Process Journals

Week One:

We began our Flat Classroom Project by watching Mr. Thomas Friedman's video on his book: 'The World is Flat'. I to read the wiki article on it, and reflected on the video in my blog. We were to do this by creating an account on Blogger and naming in Grade 10 IT. I also wrote a summary of the MYP Design Cycle and an overview of the Flat Classroom Project in my blogs.

Week Two:

During this second week, I read the summary of Mr. Friedman's book, and wrote a blog about the videos on Mr. Friedman and the wiki article that I read last week. I also analyzed two videos from previous projects and posted the analysis on my Blogger account.

Week Three:

I explored the Flat Classroom Project 2008, 2007, and 2006 to get an idea of what is expected of us during this project.

I wrote two blogs on digital storytelling and social entrepreneurs. I found this to be an excellent task because I learned what digital storytelling was, and what is needed to make a digital story good. To research this form of storytelling further, I looked at some other resources that Mr. Jones provided for us on our class wikispace.

Week Four

I summarized the fourteenth chapter of 'The World is Flat' and wrote a mini-lesson on ten forces that flattened the world.

Week Five:

I began this week by creating a Multimedia overview of your assigned chapter, including information, examples, and images. I created a design brief and a storyboard, and wrote a mini-investigation of the multimedia project. After reviewing the Flat Classroom wikispace, I signed up for the Flat Classroom NING.

Week Six:

I crossposted Chapter Summary blog to my NING, and wrote a blog introduction as well. I contacted Team members, Erin Gunn, Frank B, and others. I joined Team Blog on my NING. I began working on my wiki by researching researching articles. I was sure to tag everything I did.

Week Seven:

I found news articles on my topic: Uploading information - Social Entrepreneurship. I also started the first stages of planning my video piece related to your topic. I decided to choose Facebook as my artifact. I was sure to use the Design Cycle and to storyboard my process.

Week Eight:

I continued working on my team wiki, and read and commented on Dr.Turner's Blog.

Everytime I came across a new article on Facebook, Web 2.0, Twitter, or any other communication tool, I would put it in our team wiki. I have also received contact from Frank B, my team member.

I was sure to use the discussion tab on your topic wiki to share my resources.

I have also added my request for an outsourced video clip the following 20 second clip: a student using Facebook to upload information.

Week Nine:

I have reviewed the specifications of my multimedia artifact on the project wiki and completed the wiki for homework. I have also watched Dr. Turner's keynote, and have left a comment thanking him for his feedback. I have also commented on a blog in my NING.

Week Ten:

All that is left for me to do this week is to write a blog reflection on your progress and to write a formal technology report following the Design Cycle Checklist.

Week Eleven:

I decided on my final digital story and kept it simple. I always remembered to take screenshots of everything I did. I also began working on my design stage and decided to do my plan stage over the weekend.

Week Twelve:

I completed my design and plan stages and began working on my video.

Reflection of Dr. Turner's Keynote

I found this keynote to be very beneficial. Some examples really made me see Dr. Turner's view of the 'flat world' in comparison to Mr. Thomas Friedman's view.

For starters, the Flat Classroom Conference is a great place to use your imagination, and you can learn a lot from people who share their ideas. Their ideas could possibly have an effect on yours.

His view of the 'flat world' is the following:

He thinks that it is beneficial to students in the sense that they use technology to be connected to their classmates, teachers, and other students and teachers all around the world. They also use it to upload and download information.

What is a social entrepreneur?

A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses "entrepreneurial principles" to "organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change".

Digital Story

What is a digital story?

Digital Storytelling refers to using new digital tools to help ordinary people to tell their own real-life stories.


What makes a good digital story?

In digital storytelling, your main goal is always to tell an intriguing story. You should always focus on the story, not the technology. "A good story will overcome glitches in technology, but good technology won't do much for a bad story." It is important to plan out your story. The best way to do that is with a storyboard. The storyboard gives you some organization before you begin creating your story on the computer.

What HardWare and SoftWare are needed?

SoftWare:

Audacity
GIMP

Harware:

Microphone
Digital Video Camera

Mr. Tom Friedman

Thomas Friedman is an award-winning American journalist, columnist and author, a contributor to The New York Times. He is a supporter of globalization and modernization.

He was born on born in 1953 and has won the prestigious Pullitzer Prize three times.

Mr. Friedman first discusses his views on globalization, terrorism, Kosovo War, the war in Iraq, and climate change in his book, The World Is Flat.

The World Is Flat Chapter 14 Summary

The World Is Flat Chapter 14 Summary

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Tom Friedman: Video Summary

Tom Friedman begins by saying that people from far-flung places will becomevery important in the marketplace. In Tom Friedman's book, The World is Flat, Friedman explains about a cascade of "technological and social shifts that effectively leveled the economic world", and made Beijing, Bangalore and Bethesda neighbors. Today, people of every race, age and gender can connect with each other. To do this, Friedman came up with a list of "flatteners" that enhanced globalization:

1. The fall of the Berlin Wall

2. The rise of Netscape

3. The dotcom boom

4. Common software platforms and open source code

5. The rise of outsourcing, offshoring, supply chaining and insourcing.

Friedman says that these five points lead to the creation of a flat world making sharing knowledge easier. This is when three economies began:

- India's economy

- China's economy

- The former Soviet Union's economy

The World Is Flat - Chapter 14 Summary

The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention

This chapter opens by introducing a new study of the "supply-chain" by using Friedman's computer as an example. The study later explores how geopolitical conflicts could slow globalization.

Tom Friedman has a theory: "two countries invested in a business together by being part of the same global supply-chain are less likely to go to war, as they are now heavily invested in the success of the business venture. Any interruption to that supply chain would be critical."


Supply chains have evolved and they have effected politics the stability of countries, such as Asian countries. These countries are part of many supply chains and are do good business.

The price of war is dramatically higher than it used to be and many countries must consider the economic effect of a war on their country. For example, the China-Taiwan relations and India-Pakistan. These are two examples of how the globalization and supply chain have caused countries to think rationally about the cost of war and have arrived at a solution.

However, there are limitatoins to this phenomenon. For example, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks formed "mutant supply chains" for the purpose of destruction. Transmitting terror is easier in a flat world. Friedman ends by discussing a way to "examine our abilities to derail the nuclear threat by using our capabilities to disrupt the terrorists supply chain".

MYP Design Cycle

The MYP Design Cycle consists of five stages: Investigate, Design, Plan, Create, and Evaluate.

Investigate Stage: The investigation requires a description of the problem and an explanation on why the problem is important. The student must also relate the problem to their own life, to society and to one or more areas of interaction (A.O.I.'s). In addition to this, a couple of questions to guide them through their investigation. Surveys and questionnaires should be conducted and the responses and feedback gathered should be analyzed. A design brief and design specification are also required, as shown above. In the design brief, the student explains what he or she is going to do to solve the problem. In the specification, one should write the essential and desirable characteristics they want their end product to have. The student should also have some tests written down (these will test the product against the specifiation). Research should be conducted and the sources should be in MLA format.

Design Stage: In this stage, the student should include a variety of designs. Each of these designs should be explained with story boards, sketches, or labelled diagrams. The designs should be evaluated against the design specification. Finally, the student should choose one design and justify their reasoning for choosing that design.

Plan Stage: The requirements of the plan stage include the creation of a time line with a Gantt chart. A step-by-step plan and evidence of planning should be included as well. The student should critically evaluate their time plans. If the student has made any modifications to their original design, the changes should be justified.

Create Stage: While following the time plan and working on the creation of his or her product, the student should keep a process journal (this journal will be helpful when writing the evaluation). The tools and techniques utilized in the process of creation should be explained. Any changes made to the final design should be justified. Evidence should also be provided, such as photographs, screen shots, etc.

Evaluate Stage: Finally, the student should include the feedback received from testers in their evaluation. In addition to this, an analysis of the questionnaire results should also be included.
A detailed evaluation of the student's performance at each stage of the design cycle discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each stage is essential, as are observations on how each stage could have been improved. A discussion on the impact of my product on the student, others and/or the environment should be included as well.