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As we come to the end of the school year, those of us involved in the MyPlace Project would love to get a snapshot of what young people think about their place in the world. A special blog post form has been created for this purpose. There are three videos to choose from. The idea is to pick the video that most interests you and write your best response.

1. Write a post where you answer the question “What can we do to make the world a better place?” Use one of the three videos as the starting point for your response.
2. Write as well and honestly as you can.
3. When you’ve finished writing, please take a short survey if you haven’t already.

This research is designed so that we can create better learning activities for students. When you are ready, click on the image above or click here to make a post about how we can make the world a better place.

Many hands make light work. So the saying goes, but is it really true when the work is making the world a better place? Here’s our chance to prove that we can make a difference. Five schools in Melbourne are participating in the MyPlace Project and as students at these schools you can work together with other students to collaborate on answering this overall question:

What can we REALLY DO to make the world a better place?

Because this is such a big question, we will have different teams adding their own expertise in the areas of budgeting, world health, global economics and national cultures. The students involved range from year 5 to Year 11 and come from Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School, Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School, St. Leonard’s College, St. Michael’s Grammar School and Toorak College. The activities below are here to get you interested in participating. You can join in as an individual, a pair, small group or whole class. If you are interested, you can download the workshop agenda.

Making Dollars & Sense?

Question: How can we manage our money so we have enough to live, but some left to give?

Interested? Go on to the Budget: Dollars & Sense page

Science & Cells

Question: How can an understanding of cells improve life on the planet?

Would you like to find out more about David Bolinsky, the creator of this animation?

Interested? Go on to the Cells & Living Connections page

The Rush is On!

Question: What can we learn from the Aussie Gold Rush to better understand today’s growth of China?

Interested? Go on to the Boom: Then and Now page

Comparing Cultures: France / Australia

Question: What can we learn from other cultures to help nations grow and prosper in a rapidly changing world?

France

Australia

Environmental Refugees

Environmental Refugees #2

Interested? Go on to the Comparing Cultures: Fr/Oz page

Networking

Question: How can networks and emerging technologies support humanity?

Interested? Go on to the Networking page

Re-Cap - how to get involved!

Anyone from our four schools can participate. You can do this as part of your class or just because you want to get involved and make a difference. To get started, Choose one of the areas to help with:

Budget: Dollars & Sense
How can we manage our money so we have enough to live, but some left to give?

Boom: Then and Now
What can we learn from the Aussie Gold Rush to better understand today’s growth of China?

Cells and Living Connections
How can an understanding of cells improve life on the planet?

Comparing Cultures: Fr/Oz
What can we learn from other cultures to help nations grow and prosper in a rapidly changing world?

Networking
How can networks and emerging technologies support humanity?

On each link about is a way to register for that Blog/Tasks. You can download this document for instructions on getting started.

Besides making a difference in the world, we are also trying to help education, so all participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire about your attitudes toward learning. All information is made anonymous - we ant to learn about “types of students” not about “you.” Thanks so much for joining in!

Do you want the short answer or do you want to download the MyPlace Handbook?

Keep reading for the short answer

Are you interested in an authentic learning project that uses Web 2 tools to promote intrinsic motivation, critical thinking and better achievement? If so, read on. If not, head off and stumble upon something else.

1. Get intrigued

2. Explore the topic

3. Decide if you want to participate in the MyPlace Project (background info). If so, at what level - you choose! Take a look at a large graphic showing the levels.
Here’s the beginning level:

Minimal Participation

1. Integrate MyPlace themes to enhance regular curriculum
2. Use the MyPlace Subject Sampler to engage interest
3. Watch the MyPlace blog for whole-class Looking Tasks
4. Post Comments to the MyPlace Blog
5. Allow students to participate in MyPlace independently

Intermediate Participation

1. Set up a Weblog to use with your class
2. Everyone joins the Online Community Space (elgg)
3. Routinely read feeds and Del.icio.us bookmarks to find interesting things to post to your class blog
4. Build a Knowledge Base using the MyPlace Wiki
5. Podcast or other sharing of expertise

Advanced Participation

1. Work a “Class Portal” for advanced learning
2. Frequent the Online Community Space for personal learning
3. “Serve the Web” through online collaboration & outreach
4. Manage the Knowledge Base as part of class learning
5. Produce a Podcast / program regularly, integral to class learning

4. Post a thoughtful comment on one of these pages

• Global Economics
• Changing Populations
• Climate Change
• Popular Culture
• Science and Technology
• Current Events

4. Once or twice a week, use a Looking Task to think deeply. Use Thinking Routines so a culture of thinking grows. Try stuff like these:

• Did you know 2.0
• Living and Dying like Americans
• Made in China
• The Climate Divide

Watch this video and see what you think. It illustrates some of the issues we’re looking at in MyPlace - mostly those related to changes in demographics and careers. See what you think and put your reflections online so others can give you feedback and together we can see if people are in agreement about any aspects.

Perhaps the best Thinking Routine we can use here is:

SEE-THINK-WONDER

1. What do you see?
2. What do you think about that?
3. What does it make you wonder?

You can post your thoughts either in the comments below or register with our online community and put your ideas on your own blog (here’s a Help page if you need it).

(You can read more from the creators of the video)

This video from the TED conference is a three minute expert call to consider the question:

Does Globalisation have to mean adopting an unhealthy diet?

Download link

Consider using the Thinking Routine:

CLAIM-SUPPORT-QUESTION

1. Make a claim about the topic
2. Identify support for your claim
3. Ask a question related to your claim

Monday begins the three-day AISV / MyPlace Summit. The workshop has been designed to support teachers participating in the project. We will help people decide how they want to participate and then provide hands-on experience learning the skills needed to make it a reality. We’ll set up Weblogs, collect online resources, design Looking activities and brainstorm how groups of students might collaborate online. Everyone will get a chance to explore all the Web 2 tools we’ve blended into the project. This will be fun!

Download the Summit Handbook

Summit Participants - please use the comments link below to share your personal learning goals for the workshop. Thanks!

Also, go to the MyPlace Help blog as a communications space.

James Fallows is one of the great journalists of the US. He is a former speech writer for President Carter and editor of US News & World Report and The Atlantic Monthly. His interests and expertise range from current events and politics to technology and Asia. He recently moved to China and has been reporting on a country he’s known first-hand for over 20 years. Watch this slideshow that he narrates and apply some thinking routines like:

You can also watch a previous slideshow - Our Man in China - that is more about first impressions on first moving to China at the end of 2006.

A BBC article this past week, Warm spring ‘affecting wildlife’, relays findings from the Springwatch 2007 survey (64k pdf download) that shows some species are appearing earlier than expected. A warm spring has brought about the early arrival of some UK wildlife, such as the Red-tailed bumblebee, Seven-spot ladybird and Peacock butterfly. The conclusion of the survey raises one concern:

Mismatches of timing (synchrony), as plants, birds and insects are all responding at different rates.

Longstanding patterns of inter-relationship among flowers, insects and birds can be expected to undergo stress as some species thrive while others find their traditional food sources depleted by earlier arrivals.

Because we are heading into winter in Australia, you might consider working as a team or class to record what you notice when spring arrives. Just yesterday, I saw some crazy jonquils blossoming and we aren’t even in winter yet?!

Political cartoons are a great way to stay up on current events and to challenge our values. Here are links to major Australian politcal cartoonists:

• Bill Leak, from The Australian
• Peter Broelman
• Peter Lewis
• John Kudelka, The Australian
• John Ditchburn, The Ballarat Courier
• Moir, the Sydney Morning Herald
• Peter Nicholson, daily cartoonist for The Australian
• Vince O’Farrell, The Illawarra Mercury, The Melbourne Express
• Nik Scot, Curious Moments
• Paul Zanetti
• David Pope (AKA Heinrich Hinze)

Because we also have some Year 12 French students, here are three from France:

• Jiho
• Pierre Ballouhey
• Marcello

Remember to consider these cartoons as a Looking Task.

The New York Times recently posted an audio-visual slideshow on how global warming is likely to be most severe for those peoples’ already struggling to survive.

Here’s a suggested activity:

Needed equipment: data projector and an Internet-connected computer with speakers.

Watch

As a group, watch the slideshow. You might watch it more than once.

As you watch, note something that strikes you. Maybe something surprised you. Perhaps something seems unfair or wrong. Maybe it makes you feel like taking some kind of action.

Discuss

As a group, start to share the things that struck you. After everyone who wants to has shared, start to “chunk” these things into main groupings. See if you can’t find 2 - 4 main categories. Think about mind-mapping these out to make the activity easier to visualise.

Decide

After getting everyone’s input, decide what you think. This could be a sentence or a paragraph depending on your age, interest and time. A decision is different than an idea or a feeling. A decision expresses a belief and its reasons. You might find it easier to do this is you use words like “it is wrong,” “we should / should not,” or “In order to.”

You can write in a notebook or set up your own MyPlace blog in the Online Space. Even easier, you can add your decision as a comment to this post (see the link below).

Let us know what you think!