Telling the World: Flat Classroom Student Summit by Julie Lindsay

The world is their audience, literally, when high school students embark on a Flat Classroom Project. As a culmination to the 12-14 week global collaborative project students have the opportunity to present their research and findings in real time through a virtual classroom. Guests internationally are invited to attend and ask questions and interact with the students. This experience goes beyond the usual classroom sharing model and promotes awareness of the scope of a global audience, confidence in public speaking and enhanced cultural exchange. This session shares highlights from recent Flat Classroom Student Summits and provides a pedagogical approach that allows safe collaboration and sharing and pushes the limits of classroom experience into a blended 21st century and Web 2.0 model. This session will showcase best student work from the Flat Classroom project and show how students present their research and learning to an international audience. Using a virtual classroom, students from around the world present to their peers and to educators and guests and field questions. The aim of this session is to show how powerful an online learning community is and how Web 2.0 tools can support and enhance the learning experience globally. Participants will be exposed to tools and methods for facilitating this style of online showcase.