iEARN in Action, August 26, 2004

TODAY IN iEARN --> SEND GREETINGS TO iEARN-GEORGIA GATHERING! iEARN-Georgia is currently hosting a summit in Batumi (town near Black Sea) from August 25-27.  Students and Teachers from 4 towns of Georgia are taking part in it.  Please send greeting for them in the Kartuli Forum.

REGISTRATION FOR FOR iEARN'S 9-WEEK ONLINE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSES NOW OPEN!  Courses run: October 4 - December 5. Each subject-specific course includes 20 teachers from around the world.  After the 9 weeks, you will have begun working on a project which fits into your teaching schedule and meets your local/state/national standards. The courses are now approved by several US states/cities, namely New York City, Delaware, and Rhode Island for teacher professional development credentials. For more information, and to enroll, see http://www.iearn.org/professional/online.html.

iEARN EXPANDS SPANISH ONLINE COURSES. 700 Spanish-speaking teachers from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador and other Latin American countries are taking iEARN online courses in Spanish through an agreement between Fundacion Evolucion and Microsoft-Argentina within the program "TELAR -Todos En LA Red." Microsoft-Argentina and its program "Partners in Learning" found the TELAR - iEARN courses very innovative and decided to support this innovative program of technology integration in the classrooms through the training of its teachers. For registration and more information www.telar.org

Join Us! Seeking Contacts, Contributions and Collaborators

2003-2004 iEARN PROJECT BOOK. Versions are now available in Arabic, Armenian, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. See here. For a more complete listing of iEARN projects, see here.

REGISTER NOW FOR THE NEXT SESSION OF LEARNING CIRCLES - REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS SEPTEMBER 15!  Learning Circles are a wonderful opportunity to work in a smaller circle of iEARN teachers committed to working on one another's projects. Learning circles are appropriate for every subject area and grade level, so register early and get on board! Placements forms are due September 15th and can be found here. Circles begin the last week of September. For more information, visit http://www.iearn.org/circles

JOIN IN HEBREW DISCUSSIONS. Ruty Hotzen in Israel invites participants to join her in the Hebrew Forum.

PLANT A TREE FOR THE CHILDREN AND TOMORROW! We are participants in one of the iEARN Projects called ENO-Environment Online. ENO is a global web school for environmental awareness and sustainable development. September 29th will be the opening of ENO Schoolyear, and we celebrate it with planting a tree that day, at 12.00 local time, together with our friends in the North, South, East and West. All within a same day! We invite all of You to join our activity! We will make a photo collection about trees and put them in the Internet for everybody to see. Don't hesitate to contact me, Mika Vanhanen in Finland.

POLITENESS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD FOR BETTER. Participants write fairy tales in their native languages about polite and impolite people and what might happen if we don't have good manners or don't show consideration for other people. The students describe the way out in their own ways; then translate them into English and draw pictures to illustrate their fairy tales. Contact Serjanina Tatiana in Belarus http://iearn-belarus.iatp.by/

WETLANDS PROJECT.  Students in New York City, USA invite students worldwide to join them in examining the current status of our natural and man-made wetlands -- how they support ecosystems, benefit our communities, and supplement water purification systems.  Students are encouraged to contact government agencies and research the history, current threats and future potential of several local wetlands. Photo journals, logbooks, displays, and power-point presentations will be prepared for the YouthCaN conference in New York. Interested?  Contact Lorraine M. Quaranta in the USA.

LAND USAGE AND DISTRIBUTION PROJECT.  In this project students find out the size of their country, how much land has been spared for urban settlement, agricultural activities, parks and the under utilised land. They also find out about the policies that are being employed by their governments to manage land.   Interested?  Contact Paul Mpofu in Zimbabwe.

WILD LIFE - OUR TRUE HERITAGE. This project seeks to find out about the various types of wild animals found on earth. Students pick not more than five wild animals found in their country and make their contributions through poems, essay and or pictures. These contributions should outline the importance of the wild animals, how they are endangered and how they can be conserved. Selected works will be compiled into a book that can be read on line, displayed in libraries and tourist destinations.  Interested?  Contact Paul Mpofu in Zimbabwe.

ATLAS OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY PROJECT. A Red TELAR (Argentina) and iEARN-Pangea (Spain) initiative that invites students aged 6-17 and other youth groups to develop content which illustrates "their place" in the world and distinctive features of their own culture, through a multi-media database of 'portraits' (youth work). Selected by the European Union as a Demonstration Project for Latin America and Europe. Until August 2004, over 650 schools/ youth organisations from 21 countries have participated creating 2000 portraits. Join us at www.atlasdeladiversidad.net! DEADLINE to get your school/youth organisation involved: September 13, 2004. Languages: Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese.

WELCOME TEACHERS FROM IRAQ TO iEARN!  Following a recent regional iEARN Conference in Amman, Jordan involving participants from 15 countries, teachers from Iraq are now coming online in the network.  Please welcome them in the Teachers Forum within the following discussion thread.

SPEED UP THE DAY: A PERSONAL EXPLORATION OF GLOBALIZATION.  This September, the Catalysta Networks will offer a special program to iEARN schools entitled "Speed Up the Day, A Personal Exploration of Globalization." Teachers and students from 15 to 19 years of age are invited to participate via the iEARN website. "Speed Up the Day" begins September 20th and continues for 14 weeks. The program is presented in English. Contact participation@catalysta.org with your request to join the program by September 15th.  Questions?  Contact information@catalysta.org or join in discussions of the project on the Teachers Forum.

RESPECT & REFUGEES PEN-PAL EXCHANGE.  A project that works to introduce awareness between refugee and non-refugee students by introducing refugee students to non-refugee students by pen-pal letter exchange. RESPECT currently has many letters from younger refugee students (5 to 10 years old) and older refugee  students (16 to 20 years old). These letters are from war-affected children and youth from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Northern Uganda.  Contact Marc Schaeffer in Canada or see http://www.respectrefugees.org

PEACE THROUGH PRAYERS. In this project, students of all faiths write prayers, poems, draw pictures, take photographs on the topic "what peace means to me". The teacher packages these projects and mails them in a Prayer/ peace box that has been created by the students. It is my hope that by participating in this project, all children will learn tolerance and acceptance of all faiths. Contact Melodie Wick in the USA.

Check it out! Resources, Web Sites and Postings (including resources that are not part of iEARN)

LIBRARY OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES ON iEARN-PAKISTAN WEBSITE.  http://www.iearnpk.org/PD/index.htm.  Country Coordinator, Farah Kamal, writes, "iEARN has reached far and wide in Pakistan and teachers all around are taking the lead in organizing and conducting workshops for their own schools and communities. This website contain useful resources for all such trainers and teachers." 

SEE RESULTS OF IMPACT OF iEARN ON STUDENTS AND TEACHERS IN EGYPT. Research question: To what extent has iEARN Egypt achieved its objectives? What impact has iEARN had on the teachers, students and community? Authors: Dr. Ahmed Dewidar, German University in Cairo & Dalia Khalil, iEARN Egypt.  http://www.iearnegypt.org/evaluation.htm

GLOBAL NOMADS GROUP TO HOST BROADCAST FROM SUDANESE REFUGE CAMP AT END OF AUGUST. This one-time-only broadcast will be open to all interested teachers and their students. To sign up, or simply to express your interest, please click here.  For more about Global Nomads Group, contact info@gng.org or see http://www.gng.org

HEIFER INTERNATIONAL READ TO FEED IS EXPANDING! A new version of the Read to Feed educational program is now available with the addition of a 5th/6th grade curriculum. This new alternative supplements the current 3rd/4th grade edition. To order the free materials, click here. For info about Heifer International, visit http://www.heifer.org

ENTER YOUR iEARN PROJECT WORK IN CHILDNET ACADEMY PROGRAMME! Children's charity Childnet International will soon launch its global Childnet Academy programme for 2005 which it runs in partnership with Cable & Wireless. The Academy competition is for young people 18 years and under who have developed online projects or have a new idea which will benefit other young people around the world. Children and young people can enter individually or as a school project. Winners of the 2005 Academy will win a trip for two to Jamaica to participate in the Academy week programme and prize money from a £30K fund. For further information please visit http://www.childnetacademy.org.

NABI DIGITAL STORYTELLING COMPETITION OF INTANGIBLE HERITAGE. The objective of this competition is to promote creative interpretations of intangible heritage through the use of interactive multimedia tools and digital storytelling technologies. Deadline: September 18 2004. Website.

iEARN AS A MEANS FOR "YOUTH AS E-CITIZENS. "The Center for Social Media at American University in Washington, DC, recently published a report on youth engagement in society.  iEARN was highlighted as one of the ways in which young people can become engaged in global issues (see here).  An executive summary of their report "Youth as E-Citizens: Engaging the Digital Generation", gives more details about iEARN and other organizations, and can be downloaded here.

Coming Soon! Upcoming Events and Projects!

SEND WELCOME MESSAGES TO NEW iEARN TEACHERS IN BOTSWANA! Tommie Hamaluba an iEARN teacher in Botswana will be conducting a Computer Literacy week long course (August 31 - September 3, 2004) involving 15 Primary school teachers from Raditladi Primary School. The workshop is endorsed by the Local District Education Office in Mochudi, Botswana. These teachers will be offline but iEARN will be mentioned also in the process. The biggest challenge Tommie is meeting is that when these teachers go back to their school, they will have all to share 1 set of computer! Send welcome messages that will be printed and shared.

SEND GREETINGS TO iEARN GATHERING (AUGUST 25-27) IN BATUMI, GEORGIA TODAY! Login and post a greeting in the Kartuli Forum.

iEARN EGYPT TO HOST ITS FIRST YOUTH SUMMIT - FUTURE MAKERS: BUILDING THEIR WAY OF SUCCESS AND GIVING A HAND TO OTHERS ON AUGUST 28-31, 2004. The Summit will be inaugurated by Dr. Ahmed Gamal El Din Moussa, Minister of Education in Egypt. http://www.iearnegypt.org

SEVENTH ANNUAL SCHOOLNET CONFERENCE IN IRAN, SEPTEMBER 1-3 IN ISFAHAN MATH HOUSE IN ISFAHAN. Organizers of the conference are the Science and Arts Foundation (SAF), SAF-Iran/Schoolnet and iEARN-Iran.  For information on the event and iEARN activities in Iran, see: http://www1.schoolnet.ir/en/

12TH ANNUAL iEARN CONFERENCE TO BE HELD IN JULY, 2005 IN DAKAR, SENEGAL.  Watch http://www.iearn.org for more information.

Recent Events

SHARE PHOTOS AND MEMORIES OF THE 11TH ANNUAL iEARN CONFERENCE IN SLOVAKIA!  A message and photo board has been created on the conference website for you to post your thoughts, memories, photos, videos, etc. from iEARN 2004 in Slovakia!!  Conference organizers will soon be posting a photo and video album containing hundreds of images from the conference and youth summit. http://www.iearn2004.net/. Participants have already started sharing their conference photo galleries. Click here, here, here, here, here and here to view them.