Flat Classroom Project

I looked at the Globalization and Outsourcing segment of the flat classroom project. To answer Kim's questions:

1. What are the instructional objectives?

There were no specific objectives listed by the instructors. This I thought was a good thing, overall. Why limit the creative freedom in a project like this, where the learning unfolds from the process as much as the content? Some instructions were provided however:

• Discuss ways technology has changed the way people do business with each other and give specific examples from around the world
• Provide evidence of how the development of outsourcing has changed job opportunities and created new areas of expertise and opportunity in both areas. Discuss this in relation to both sides of the world (eg offshore tutoring)
• Discuss what job skills are necessary for the 21st Century and how this impacts on plans and trends in education for your country and the rest of the world

2. How were technologies are used by the students?

The digital technologies (listed below) were used to communicate some factual information, but mostly opinion and emotion dominated, particularly in the digital stories. This may be appropriate, but I thought some data regarding the effects of outsourcing and globalization would have made the presentation more compelling. (This was my one criticism of the project: there was a paucity of research.)

3. Put yourself in the students place, and assess what they may learn from the learning experience

One of the most interesting things about the Globalization and Outsourcing section was how a couple of the digital stories incorporated segments developed by students in other countries, as a way to illustrate outsourcing. This helped develop cross-cultural awareness and collaborative skills. There was also an evaluation/critique section at the end of the wiki, which required some critical thinking skills. But, most of all, I believe the students were learning about using a creative medium (film) to communicate content.

My favorite digital story was from Qatar, where the presenter was a girl in a Muslim head scarf and the narration was laid over a hip-hop track. It also included bloopers, which seemed to me a very Western concept. I suppose one could interpret this as evidence of the hegemony of Western (particularly American) culture, but to me it represented the common interests of teenagers world-wide. Mind you, these were English speaking students from international schools--not a particularly representative sample.

4. List technologies they are using in order to create their digital stories, write research on background, news, impact on education, etc in their wiki site.

The primary technologies used were: the wikispace container that held the content, audio-visual technology for digital stories, word processing software for text, internet for research.