns out to be really something special."
The Connected Classroom

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For those tackling Twitter, read about how Professor Lofton amplifies her conference experiences via Twitter:

I get to participate in a rich back channel, having conversations about what speakers say and reinforcing key points. For me, it has even served as a way of taking notes on sessions. And, as I do, I contribute information to my network, including both people at the conference and those who couldn’t be there.

It keeps me up on upcoming events, get togethers, sessions, program changes, and more. I always appreciate reminders of events I want to attend and posts also let me know about options I wasn’t aware of. And, I can promote sessions to other people.

It can help me connect live with friends and even find and meet up with those PLN members I have never met in person before. There’s nothing more exciting than meeting online friends live for the first time! It also helps meet build new relationships; I don’t just meet new people, we start following each other so we stay connected after the conference.

Excerpt From: Knowledge Quest

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Karen Bessin wants us to start small and go large.

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Karen Bessin wants us to start small and go large.

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"In striving to extend learning beyond walls, we can aim to connect students to different classrooms in our school or district, different schools in our town, county, or state, or more ambitiously, overseas.  We can also extend age boundaries, connecting classrooms with others who are younger, older, or perhaps not students at all.  Any and all of these connections help to develop empathy and recognition of / appreciation for other perspectives, essential skills for living in a globally connected world."

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"Librarians are typically seen as the driving force behind ways to seek knowledge and find information, so it is incredibly important for us to act on this notion, to be prepared to introduce new technology and information sources for the sake of our students and patrons."

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Amy Spillane wants us to Practice What We Preach...

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Amy Spillane wants us to Practice What We Preach...

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Julie Lindsay mentions an analogy that she had read, “It’s like telling someone to read a book when you don’t know how to read yourself — if educators haven’t felt that connectedness, that haven’t felt that engagement themselves, through global or locally global connections, it’s really hard to relate that to their students and to understand how important that is… It relates to being able to understand it and effect it and join in yourself and then you have that better understanding of how to apply it as an educator in the classroom” (22:15). The analogy ties digital and global literacy back to the traditional literacy of reading. As educators, we model and without personal understanding and knowledge, how can we be successful in that regard? This statement reinforced the lessons from last week and made real the urgency to learn to connect and participate and ultimately share responsible connectedness with the students.

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If the world were 100 people, who would we be?

We’re on a quest to find the 100 people that represent all 7.5 billion of us. By proportionally reducing the world population to 100 people, we hope to put a human face to the numbers and make complex global issues more relatable. Teachers around the world can enroll their classes in our projects and ask students to nominate local members of their community that they most admire. For more information, visit www.100people.org.

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"...common core aims to "prepare students for success in college, career, and life in today's global economy" yet they fail to use terms like global competence, intercultural understanding, cultural intelligence, etc.  So why is that?  The CCS were designed with international standards in mind in order to bring us "up to" the level of some of the other educational levels of competing countries.  "Standards from top-performing countries played a significant role in the development of the math and English language arts/literacy standards. In fact, the college- and career-ready standards provide an appendix listing the evidence that was consulted in drafting the standards, including the international standards that were consulted in the development process". They want to prepare students to think, learn, work, etc. in a way that the other top nations do.  Why then do they not stress the importance of global literacy?

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Myths vs. Facts | Common Core State Standards Initiative

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Successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards requires parents, educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders to have the facts about what the standards are and what they are not. The following myths and facts aim to address common misconceptions about the development, intent, content, and implementation of the standards.

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"I was ecstatic when Dr Valenza talked about geography in this lecture, especially with lesson plans.  This is something I have always been interested in and promoted understanding in, as my undergrad studies were in geography and elementary education.  It makes me so happy to see that there are websites, apps, and foundations out there promoting the global community and understanding of connecting with someone who is similar but so different.  Global connections promote being a better human being.  It encourages learning of other cultures and languages, enabling the students to adapt to different forms thinking and seeing things from multiple points of view."

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"I also loved some of Lindsay’s final words for librarians: “keep an open mind,” “never say no,” and have clear objectives with your projects. These are great dispositions for a librarian to have."

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Susan Borbely reprioritizes her ideas about literacies.

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Susan Borbely reprioritizes her ideas about literacies.

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"After this week on global literacy, I am reconsidering the way I prioritized my literacies in week 1. It has definitely moved up on my list as a critical literacy that should start early on and hand in hand with media and digital literacy.

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Allison Nazzaro on the danger of complacency

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Allison Nazzaro on the danger of complacency

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"We have the wonderful ability to connect with others from around the world, and yet not many of us take advantage of this. Either we are too busy with our workloads, or we are waiting for someone else to reach out first, but whatever the reason, we need to start being the ones who initiate; who press the start button ourselves. If we keep waiting around, then those connections may never happen."

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My Challenge of Programming in Connected Learning

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My Challenge of Programming in Connected Learning

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"Repetition is the antithesis of agile problem solving. If we want our students to apply knowledge and develop a flexible problem solving mindset, it is important that learning, like the world students will enter, is ever-shifting."

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"I loved Heidi’s video this week. She made a lot of sense in how digital and media literacy really does not contain any content, but global literacy does. . .You need to bond over a common problem in order to form a meaningful relationship."

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What resonated for me was when [Julie Lindsay] stated, “we must get over Twitter reservations and jump on the bandwagon and be part of a learning community.” Over the past three weeks I have come to realize the importance of Twitter and am now open to utilizing this imperative tool.

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Another low-budget idea is the Newseum website In addition to front pages from every state in the nation, they also publish front pages from various nations daily.  If each student chose a nation and followed a specific newspaper to check its front page daily, those comparisons would be rich ground for discussion and learning.

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Kelsea Rowan on information democracy...

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Kelsea Rowan on information democracy...

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"One of the things I found myself asking was how we can accomplish these global literacy goals in areas or schools that do not have access to resources that many in the examples provided did."

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"Julie [Lindsay] mentioned something that definitely hits home for me. Working in a public school I find that (as she mentioned) many resources are blocked. Having a large tool set is wonderful, but not if half the things you want to use are blocked from your or student use. I like her advice to speak out to administrators or coordinators about having some of the beneficial resources opened so that they can be a resource for engaging and connecting students."

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Professor Lofton shares a great resource...

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Professor Lofton shares a great resource...

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Here's one site to try for authors who Skype

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It all started when author Mona Kerby visited Grandview Library in 2008 to talk to 2nd graders about her book Owney, The Mail Pouch Pooch. In 2009, Ms. Kerby visited the class via Skype. The children and their teachers cheered when Ms. Kerby "appeared" on the Smart Board. Ms. Kerby talked about Owney and the process she went through to research, write, and publish the book. Several of the children asked Ms. Kerby questions and the whole group enjoyed waving at and thanking Ms. Kerby for "visiting".

The mission of the Skype an Author Network is to provide K-12 teachers and librarians with a way to connect authors, books, and young readers through virtual visits. Wouldn't it be great to invite authors into your classroom or library to video chat with students before, during, and/or after reading their books? We are growing a list of authors who want to make that connection with you via Skype. Visit our Skype Overview page to learn more about Skype.

Marsha Diane Arnold- May 2016

Marsha Diane Arnold Skyped with Bridges to Learning PreSchool in Kansas on May 11th.

The children had recently performed a Mother's Day play of their favorite "Marsha" book, Roar of a Snore.

After the Skype visit, the children enjoyed another favorite "Marsha " book, Prancing Dancing Lily. It was especially fun for Marsha as Kingman, Kansas is her home town and the teacher is her cousin's daughter-in-law.

Bruce Hale- March 2015

The 3rd graders at Bethesda Elementary participated in their very first Skype session today with the author Bruce Hale and we could not be happier about choosing him to be our "pilot program" author. Bruce Hale has a great balance of humor and information in his presentation of how he became an author. The students were completely engaged in the full lesson listening,laughing and learning the whole time.

He has a great message for students about perseverance and using your imagination to create stories. We 100%recommend contacting Bruce for a Skype or school visit and hope to be able to do so again ourselves in the future!
Megan Despot
Bethesda Elementary School

Marsha Diane Arnold- January 2015

I look so delighted here. And I was! Skyping with a school in Hyderabad, India. Before questions, the students all greeted me: Good Morning, Miss Marsha.

Abhinesh says: Good Morning Marsha Madam. My name is Abhinesh from PP2F. I am happy that I met an author on the screen. I also wrote 3 stories, I told you when my turn came during the session. I forgot to tell that I am only the illustrator for my books. You gave me the idea of choosing the name for my character in my stories. I told my mom to search on the computer and internet for the character name. I want to listen to your story Heart of a Tiger. I want to talk to you again. Thank you.

Nikitha says: Good Morning Madam.I am Nikitha. I was so happy when you answered my doubts regarding stories and the story you shared with us was real fun.

Garrett Burke- January 2014

Garrett Burke's coin idea became half a billion California State Quarters honoring John Muir in Yosemite Valley. Now, as the creator of the award-winning book "Quarterama," he reveals the surprising histories, innovative people, and natural wonders seen atop all 50 State Quarters.
"We just had parent/teacher conferences and several parents mentioned how much their child talked about what they had learned. Two told me that their children are now collecting coins! Mr. Burke is wonderful with children. My students want to meet with him again!" - MAINE -

"Mr. Burke was gracious enough to address my 30 freshmen students in U.S. History and it was a GREAT experience from start to finish! They were amazed at the relevancy of symbolism in currency and how it impacts their world." - WISCONSIN -

"Thirty minutes went by so quickly, it was a mix of him, pictures, and video. I would highly recommend this lesson, it was fabulous!" - OKLAHOMA -

"Mr. Burke's presentation was out of this world! I loved the "Screen Sharing", which enabled him to show us various video clips and snippets from his book 'Quarterama', all the while narrating over them." - NEW YORK

Teacher Reviews

"My 3rd Grade students were focused throughout this high-interest lesson. They LOVE the book and it made for some very interesting pre-teaching. The discussion continued long after the lesson was complete and I am positive it has continued at home too. I had parents who said they wished they could have sat in on the lesson as well." -
CALIFORNIA -

Martha Rodriguez- July 2013

We had the pleasure of Skyping with Martha Rodriguez, and found her to be a dynamic and special person. She is flexible and accommodating, aligning her schedule to match the needs of our school. We were fortunate to have her meet with our third graders during five class sessions. For each group of students, she devised separate engaging and creative activities. Not only did we laugh when we read her humorous story, but we were again entertained and inspired by her games, which were designed to get our creative juices flowing.

The opportunity to meet with an authentic author is truly inspiring for our young writers, and Martha was a blessing to our school.

Carrie Stepeck, Librarian, Bungay School, Seymour, Connecticut

May 2013

Martha helped the students aspire towards becoming authors themselves. Every single studentwas actively engaged in her Q & A session and her fun writing activities that sparked the students' imaginations.

This was her second year of visiting our school and each time the studentslove to hear from her. They always comment on how much they enjoy her books. We are so fortunate to have found such a wonderful author to help our third graders with their author study project by Skyping with us from Florida to Hawaii. She enriched our students' learning with her wealth of ideas and inspiration.

Thank you Martha!Laurel Taylor, Library Media Specialist/Tech Coordinator JK-6

Bruce Hale-March 2013

Last week we had a Skype visit with Bruce Hale and he was fantastic. I loved the way he engaged the students. It was almost like he was in the room. The studentsfelt like he was there and had a great time interacting with him. He shared a Slideshow with me to show students so they could see what he was talking about and how he became a writer. He was funny, entertaining and very informative. The students loved that he drew pictures as well. My son was in the audience and he even tried to draw Chet Gecko the nextday after watching Bruce.

I highly recommend him to any school. He was so easy to work with, so kind and so on target. He was as good with Kindergarten as he was with the older grades and he saw every grade except 5th because we could not fit it in their schedule. I would certainly have him again. Way to go Bruce!

Clarissa Grindle, Librarian
Great Oaks Elementary
Round Rock Independent School District

Marsha Diane Arnold- February2013

In celebration of Lily's new adventure, I'm offering a special price for Skype visits if booked by the first day of spring, March 20th. For those who take advantage of the Lily Special, I will Skype with yourclass or school for a "song". Just $90 for 45 minutes to 1 hour, which can include a slideshow, reading a story with your students, showing them around my office, answering questions, and more! Email me at marshaoak@mac.com to book today.

Lisa Ard- February 2013

"I can't thankyou enough for taking the time to speak with our fifth graders. We had over one hundred 10 and 11 year-olds in attendance, all of whom had been anticipating your visit for weeks, since we began reading Fright Flight.

I wish you could have heard the discussions we had after the session. The students were inspired with a new excitement for writing as they shared their favorite piece of advice from you.

I overheard a couple of students discussing how they were going to buy little notebooks over the weekend, so that they could startrecording their ideas. When students are able to learn from an expert in a field, it takes their learning to a new level. Thankyou for seeing the value in that and taking the time to help develop young writers."

Michele Colebrook,
5th grade teacher, Timberline Elementary

Dear Marsha,

You are such a delightful person! The children just beamed during our follow-up conversation. They just couldn't believe that they were actually talking to you! I am confident that we made a memory for them that will have an impact for years to come! Thankyou for sharing your experience with us. Perhaps we can do it again nextyear! I will be in touch.

Please continueSkyping! Our students may never experience talking to a published author without this kind of opportunity as we are unable to afford the fees that are incurred when an author has to travel to be here. It is truly invaluable. I appreciate your willingness to participatein this type of experience to expose our students to the wonderful world of reading and writing.

Thankyou againfor such a lovely conversation!
Carla Laney
Manning Early ChildhoodCenter
Manning, South Carolina

Wouldn't they make great ticklers for a Skype Visit! If you've written a children's picture book with a nature theme,Professor Arnone may be interested in creating a talk for your book!

let me know mailto:sachauncey@gmail.com.

Our goal is to set upwho are willing toare initiated via email and/or a networkof authors participatein Skype conversations with studentsin classrooms and libraries. This wiki provides a page for each author who joins the network. Our author template ensures consistency of content and keeps things simple for authors, teachers, and librarians. The author pages provide procedural and contact phonebetween the author and the teacher and/or librarian.

information.
Once you are comfortable with "Skyping" you can try additional web-based technologies to enhance your visits, for example:

Take a lookat Mona Kerby'spage as an example.

Arrangements for Skype visits Authors offer two types of visits:

No Charge - Meet the Author Visits - 10 to 15 minutes

In-Depth Visits - Time and fee determined by each author

Next Steps

The possibilities for collaboration are many. If you have used other tools during your sessions, please start a "Discussion" to share with all of our members.

Pinterest Experiment

Illustrators & Author Illustrators
Click to Visit

Writer on the Side
Interview

Skype An Author
Columbia News Service

Education Week

Author/Illustrator Mike Artell
Shares a Skype Visit Web Conferencing...

Enjoy More
Video Clips Here

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Virtual Author Visits in Your Library or Classroom

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It all started when author Mona Kerby visited Grandview Library in 2008 to talk to 2nd graders about her book Owney, The Mail Pouch Pooch. In 2009, Ms. Kerby visited the class via Skype. The children and their teachers cheered when Ms. Kerby "appeared" on the Smart Board.

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"I’d love it if my students could gain some global literacy through my help.  I want to be the connector of students to the greater world.  There are so many fantastic quotes about books taking you places, but I can also introduce apps and other programming to intersect my students with other cultures."

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Christopher Lainson on Amplified Learning

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Christopher Lainson on Amplified Learning

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"I find that many teachers feel multicultural education ends with knowing facts about different cultures.  A history teacher may teach a lesson about different Chinese empires but the students then just know combinations of unrelated facts.  Having the students immersed in a project that fosters creativity encourages life long learning and the student striving to be a global citizen."

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Jasmine Riel introduced me to BookSnapping!

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Jasmine Riel introduced me to BookSnapping!

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BookSnappers basically take photos of the pages they're reading and add stickers, notes, and user filters via the app. It's kind of like how book-lovers on Instagram call it "bookstagram."

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According to the cell phone data report, it is safe to say that the Snapchat app occupies a high percentage the Martin-bill usage.

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Marissa Warren on Access and Intellectual Freedom

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Marissa Warren on Access and Intellectual Freedom

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"As librarians our core values are intellectual freedom and access. These are just as important in a school setting as they are in a public library or academic library. I really hadn’t thought about it in a school setting until now. I know sites are blocked and many of them for good reason but teacher librarians need to advocate for access as much as any other kind of librarian."

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My favorite piece from this week's playlist:

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My favorite piece from this week's playlist:

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"To enable students to thrive as global citizens, a worldwide mindset is the best preparation, as well as an education that aims at appreciating the great diversity of cultures and their life stories and histories."
--Katie Day

In particular, note the World Literature Resources included in this article.

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If you are still hazy on Connectivism after this week, here is a great video on George Siemens connectivism. It's quick and concise!

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Siemens Connectivism Theory   A. McCarthy

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Tom Freedman: Glocalization or "The World is Flat"

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Tom Freedman: Glocalization or "The World is Flat"

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Our world is "a global, Web-enabled playing field that allows for multiple forms of collaboration on research and work in real time, without regard to geography, distance or, in the near future, even language."

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Global Literature in Libraries

100 People Project

Global Lives Project

Motherlode

Google Earth Sesame Street

Skype in the Classroom

World Read Aloud Day

GeniusCon

Peter Reynolds: Int'l Dot Day

Global Flipgrid Community

Mystery Skypes

Hour of Code

Vitual Debate

Somewhat Virtual Book Club

Blokify

Shannon Miller's Banding Together

Andy Clemmons's Question

Barrow Peace Prize

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It's not that we change what we teach but consider the material though a global lens:
*geo-politics
*geo-gaming
*geo-learning
*geo-news
*geo-culture
*geo-medicine
*geo-sports
...etc, etc, etc.

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1. Investigate the World

2. Recognize Perspectives

3. Communicate Ideas

4. Take Action

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The librarian is often the leader in the school and the one people come to for connected learning. Be part of the learning conversation. Things will go wrong.  Be flexible and arm yourself with backup strategies. Synchronous connection is important, but move toward a project that can be sustained.
The Global Educator

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"I become more aware of myself and my culture when I see a contrast." Go beyond sharing toward collaborative problem solving and deeper engagement. Collaboration can cross distance but asynchronous tools will allow you to cross time as well.
Langwitches

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Avoid superficial connections. Global competency requires digital literacy but also the ability to acquire information about people and places. Have a purpose when using tools to connect.
Curriculum21

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Librarians can be leaders to move learning beyond walls. "Hit the start button!"
The NeverEnding Search