My 17 year old son Craig recently won third place in an international video competition related to his sociology class at Carrabassett Valley Academy which is taught by Eric Chamberlin. The competition relates to the book “The World is Flat“  by Thomas Friedman.  I think this project is a great example of how teachers around the world can bring students together via the Web to work collaboratively.  Check out his video on YouTube. I may be partial since I am his mom, but I think it is very clever. And he composed the music himself on his computer, too!

I loved his perspective on communications and especially thought it was funny that he thought email was so “90s.”  Note to self: when targeting his generation, avoid e-mail marketing campaigns.

Here’s the press release about the project:

The Flat Classroom™ Project 2009
For Immediate Release - October 26, 2009
Beijing, China and Camilla, GA USA

The organizers of the Flat Classroom™ project are excited to announce the selection of the 10 participating classrooms for the 2009 project. These schools represent more than 200 students, from 5 countries, and will run from October - December, 2009.

The Flat Classroom™ Project is a global Hands-on project for senior high school students which was founded by Julie Lindsay (Beijing, China) and Vicki Davis (Westwood Schools, Georgia, USA) in 2006 and is now sponsored by Elluminate. This project has won ISTE’s Online Learning Award (2007) and included in Thomas Friedman’s book, the World is Flat, upon which the project is based. Students will research trends in information technology and globalization, write a collaborative research report, and produce digital videos about their topics.

This year’s keynote address to students is delivered via a youtube video (cross posted to Ning) by Dr. Curt Bonk, Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University, and author of The World is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education (2009). Dr. Bonk says, “After reading about the Flat Classrooms Project, browsing through the website, and ultimately writing about it in my book, it is a fantastic experience to actually become part of it. The real irony, however, is that a project which analyzes books on the present and future state of business, economics, technology, and education has also become part of them. That is symbolic of the twenty-first century educational experience.”

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