Addicted to the idea of Going GLOBAL...

I know that both Julie and Vicki have blogged about how the Horizon Project has been somewhat consuming. While I have followed their project, I only began to understand their addiction when I became involved in my own project. Following the students' discussion board, watching the evolution of their thoughts, and how these kids are moving from simply absorbing content to actually creating content has been SUCH a powerful experience...

When asked what they think it means to present to a global audience...

Ketup writes: re: Presenting for a global audience

Since this project has a chance of being global, I feel, just like Lauren, that we should be cautious about what we write. I also agree with Dani, that we should use reliable resources. We should show alot of respect to other cultures; speak the facts!

jillh writes: re: Presenting for a global audience

We need to presnt our facts concisely so other people don't have to wade through tons and tons of compiled information. With people all the over the world who can view things, it's important to say what you want to say as understandably as possible...and for us people, that means nothing as extremely complex as I know some of us are used to writing. it's like on YouTube--if your video description is more than a few sentences, less people will read it.

laurencl3 writes: re: Presenting for a global audience

The idea of our information going global not only frightens me because it means that people outside of our school might be scrutinizing our work, but also amazes me because i think this is an excellent way to get our school and our abilities as such gifted students out into the world! But like I said, the whole global think kind of freaks me out, so to make sure that we look like we know what we're doing and not embarrass ourselves, we should check and double check our facts before posting them, only use the discussion boards for latin america- related topics, etc. And because it seems like this might be our last project of the year (fingers crossed!) it goes without saying that we should put our best work out into the world and show how much we have grown in our first year of high school because we want to show people that we really are ADVANCED and worthy of the Humanities course.

Checking facts, do our best work, being concise, showing respect....all 21st Century Skills...

When asked about collaboration

owaisn2 writes: re: Working Collaboratively

Every individual in the gropup should have his/her own personal job/assignment to do so that the group is able to collect and share information in an appropriate fashion
reginab1 writes: re: re: Working Collaboratively

Dividing up the research and assigning jobs are important; but before we jump into that I think the group should discuss general facts, prior knowledge and their own interests to make sure everything is covered and people are researching what they're interested in. That way, the work will be easier and there's less chance of one person having to pull through a lot of work on a topic that was forgotten.

It has been so great to have them using tools outside of the classroom for this collaboration. Check out how THIS page has evolved--using discussion tools and the wiki mail system.

Thanks so much to Jim G for pointing out our little Latin America Wiki Project... He has way more Latin American readers than the ONE I have (Thanks Jeff D) The Clustr Map shows the students how truly global their work is.....The in-class conversations about what countries actually qualified as Latin American....SO different from GIVING the kids the countries to research. Can't help but think about how cool would it be for them to learn about these regions not from other students in their school, but by students who actually live in the countries they are studying...
SO...If you are reading this ... and you are in a Latin American country OR you are reading this and you KNOW someone who is in a Latin American country...PLEASE pass along our wikispace.
http://learninglatinamerica.wikispaces.com