iEARN in Action, January 25, 2007

Seeking Partners: iEARN Projects!
1. Public Art Project launches with more than 50 participant groups.
2. Folk Costumes Project celebrates 10 Year Anniversary.
3. Class in Pakistan seeking Local History Project partner.

Resources, Contests, Websites and Announcements!
4. iEARN Project Book available in French and Spanish.
5. Young people invited to apply for Oxfam International Youth Partnerships
6. Enroll in an iEARN Online Professional Development Course.
7. New PEARL Online Journalism Course.
8. iEARN-USA teams with New York University to contact pioneer teachers.
9. iEARN teachers and students test Arabic/English translation technology.
10. UNICEF Voices of Youth Call to Action.
11. Participate in the Our World Survey.

Upcoming Events!
12. Celebration of Teaching and Learning in NYC, USA.
13. YouthCaN Conference at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC, USA.
14. 14th Annual iEARN International Conference and Youth Summit, Cairo, Egypt.  

Recent Events!
15. iEARN Workshops held in Pakistan, USA, Uzbekistan, and Wales.

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Seeking Partners: iEARN Projects
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1. PUBLIC ART PROJECT HAS STARTED WITH MORE THAN 50 PARTICIPANT GROUPS. This week students from Catalonia and Spain, Belarus, Ireland, Poland, Romania, Israel, Sierra Leone and Czech Republic started to work in the second edition of the Public Art project. You can follow the project process at: http://lapeixera.org/fotos

2. FOLK COSTUMES PROJECT CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY! We are proud to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the "Folk Costumes Around the Globe" project, thanking all those who contributed to its success and wishing a warm welcome to new participants. We invite you to visit the project's website here and if you feel like, you may send your comments to Cornelia Platon, the project's coordinator in Romania.

3. CLASS IN PAKISTAN SEEKING PARTNER FOR LOCAL HISTORY PROJECT. A very active iEARN school from Peshawar -Pakistan, Peshawar Model School is looking for a partner for the Local History Project. The idea is for two classes/groups is to exchange on the Local History forum. Please respond to the posting in the Teachers Forum or write directly to the teacher in charge.

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Check it Out! Resources, Contests, Websites, Announcements.
(This includes resources that are not part of iEARN)
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4. 2006-2007 iEARN PROJECT BOOK NOW AVAILABLE IN SPANISH. Thanks to iEARN-Mali and iEARN Argentina! http://www.iearn.org/projects/projectbook.html

5. REGISTER NOW FOR THE NEXT SESSION OF iEARN ONLINE COURSES (FEBRUARY 19 - APRIL 22 2007)! iEARN's 9-week online courses will help you integrate international collaborative project-based learning into your classroom and fulfill your curriculum standards. This is a great chance to become an active member of the global learning community and receive a certificate as an "iEARN Master Teacher." Each class has 25 participants and at least 10 countries represented. Earn your professional development credits in a most effective, exciting learning environment. Review the courses at http://www.iearn.org/professional/online.html. Scholarship Opportunity Available for Secondary School Teachers from the following Countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman Pakistan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and USA! To request a scholarship write to onlinepd@us.iearn.org.

6. NEW PEARL ONLINE JOURNALISM COURSE. The course enables high/secondary school teachers to integrate journalism and international reporting into their curricula. The course is based on the PEARL World Youth News Project. For more information, see here.

7. iEARN-USA TEAMS WITH NEW YORK UNIVERSITY TO CONTACT PIONEER TEACHERS. NYU graduate students have embarked on an important "Capstone" project to locate, survey and interview teachers who were involved in the first five years (1988-1993) of iEARN's pioneering online international collaboration. Having tracked down teachers in New York State and Moscow (some have retired and most e-mail addresses have changed over 18 years!), the students are now in the process of surveying teachers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. They are exploring how iEARN work (in the early days it was called the New York State/Moscow Schools Telecommunications Project) impacted their teaching and student learning over the past two decades-building up to a 20 Year Anniversary Celebration of iEARN in 2008. Initial results will be shared at the Cairo iEARN International Conference in July 2007. If you know of teachers and/or students from this very early period, contact anniversary@us.iearn.org.

8. iEARN TEACHERS AND STUDENTS TEST ARABIC/ENGLISH TRANSLATION TECHNOLOGY. A new asynchronous translation technology developed as part of the MEADAN initiative will be tested by teachers and students in iEARN over the next 3-4 months. Meadan is a website designed to serve as a global town square for cross language (Arabic/English) dialogues on emerging events. A Meadan 'dialogue' is started by one user simply placing a text based comment on events or event related content aggregated on the Meadan site. This comment is then located on a global map, where another user can chose to respond-thereby creating a dialogue. Users will see all content (including dialogue postings) in their chosen language, either English or Arabic, regardless of the language source. Funding for this new machine translation technology has come from IBM. For more info, see http://www.meadan.org/

9. YOUNG PEOPLE INVITED TO APPLY FOR OXFAM INTERNATIONAL YOUTH PARTNERSHIPS. (Deadline: January 31). Oxfam International Youth Partnerships is a global network of young people working with their communities to create positive, equitable, and sustainable change. Youth who are chosen will have opportunities to develop their skills, knowledge, and understanding, and to talk and share with other like-minded young people. OIYP is open to young people of any nationality or ethnicity and any level of education. To be eligible, applicants must be between 18 and 25 years of age as of October 1, 2007, and speak English or Spanish. For more: http://www.iyp.oxfam.org/.

10. CALL TO ACTION - Llamado a la acción - Appel à l'action. Stop discrimination and violence against girls. The Working Group on Girls and UNICEF's Voices of Youth, are asking you to read this youth version of an expert report and tell us what you think should be done. The report talks about which girls are in danger of violence and unfair treatment and suggests ways governments, and their citizens, can protect them. Your recommendations and suggestions will be presented at the 51st annual Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations headquarters in February-March 2007. Read and respond using our online questionnaire , and send your answers back to us by 30 January 2007. Go to: http://www.unicef.org/voy/takeaction/takeaction_3295.html

11. BE PART OF THE "OUR WORLD 2007" SURVEY. The survey is in 9 languages and can be found here. Please promote the survey to as many young people (ages 15-24) as possible in all regions of the world. As you may recall from last year, this survey is intended to take the pulse of how youth in different parts of the world think and feel about issues of cultural, social, and economic identity both on the national and global level. The survey has been translated to various languages so more youth from different parts of the world can participate. An e-mail version of the survey can be received by sending a blank message to any of the following addresses: <ourworld-english@us.iearn.org>, <ourworld-espanol@us.iearn.org>, <ourworld-francais@us.iearn.org>, <ourworld-deutsch@us.iearn.org>, <ourworld-dutch@us.iearn.org>.

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Upcoming Events
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12. CELEBRATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING. Educators from around the United States will come together in New York City on March 23-24, 2007 for the 2nd Annual Celebration. iEARN teachers and students from a number of countries are working with the organizers to share international collaborative project work. At Celebration '07 there is a stellar roster of nationally-recognized speakers: former vice president Al Gore, NBC's Tim Russert, learning differences specialist Mel Levine, media and education expert Milton Chen, NOVA scienceNOW host Neil deGrasse Tyson, Wide Angle host Daljit Dhaliwal the Kratt brothers from Kratts' Creatures, and many others. iEARN's PEARL youth reporters from a number of countries will attend to report on the event. Information on the Celebration is at: http://www.thirteencelebration.org/

13. YouthCaN 2007 EVENT TO BE HELD IN NEW YORK CITY ON APRIL 23, 2007. Watch 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 technologies to undertake and/or share environmental work locally and around the world.

14. iEARN-EGYPT TO HOST 14TH ANNUAL iEARN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AND 11TH YOUTH SUMMIT, JULY 21 - 26, 2007 IN CAIRO. The theme of the conference is: Connecting Cultures and Respecting Differences: A Global Dialogue for Development and Sustainability. This theme will serve as an umbrella for iEARN projects and other sub-themes such as: professional development, new educational developments, new developments in ICT, iEARN initiatives and management, global dialogue and rural development. The conference is expected to attract 1000 participants. Parallel to the educators' conference, there will be an international youth summit with a focus on Leadership and Youth Empowerment. Check out the new conference website, designed by iEARN-Egypt students and alumni: http://www.iearn2007.net. General inquiries: <info@iearnegypt.org> & <dalia@iearnegypt.org>. Conference registration & call for paper: <iearn2007@yahoo.com> & <info@iearnegypt.org>. Deadline for workshop submissions: March 15, 2007. Conference and Youth Summit registration is open from July 1, 2006 - June 30 2007. Late fees will apply for registrations received after April 1, 2007.

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Recent Events
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15. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS HELD IN WALES, PAKISTAN, UZBEKISTAN, AND USA. Recently a series of professional development workshops have been held in a number of countries to introduce how to integrate international technology-based Project-based learning in the classroom. To learn more about these workshops and meet the teachers (make project connections!), see the following topics in the Teachers Lounge/Forum:
Wales: http://foro.iearn.org/webx?50@@.1e4e1575/19
Pakistan: http://foro.iearn.org/webx?50@@.1e4dfc1b/1
San Diego, USA: http://foro.iearn.org/webx?50@@.1e4e636c/14
Uzbekistan: http://foro.iearn.org/webx?50@@.1e4c08d1/0

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For Reference
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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 2005-2006 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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