iEARN in Action, January 23, 2008

Seeking Partners: iEARN Projects!
1. Register now for the next session of iEARN Online Professional Development Courses for Teachers.
2. Have a student film in need of music?
3. Join new project in iEARN -- The Great Energy Debate.
4. iEARN-Pakistan seeking partners for Panwapa Sesame Street Project in iEARN.
5. Get involved in the Natural Disaster Youth Summit and check out their new Newsletter.

Resources, Contests, Websites and Announcements!
6. iEARN Folk Tales Project featured in George Lucas Foundation's Edutopia Magazine.
7. iEARN celebrates 20 years in 2008.
8. 2007-2008 iEARN Project Book available in Spanish.
9. Check out iEARN-Lebanon's new project activities wiki.
10. Read the latest newsletter of the Global Connections and Exchange Program.
11. Oxfam curriculum for global citizenship.

Upcoming Events!
12. YouthCaN Environmental Conference (April 2008).
13. SirIKT Conference in Slovenia (April 2008)
14. iEARN-Trinidad and Tobago to host Natural Disaster Youth Summit (April 2008).
15. 15th Annual iEARN International Conference, Bukhara, Uzbekistan (July 2008).
16. Media Education Centre Conference in Belgrade, Serbia (August 2008)
17. Association for Learning Technologies Conference calls for papers. (September 2008)

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Seeking Partners: iEARN Projects and Activities
Download the 2007-2008 iEARN Project Book:
http://www.iearn.org/projects/projectbook.html for a full listing of iEARN projects, see: http://media.iearn.org/projects/.
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1. REGISTER NOW FOR THE NEXT SESSION OF iEARN ONLINE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSES FOR EDUCATORS. Courses enroll participants from around the world, and run frum February 11 - April 6, 2008. Each course is designed so that by the end of nine weeks you will have outlined how you will use a standards-based iEARN project in your classroom. Courses include: Creative Arts, Language Arts/Writing, Social Studies/Contemporary Affairs/Geography, Science/Environment/Math, Teaching of Foreign and Second Langauges, Helping Students Cope With Traumatic Events, Learning Circles, Moving Voices (making digital documentaries), and PEARL (integrating journalism skills into the classroom). Read more and register now to save your spot: http://www.iearn.org/professional/online.html.

2. HAVE A STUDENT FILM IN NEED OF MUSIC? "I have a grade 12 class that is learning to write music for short films and we are looking for a class to partner with, that can provide us with videos for my students to write background music for. Our students would hope to work together and discuss online their intentions for each film (can either be individual films or in groups). We are hoping to begin this in February." Contact Christopher Graham in Canada or join the discussion in the Teacher Forum.

3. THE GREAT ENERGY DEBATE. Students research the advantages and disadvantages of various energy sources, and create a fictitious business and prepare a presentation (using PowerPoint) to a panel of "politicians" who decide which company (energy source) will be chosen to build a new power plant for their community. The students come up with a company name, logo, and slogan. The students also research real/viable solutions to their company's disadvantages." Interested in working together to make this a global collaborative project? Facilitated by Curtis Cruise in the USA. See http://media.iearn.org/projects/energy.

4. iEARN-PAKISTAN SEEKING PARTNERS FOR PANWAPA SESAME STREET PROJECT INITIATIVE IN iEARN. In the coming months, iEARN-Pakistan will be piloting activities related to the Sesame Street program, Panwapa http://panwapa.com/ and is welcoming partners worldwide to join them in the Panwapa Forum. for joint planning and class activities. Facilitated by Noorudin Merchant and Saleem Ibrahim.

5. NATURAL DISASTER YOUTH SUMMIT PUBLISHES ITS FIRST NEWSLETTER. Yoshie Naya of iEARN-Japan writes, "Greetings from the Natural Disaster Youth Summit project. There are a lot of disasters in the world, and NDYS students are working to mitigate the disasters in the world. As one of their activities, the NDYS youth group has started to issue an NDYS Newsletter. This newsletter is edited by volunteer students from Argentina and Japan. They plan to issue the newsletter every 15 days. Hope you enjoy reading it." http://ndys.jearn.jp/news/index.html For more about NDYS, and to get involved, see http://ndys.jearn.jp/eng.html

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Check it Out! Resources, Contests, Websites, Announcements.
(This includes resources that are not part of iEARN)
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6. iEARN FOLK TALES PROJECT FEATURED IN GEORGE LUCAS FOUNDATION'S EDUTOPIA MAGAZINE. Check out 'Telling Tales: Pakistani Students Share Their Culture's Lore Online,' by Saleem Ibrahim of iEARN-Pakistan, project facilitator for the Folk Tales Project.

7. iEARN TURNS 20 IN 2008! Congratulations to all teachers, students, and alumni of iEARN! Join us in celebrating 20 years of global collaboration by sharing your stories, photos and videos in the Anniversary Forum and Album in the Collaboration Center: http://foro.iearn.org/iearnforums/anniversary. See a recent post by Omar Tarek, iEARN Egypt Alumni, and Vice Youth Representative, iEARN Egypt (http://www.iearnegypt.org) Students Board -- "iEARN - Simply, I love you."

8. iEARN PROJECT BOOK AVAILABLE IN SPANISH. See http://www.iearn.org/projects/projectbook.html. Thanks to Estela Di Filippo and the rest of the iEARN-Argentina team for this resource!

9. CHECK OUT iEARN-LEBANON'S NEW PROJECT ACTIVITIES WIKI. http://iearn-lebanon.wetpaint.com/

10. READ THE LATEST GLOBAL CONNECTIONS AND EXCHANGE PROGRAM NEWSLETTER. Countries currently participating in iEARN's GCE Program (funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State) include: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Syria, UAE, the United States, and Uzbekistan. http://us.iearn.org/collaborate/programs/bridge/news.php

11. OXFAM CURRICULUM FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP. A curriculum outlining the knowledge, skills, values and attitiudes which we believe young people are entitled in order to enable them to develop as Global Citizens. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/gc/curriculum/

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Upcoming Events
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12. YOUTHCAN 2008, APRIL 7, 2008. Event scheduled for April 7, 2008 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, USA. See http://www.youthcanworld.org for details of this and other YouthCaN events happening around the world. YouthCaN is a year-round network within iEARN of students using telecommunications for environmental project work. Join the YouthCaN forum.

13. SirIKT CONFERENCE IN SLOVENIA, APRIL 14-19, 2008. SirIKT conference is the opportunity for the exchange of the experiences between all teaching personnel, pupils and students who use the modern tools of the digital era at their work, and other users of ARNES network at all levels and scopes of education and research. It connects the following sessions: Innovative teaching and learning; Management of the informatized school; Pupils and students present themselves; ARNES and eTwinnig conference. http://www.arnes.si/sirikt/english/

14. NATURAL DISASTER YOUTH SUMMIT 2008. This year's theme: Global Warming and Disaster Reduction. NDYS 2008 International Conference will be held in Trinidad and Tobago in April 2008. For more about the project, see http://ndys.jearn.jp/ and to join discussions, http://media.iearn.org/projects/ndys.

15. JOIN iEARN-UZBEKISTAN JULY 12-18 IN BUKHARA FOR THE 15TH ANNUAL iEARN CONFERENCE. Check out the new conference website, developed by youth with help of iEARN-Uzbekistan team! iEARN-Uzbekistan Country Coordinator, Anatoly Kochnev announces pre-conference activities schedule where people will be able to learn more about conference hosting country, things to bring, activities during the conference, visa issues, travel opportunities and other. Connect in the 2008 Conference forum or see http://www.iearn2008.uz/.

16. MEDIA EDUCATION CENTRE INVITES YOUTH MEDIA PROGRAMS TO NOMINATE YOUTH FOR AUGUST 20-27, 2008 CONFERENCE IN BELGRADE, SERBIA. Seeking 15-22 years olds to participate. If you are interested, register on the IYMS Blog Category http://www.roamingreporters.net/RRWP/

17. ASSOCIATION FOR LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES CALLING FOR PAPERS AND ABSTRACTS FOR UPCOMING CONFERENCE, LEEDS, UK, SEPTEMBER 9-11, 2008. The "LT-C 2008: Rethinking the digital divide" conference seeks to explore how under-served groups can make more effective use of technology. iEARN projects provide excellent examples of how to link global and local interests, share experiences across different parts of the globe, they enable access to global learning opportunities and promote learning 'by' the learner rather than just 'for' the learner. Deadline for submissions is 29 February, 2008. For more information, see here.

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TO SUBMIT AN ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE NEWSFLASH: Send your announcement (2-3 lines) to newsflash@us.iearn.org.
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iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is a global non-profit network that empowers teachers and students to undertake projects designed to make a meaningful contribution to the health and welfare of the planet and its people. Started in 1988, iEARN is currently active in over 120 countries, with 1,000,000 students participating as part of their education. iEARN-International: http://www.iearn.org

Download the 2007-2008 iEARN Project Book: http://www.iearn.org/projects/projectbook.html (available in Arabic, English, French, and Japanese) or for a full listing of iEARN projects, see: http://www.iearn.org/projects/
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