iEARN CIVICS - CAIRO, November 10-14, 2000

ABOUT THE MEETING: I*EARN-US and Egypt hosted 50 educators from Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, Bulgaria, Ghana, Senegal and Lebanon at a meeting in Cairo, Egypt. I*EARN CIVICS (Community Voices Collaborative Solutions) is a project funded by the US Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs that aims to involve English language teachers from Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, and Lebanon in I*EARN projects, focusing on issues of civic education.

SCHEDULE: Some workshop topics are below:

• I*EARN for Beginners. Getting started in iEARN projects, overview of online forums and website, reading and posting the online project forums, getting involved in projects, integrating projects into the curriculum.
• Local Organizational Development. This workshop will focus on how to develop a sustainable iEARN program in your local community or country, and will also provide a general overview of the structure of I*EARN as an international network.
• Hey Culligan Man: A Beginner's Guide to Problem-Based Learning. This workshop will introduce participants to problem-based learning, which is an authentic, experiential form of learning centered around the collaborative investigation and resolution of a messy, real-world problem. A theoretical background for experiential learning will be established. Participants will then review a successful problem-based unit from initial project development through student completion. If time allows, participants will be coached in the initial development of their own problem-based unit.
• Online Professional Training for Teachers: "A Community Responsibility." This workshop will introduce to I*EARN coordinators an online course designed to train teachers integrate Web-based projects into their classroom. The coordinators will use this online course to train teachers in their respective countries, highlighting the role of each member of the community: the coordinator, the institution and the participating teachers. What behaviors should the coordinator encourage in the online classroom, what problems the participants may face and how to adapt to "learning" in this new environment.
• Teaching English and Writing for International Collaboration Projects. Given that todayâs language teachers are responsible for teaching language through relevant content, a focus on global / peaces issues provides students with both the chance to improve language proficiency as well as to interact with others in meaningful ways÷to use critical thinking to help resolve conflicts, to demonstrate social responsibility, tolerance, social justice and a respect for diversity. Writing then becomes the tool to develop the abililty to become a world citizen. In this workshop, participants will develop units in teaching English that bring together writing skills and civics issues via the participation in iEARN Projects.
• Cooperative Learning and the Power of the Internet. The use of the technology and the impact of collaborative projects are excellent resources to develop student based cooperative learning skills. This workshop will begin with the basics of cooperative learning and identify why this is an important methodology to consider when developing teaching strategies We will examine the differences between cooperative learning methodologies and traditional teaching methods. We will also explore the vast realm of cooperative teaching techniques and look at how collaborative Internet projects can provide us with the opportunity to change the way we teach, empower students, and create new learning communities.
• Civic Education and iEARN Projects. This session will look at how involvement in international collaborative projects can be used to teach students their responsibilities as a citizen. We will look at environmental projects and explore ways they can be used to develop values, critical thinking and attitudes about participation in the community.
• Integrating iEARN in Your Curriculum/Class. Participants will learn how to evaluate projects to see if they will enhance their curriculum. Practical tips will be shared on how to motivate students, how to get support from your school, how to get community support, and how to fit projects in your lesson and schedule.
• Integrating Internet Projects Into Your Curriculum: IEARN and Internet Projects. Now that you have the Internet what do you do with it? How will it affect the way you teach? How can you integrate into your present curriculum? Many educators are faced with the difficulty of how to integrate computer and technology skills into their curriculums. IEARN resources and collaborative projects provide an excellent opportunity to extend student learning into the real world. This workshop will provide instruction on how to create, integrate, and publish student projects using IEARN and Internet resources. Actual student projects and work will be examined. Project ideas will be discussed that can reach and have an impact on students, parents, the community, and the world.
• iEARN in North Carolina. International School Partnerships through Technology (ISPT) is a program of the Center for International Understanding of The University of North Carolina. It partners high school classrooms from rural areas in North Carolina with classrooms around the world to work together on curriculum related projects. ISPT has partnered with iEARN to give these partnerships access to iEARN projects and resources.
• Student Leadership - Cyberkids and CyberTechs. Who does a teacher call to get a group at school into an IEARN Forum? How can you print out an email? How do you navigate the IEARN Website? You can call a cyberkid or cybertech! A school is a community of learners; teachers teach and learn and students teach and learn. The Cyberkids/Techs' project is an example of that assumption in practice. Help draw a continuum of technology tasks, then discuss and share what is in it for the students, the teachers, the school, the logistics, and the pitfalls.
• IEARN Professional Development. How can I do all this IEARN stuff at my school with my teachers? There is no single formula for designing an I*EARN workshop. Attention should always be paid to the particular needs and interests of each participating group in determining which content and skills should be covered in a workshop. IEARN has created a toolkit of general skills and concepts which may serve as building blocks for an IEARN workshop. It contains successful Warm-up Activities, an Overview of IEARN, Sending and Receiving E-mail, Navigating the IEARN Website, IEARN Across the Curriculum, Configuring, Reading, and Posting to IEARN Forums, How to Find People and Projects, and Creating a New IEARN Project.
• Introducing iEARN Projects School Wide. The session would focus on Including I*EARN Projects as a part of mainstream teaching and learning activities that is classroom teaching, assignments and assessment. A sample unit plan would be shared that is written for integrating Language (Story Writing) and Science (writing research reports) and how students and teachers worked on it. The workshop would focus the importance of planning and curriculum review for integrating I*EARN activities in schools. Participants would be encouraged to share what possible problems and constraints they may face while implementing I*EARN Projects in their own school context. The presenter would also share a successful model of instituitionalising I*EARN tele-education projects and some tips that has proved useful for overcoming time and resource constraints. A variety of Formats and templates would be shown that would help in effective planning and implementing I*EARN Projects school wide in participants own context. Participants would be encouraged to use some of them during the workshop to take back to their own school for implementation.