“Stop asking questions you know the answers to and open the door to communication and collaboration.” – Norway

This post is cross published. It originally was posted in Microsoft “Daily edventures” by Anthony Salcito.

Ann Sorum Michaelsen believes deeply in the importance of teaching students how to use social media, build a personal learning network and connect with learners in different parts of the world. “Communication is the answer,” says Michaelsen. “I believe digital footprints and understanding who to trust and where to find materials is vital in this pursuit.”

Michaelsen has promoted the use of computers in schools since 2002. She was instrumental in implementing the Skillsoft Learning Management System (LMS) in her county’s 34 schools. Michaelsen’s school, Sandvika VGS High School, was Norway’s 2009 Pathfinder school in the global Microsoft Partners in Learning Innovative Education Forums, and Michaelsen presented at the same event in South Africa in 2010. In fact, Michaelsen recently took four students to Lesotho to deliver laptops and Internet. They now Skype on a regular basis.

Michaelsen is also is an active writer of the blog Teaching English Using Web 2.0 where she offers advice to fellow educators. Today, she gives us her thoughts on personalized learning, and how she sees trends like the flipped classroom fitting into a high-quality education.

Can you describe how your professional achievements have advanced innovation in education?

My greatest professional achievements have been the yearly conferences we have at our school. By inviting world-class educators I have been able to spread some of my ideas and what I have learned to other educators in Norway.

What has changed as a result of your efforts?

It is difficult to pinpoint exact results. But our school is one of the leading schools in Norway regarding use of technology with students. Students have great expectations when it comes to using laptops in class and our school is among the most popular in our district. We need to constantly seek opportunities and learn from others. We will never be able to say that this is it, we are done with innovation!

How can others facing similar challenges implement what you’ve learned through your work?

It is a challenge to change a system, especially in schools. Teachers become teachers because they love books and love to learn. When you introduce laptops for every student it is scary and difficult. If the teachers insist on continuing lecturing we have a problem. I think school leaders need to lead by example. That is why I love to teach as well.

How have you applied technology in innovative ways to support your work?

I use my blog to share ideas, with my students and other educators. I use OneNote to make a textbook my class shares and uses during tests and exams. We use audio programs to make radio shows and all my students have their own blogs. They are linked to my blog and I often ask other educators to comment. I love Skype and we use it a lot, too.

What is the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome to ensure students are receiving a quality education?

We are lucky in Norway; our government provides books and laptops for all students in high school. It is the way the laptop is used that is the biggest obstacle.

What is your country doing well currently to support education?

I’m excited that our country initiated a trial with the use of Internet during exams. See more here: http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/05/for-exams-is-using-the-internet-considered-cheating/

What conditions must change in your country to better support education?

I would open the possibility for more student choices. I think we are cramming too much into the curricula and require too many courses to graduate. We talk about innovation and creativity, but deliver the same content to all our students at the same pace. What if we opened up for more individual choices? Personalized learning is another buzzword I’ve been reading about. I think it is difficult to accomplish that if we do not change the system radically. To quote Chris Lehman from ISTE in June: “Personalization can’t mean we do the same stuff at a different pace. Anyone who tries to sell you that, call them out!” I believe that more important than remembering content is the ability to question and become a lifelong learner. We need to challenge our students and provide real problems to solve. Stop asking questions you know the answers to and open the door to communication and collaboration.

What is the best opportunity for innovation in education?

I think connecting students, classrooms and teachers and learning from each other offers a great opportunity. I think personalized learning is the way to go, but we shouldn’t forget that we need to work together. A student sitting alone in front of a computer is not the answer.

What advice would you give a new teacher (or to anyone wanting to make a difference in education)?

Take a chance, don’t be afraid to try. Write a blog and use Twitter to connect and learn from others.

What educational “trend” do you think is helping students? Is there a trend that is getting in the way of learning?

Flipping the classroom is a great trend because it lets us discuss how we are using the time we have in school with the kids. It is not about producing videos or using Khan Academy. It is about helping students, working on different problems and discussing and learning in school.

If you could give one educational tool to every child in the world, what would it be? Why?

I would give a device that can connect the students to the rest of the world. It doesn’t have to be a laptop. When we visited Lesotho this March we learned a lot! For my students to see how they live and learn in Lesotho – a country they knew nothing about before we started to study it – was amazing. Now with the help of money from my school and technical help from Microsoft, we are able to Skype with this school every week. Communication is the answer. Use your device to connect and learn from others. Both students and teachers need to learn how to do this.

 

What is 21st century education?

And are you ready?

I know this is old news! And we have talked about it before. But this video is worth watching anyway! Perhaps to share with your staff? Or how about starting the school year by showing this to your students? Let them discuss the following; what are the implications, and what needs to change in our classroom? If I am a 21st century teacher, will you be a 21st century student?

“Our world is changing at an unprecedented pace. To prepare our students, lessons must go beyond the “3 R’s” and foster 21st century skills. Skills like critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity will be essential for students to take on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead”. Source: Smithsonian.

 

19 Bold Ideas for Change in Education – are you ready?

Ready for change?

Powerful Learning Practice‘s co-founder, Will Richardson, gave a five-minute presentation on 19 Bold Ideas for Change at the ISTE 2012 conference.

Listen to the presentation here and see all 19 points below!

 

21st Century Literacies

The Definition of 21st Century Literacies

The bullet points below are taken from the NCTE website, National Council of Teachers of English and are a great guideline for what should be taught in schools today. I think it is a great reminder of what we should  working with at every level. When the students start high school we hope they have some of these skills, but for the most part, these literacies have not been taught at all. It seems most teachers either assume the students have the required knowledge, or possibly do not know how to teach this. If it is not in the curriculum nobody bothers!

Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups.

Twenty-first century readers and writers need to

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

Related articles

• On the important differences between literacies, skills and competencies. (dougbelshaw.com)

 

ISTE 2012 San Diego

Some thoughts about my third ISTE in San Diego June 2012

I think this year’s ISTE has been great. That said I know not everyone will agree with me. If you follow the Twitter feed #iste12 you might know what I’m talking about. Gary Stager on; meaningless clichés.

What I do know is that meeting people face to face is what counts the most, it is great when you finally get to see those you have been following on Twitter for a long time. As member of the PLP gang it is always fun to meet up with Sheryl Nussbaum Beach and this year I got to meet Jenny Luca from Australia. We have only communicated via Twitter but when we met it was as if we had been friends for a long time. We had lunch and made plans to do a project with our students next year, Shelly Wright has promised to participate as well. Look forward to seeing what exciting things might come from this connection. I also glad I got to meet with Beth Still and I almost met Sue Waters!

This year I didn’t spend much time taking notes, and I didn’t have time to update my blog, but I did use Twitter to save useful websites and comments and that is my main source for writing this post. To quote jackiegerstein; Twitter is the emancipation of teachers from the silos of isolation!

The conference started with the keynote by Sir Ken Robinson and I thought it was great. On the 10,5 hour flight to San Diego I read his revised new version of the book “Out of our minds”. Many of the points he made on stage I recognized from the book. He was funny, entertaining and had many good points. I think we all wished ISTE had given more talking time to Sir Ken Robinson and less on the promotion of ISTE and the panel discussion that followed. As you will see in this video it takes too long before he starts talking! Read some of the critical comments here.

Marc Prentsky was not at all what I had expected, don’t ask, but it was fun to have seen him. I read his book “digital natives” and even if I don’t agree with the terminology and the idea that all young people are digital natives, there are many good ideas in his book that you can use in class.

The next key note I attended was with Yong Zhao. I didn’t know anything about him before the keynote, and I was very impressed. Dr. Yong Zhao is an internationally known scholar, author, and speaker. His works focus on the implications of globalization and technology on education. He has designed schools that cultivate global competence, developed computer games for language learning, and founded research and develop institutions to explore innovative education models.The first thing I did after the key note was to buy his book, “Catching up or leading the way“. He has a new one out these days, but it’s not available on the Kindle yet. Take a look here to recapture the keynote, it is time well spent. (scroll the time line to 54 minutes!) Some quotes from the lecture: “American education is not in decline, it’s always been bad.” “American schools don’t teach creativity but they kill it less successfully.

The rest of the conference I pretty much went to the workshops I had planned to attend before I came. That way I end up listening to the people I follow on Twitter. Not the best way to expand my horizon (name of the ISTE conference this year, Expanding horizons) but it is a pretty safe bet when content is a priority. This year my favourites were those highlighted below. I have not written a resume from each workshop, but offer links and quotes taken from my Twitter feed:

Alan November; When challenging students to collaborate with other schools in other countries he offers this advice: Google with site: and country code to learn about other perspectives and get the other side of the story! Use Epals to connect classrooms, teachers should connect classrooms globally to discuss books, what a great opportunity that is. ow.ly/1O8tXb From Ewan McIntosh: Out of 400 people, USA’s tech elite at #iste12, only four people have used twitter to connect to authentic on the ground experiences. Teachers should use Twitter to connect with interesting people outside the classroom. You should teach students how to use Twitter as a search engine! Digital natives, not true. Kids do not know how to use Google! Scary!

Chris Lehmann: I have written about Chris in previous posts. He is the principal at SLA in Philadelphia. His students and teachers are amazing and I really enjoyed visiting the school in January. Here are some of the Twitter feeds from Chris and from his presentation. Personalization can’t mean we do same stuff at a different pace. Anyone who tries to sell you that, call them out! Inquiry isn’t us asking kids questions we know the answer to; but don’t just present blank page. Offer guided inquiry. See slides here. High Tech High publishes student work as PDFs and uploads them to Lulu where they can be bought as physical books. Study group are essential to student learning. Exhibition as a critical piece of project-based learning at High Tech High. “never fall in love with your curriculum to the point where you forget the children in front of you.

David Warlick Great source of infographics from Dwarlick. Here are some useful links: davidwarlick.com/graphicaday/. Google public data, great way to research ow.ly/1O8Vxv easel.ly create infographics. InfoGraphic a day, David Warlick ow.ly/1O8VKV. Co-learners a digital textbook of sorts.

Kevin Honeycutt I have written about Kevin in a previous post. I really wanted to invite him to Norway this November, but his calendar was already full! Hopefully we will see him in Oslo next year instead. Check out his web page, iPad users click here: kevinhoneycutt.org

Patrick Larkin and George Curcos Are two principals I have been following on Twitter for a long time. I hope to see them both at our conference in November. They are great examples of what principals could do to lead by example. They had a great presentation at ISTE and here are some of the links I found useful! Blockbuster Offers Glimpse Of Movie Renting Past – YouTube bit.ly/NymVt3. The Letter Every Apple Employee Gets On Their First Day bit.ly/LzSDep. Google Chrome: Make It Happen – YouTube bit.ly/MAnZ06. Now, after 30 years, you can carry all of this in your pocket. bit.ly/KR0ZJ3. Brand your school as a creative learning organization where every kid is unique and special. We don’t allow the teachers to grade student blogs… as soon as we grade the blog it becomes the teachers not the students. Texas hospital live-tweets brain surgery bit.ly/Jtigue. About the Learning Leader Project bit.ly/HgDH1H. Students as Blog Leaders bit.ly/yJskO. Social Media for Administrators #cpchat #iste12 bit.ly/KKg29l

Evernote: Web clipper for Evernote on the iPad ow.ly/bRMWn

Ewan McIntosh Ewan presented at our conference last year. This year his colleague Tom Barret will be presenting at our school in November . He had a great presentation where he showed how you can teach history, science, and a lot more using data! Data is all about telling a story. Ewan shows how to use gapminder and data. David McCandles ow.ly/1O9j6v information designer. Wordle should be used more to visualize data ow.ly/1O9jae. Set aside 20 minutes a week to search for cool stuff! Wear headphones and pretend you are doing something serious. BBC, how many really, comparing numbers ow.ly/bRXZc. Information is beautiful great web site ow.ly/1O9jDI. Freebase, everything under the sun visualized ow.ly/1O9jTq.

My poster session

Ingunn and I had a poster session Monday from 8-10. I don’t know if we really expected any visitors, but we were surprised. Many were interested in the topic 1:1 schools with block scheduling. I think we surprised many with block scheduling from 08:30 to 1:10 pm each day! More info about session here, and my slides are here!

Helping teachers

Expanding horizons was the name of the conference. I think it captures the essence of what we are trying to accomplish in our classroom. To connect students with other students, writers, reporters and ordinary people living in different countries. That is the best way to learn about cultures, conflicts, religions and how people leave in different parts of the world. Imagine teaching history, second world war and connecting with people who live in Norway, Germany, France and Great Britain to discuss what happened. Or study indigenous people by connecting students in Australia, Alaska and Norway? Nobody can disagree because to me it makes perfect sense. Laptops, iPads, computers and social media makes it both easy and doable. Why then are so few teachers connecting to the world using Twitter and writing blogs? I hope they don’t imagine that the students are doing this alone? I think the answer is that it is too difficult. Everything is difficult if you don’t know how to do it. And it is equally difficult for the students. Forget digital natives. This is something we all need to learn! That is why listening to Alan November was so refreshing. He had great examples of what the teacher could do to connect. Let’s just hope those of us who were able to attend this year’s conference will go home to our schools and lead by example!

Let me end by this quote: Every teacher has the right to live in a cave, but they don’t have the right to drag their students in with them, T. Whitby. After spending 3 days with the world’s technological elite in education it is clear to me! In danger of getting on the cliché bandwagon; It is time to change! It’s not about the technology but what you can accomplish with it! It is about knowing the right people to follow and it is about connecting. Showing your students what they can accomplish and guiding them. It really is about expanding horizons! Feel bad about not attending? Try to catch up by watching the ISTE’s You tube channel.

 

ISTE 2012

Just over a week before I board an air plane on my way to San Diego and my third ISTE conference! I am determined to make the most of it since I rather suspect it will be my last for a long time. (Time and cost!). With so many choices and great presenters it is really hard to chose how to get the most out of the time there. I remember writing this down after Philadelphia last year:

As a second time visitor to ISTE I felt pretty confident that I would be able to learn a lot, meet new people and be amazed. I did accomplish all of the above, but wish I had more time, had networked more and had attended more presentations. Not to mention that I did not spend any time at the Bloggers’ cafe.

My advice to first time visitors:

1. ISTE’s10 Tips for ISTE 2012 Attendees: Making the Most of Your Conference Experience
2. Join the people at the Blogger’s cafe and SocialEdCon, find dates time and info here!
3. Look for info here: Cybraryman Internet Catalogue
4. Be sure to visit the Newbie Lounge – info here!
5. Sign up here to find people to follow on Twitter

My plan this far: attend these presentations and spend time in the Newbie Lounge and Bloggers cafe! See you!

Conference Planner for Ann S. Michaelsen

Sunday, June 24
3:00-5:00pm	ISTE 2012 Tweet-up [Other Program Events; Meeting/Gathering] Location: SDCC Halls DE Lobby, Table Table 29
5:45-7:00pm	Redefining Horizons: Encouraging Students’ Passion to Achieve [Sir Ken Robinson  Keynote]
Monday, June 25
8:00-10:00am	Block Scheduling in a 1:1 School: Itslearning, PLN, Global Classroom Ann Michaelsen, Ingunn K. Wiig
11:00am-12:00pm	Digital Learning Farm: Students as Contributors Alan November
11:00am-12:00pm	Personal and Professional Growth Using Web 2.0 Steve Hargadon
12:45-1:45pm	Spreading the Word: Eight Ways to Start Conversations around Change Will Richardson
2:30-3:30pm	Empathy: The 21st Century Skill Alan November, November Learning
4:15-5:15pm	Beyond Googling: Using Technology To Build A Culture of Inquiry  Chris Lehmann, Science Leadership Academy
5:30-6:45pm	Online Communities of Practice and Their Role in Education Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Powerful Learning Practice with Darren Cambridge
Tuesday, June 26
10:30-11:30am	What’s It Means To Be a Digital Leader? Unpacking the NETS*A Steven Anderson with Kyle Pace
10:30-11:30am	High Tech High Student Work Larry Rosenstock,
12:15-1:15pm	The Many Faces of the Flipped Classroom Aaron Sams,  Brian Bennett, Jonathan Bergmann
12:15-1:15pm	Networked Educators: The Art of Leveraging Social Media to Connect Beth Still, ESU 13 with Paula Naugle, Nicholas Provenzano and Josh Stumpenhorst
2:00-3:00pm	A Broader Perspective on Data: Infographics and Visualization David Warlick, The Landmark Project
3:45-4:45pm	The Steep Unlearning Curve: Rethinking Schools, Classrooms, and Learning Will Richardson,
5:00-6:15pm	Digital Jam: A Rocking Event with iPads, iPods, and You! Kevin Honeycutt, ESSDACK with Ginger Lewman
Wednesday, June 27
8:30-9:30am	The Evolving Face of Leadership in 21st Century Schools Patrick Larkin, Burlington High School
10:45-11:45am	Sneak Preview: Windows 8 – Windows Reimagined Anthony Salcito, Microsoft Worldwide Education
11:45am-12:45pm	Data Reveals Stories: How Students Can Use Data for Learning Ewan McIntosh, NoTosh Limited digital | design thinking
1:15-2:15pm	Learning 2.0: How Social Media is Redefining Learning and Teaching Steve Hargadon, Classroom 2.0

 

The Flipped classroom – what is it?

I recently had a conversation with a principal at one of our neighbouring high schools. We were talking about the flipped class room and I expressed my regret that so few teachers had taken the time to visit our conference last year to hear more about it. Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergman did a keynote, had an additional session and did a workshop the day after.  As always when talking about using technology in school, I have to say that I am concerned about how Norwegian school-owners, school leaders and teachers seem to be absent from the conversations going on in social media like Twitter and blog writing.  It was on Twitter I first was made aware of the Flipped classroom, and also how I got to meet Aaron and Jonathan in person at ISTE Philidelphia in 2012. For those who did not attend our conference last year, the misconception about what the flipped classroom really is, looks a lot like what I found at “November learning” via Twitter!

1. Students do not want to sit at home watching boring video lectures on the web. At least in the classroom, they get some kind of interaction with me and with their peers. This is just a lot of excitement over bad pedagogy. (apparently there is a really bad video made by a teacher from a school nearby that is used to show how bad this can be!)
2. Where is the accountability? How do I even know if students are watching the videos?
3. As a teacher, I don’t have the time or the expertise to produce all of the videos required to teach like this

Seems to me when discussing pedagogy, content and technology, we tend to focus on difficulties and not possibilities! Let’s start thinking about teaching and learning as fun!  November learning uses the expression Flipped Learning and it is so much more then making videos for students to watch. Forget about the technology for a while. Focus on the learning and the research and how you are interacting with your students in class. Don’t spend it lecturing!

What flipped learning is all about:

• Students prepare for class by watching video, listening to podcasts, reading articles, or contemplating questions that access their prior knowledge.
• After accessing this content, students are asked to reflect upon what they have learned and organize questions and areas of confusion.
• Students then log in to a Facebook-like social tool, where they post their questions.
• The instructor sorts through these questions prior to class, organizes them, and develops class material and scenarios that address the various areas of confusion. The instructor does not prepare to teach material that the class already understands.
• In class, the instructor uses a Socratic method of teaching, where questions and problems are posed and students work together to answer the questions or solve the problems. The role of the instructor is to listen to conversations and engage with individuals and groups as needed

Points over are copied from November learning. I attended Alan Novembers workshop at ISTE and follow his work online.

 

Korea – Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education

Korea’s plan to teach skills needed in the 21st century

The objective of “smart education” is to digitalize Korea’s entire school curriculum by 2015. The program is designed to respond to 21st century education challenges by moving from uniform and standardized education to diversified, creativity-based learning, while at the same time bridging the education divide by making access available to all.

Some key-points here are:

Communication, cooperative learning, Students have to work hard to make it to universities. That is a very high motivation factor. In this video they claim things have changed and “passive” learning is no longer a good way to prepare for the exams. Approaches to learning are changing, and when students are given an opportunity to use ICT they learn “actively”. They learn how to think independently and creatively, and how to meet the challenges of our new era. In the past, a strong student was one who was able to remember what he or she had learned, and filled out the correct answers in tests. Future skills will require students not just to have a good memory and write down what the have memorized, they will need to be able to select what is useful from various sources of information, and then assimilate that data as their own, and recreate it as their own.

See the whole video below – 15 minutes and reflect on these questions. How much of this are you doing in your own class? What kind of competencies are emphasised in your school. How can we change the way we teach and the way students learn? In Korea students are eager to learn because they know it is difficult to get accepted to the right universities. What can we do to motivate our students and make if fun to learn again? It is hard work, but using technology the way they do it in this video-clip is the way to go to make school more engaging and more real to life. I hope the discussions in Norway can turn from teacher-centered towards learning-centered, learning happening for both students and teachers!

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Could the Days of Wikipedia Being a Banned Research Source Be Over?

Wikipedia (Photo credit: Octavio Rojas)

It is well known fact that for many years most teachers have been telling students that they can not, under any circumstances, use Wikipedia as a source for an assignment. At a conference in Stockholm on the 20. of March we discussed this and it seems that more teachers are willing to let the students use Wikipedia these days. I always ask my students to use 3 different sources and Wikepedia can be one of those. But to be causious when using Wikepedia is generally good advice. Despite the site’s best efforts, inaccuracies always crop up. But most students go ahead and use the online encyclopedia anyway, even if they don’t cite it. Now a group of professors and students at Imperial College London hope to start legitimizing Wikipedia as a research source by joining forces to improve the content on the pages.

The effort makes sense given the massive size of the site. With over 18 million articles and 365 million visitors each month, Wikipedia is the connected world’s go-to reference source. The president of the campus group Wikipedians at Imperial College, medical student Vinesh Patel, told BBC News that “Wikipedia is here to stay—it’s a question of whether we come up to speed with it or try to ignore it.”

Patel hopes to coordinate students and staff at Imperial and other schools to “make the most of Wikipedia, rather than pretend it’s not there.” To that end, he’s coordinating an April conference focused on bringing academia together to improve the quality and consistency of information the site the offers. Source: Good Education.  Last year, Harvard professor and Association for Psychological Science president Mahzarin R. Banaji launched a similar effort to clean up the inaccuracies in Wikipedia’s psychology entries, while British students and faculty teamed up to do the same in several content areas. If independent efforts like these are consolidated under the Wikipedia Education Program umbrella, the site could be on its way to true academic legitimacy. And because students—and the rest of us—are never going to stop using Wikipedia, we might as well focus on making the world’s most popular reference service a credible one.  Source: Good education.

Via: Open-Site.org
 

Related articles

• Open source history, Wikipedia, and Encyclopedia Britannica (historytech.wordpress.com)
• Wikipedia’s Source Data Proves Helpful (mondaysbalcony.com)

 

Collaborating with technology!

When arriving at Mamoeketsi primary school for the first time, we could not believe how we were greeted! The whole school was waiting for us outside in the school yard. Due to traffic we were at least 45 min. late. When the students saw us arriving the started to run to towards us to meet us! It was a moment I will never forget!

Our mission was to bring 11 laptops to the school and to show the students how to use technology in learning and collaborating. With the help from its learning we were also able to provide money for the internet satellite. Hopefully it will be installed by next month. With the help from a school in Stockholm a projector and projector screen were bought and set up for the first time when we arrived.

How to prevent global warming

Our project is about global warming and to compare the consequences of the climate changes in our two so different countries. The students at Mamoeketsi had researched the topic and now they typed their findings into their presentations. We had installed Ubuntu on all the laptops prior to our visit. That way we avoided software licenses costs. In addition Ubuntu uses less space and memory on the laptops. The only problem we encountered was using the usb modems they have. If you know an easy way to make this work, feel free to comment! I know the laptops will work well using wireless!

Sharing our story

On day two the Lesotho national broadcasting service came to make an interview for the 7pm news. They interviewed Moliehi Sekese, a student from the school, a student from Norway and me. We all told our story about how fortunate we are to have been connected and how much we look forward to continuing our work together. The segment was aired on national tv twice, once in Sesotho and later in English. They show scenes from the classroom, the presentation by the students from Lesotho and how the Norwegian students offer technical advice. We watched it during dinner with the Mamoeketsi teachers and it was great fun for all involved!

Skype in the classroom

Phase two of this project will be when they are able to connect to the internet and Skype with us on a regular basis. That way we can continue communicating and learning from each other! Once you open the lines of communication there is no limit to what you can do! I look forward to seeing how our relationship will continue to grow and how we will find new areas where we can collaborate.