We're so excited to share this announcement – we had so many schools apply and have done our best to get a good fit for the project AND find ways for every teacher who applied to be involved in some way. Unfortunately, we've had a few challenges reaching everyone who applied as some firewalls won't let us through. If you are one of those teachers who applied and you have not heard from us — PLEASE check your spam folder — we've been trying to reach you. Here is our official announcement.

The Flat Classroom Project 2008

For Immediate Release – September 15, 2008
Doha, Qatar and Camilla, GA USA

The organizers of the Flat Classroom project are excited to announce the selection of the 17 participating classrooms for the 2008 project.  These schools represent more than 275 students, from eight countries, and will run from October 1 – December 4, 2008.

The Flat Classroom Project is a global Hands-on project for senior high school students which was founded by Julie Lindsay (Qatar Academy, Qatar) and Vicki Davis (Westwood School s, USA) in 2006 .  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 classrooms include (in alphabetical order by country.)

Australia

Anne Mirtschin,
Hawkesdale P12 College
Hawkesdale, Australia

John Turner*
Presbyterian Ladies College
Melbourne, Australia

Bangladesh

Anjuman Ara Begum
Chowara Girls' High School
Comilla, Bangladesh

Hungary

David Clapp
British International School
Budapest Hungary

Oman

Salim Al-Busaidi
Osama Bin Zaid School
Adam, Oman

Pakistan

Minhaaj ur Rehman
Bloomfield Hall
Islamabad, Pakistan

Qatar

Ray Jones
Qatar Academy *~
Doha, Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Bruce Doig
American International School
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

United States

Madeline Brownstone*
Baccalaureate School for Global Education
Astoria, New York City, NY

Tanya Gray and Aimee Stoffel*
USD 352 Goodland High School
Goodland, KS

Jason Neiffer
Capital High School
Helena, Montana

John Peters
Hereford Independent School District
Hereford, TX

Estie Cuellar
Spring Woods High School
Houston, TX

Yvonne Caples, Will Nichols
Virtual High School
Las Vegas, NV

Barrie Becker*
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts
Los Angeles, CA

Dwayne Voegeli
Winona Senior High School
Winona, Minnesota

Vicki Davis*
Westwood Schools
Camilla, GA

—-
*Project “veterans” – these schools have participated in a previous project.
~Host school for 2009 Flat Classroom Conference, January 24-26 2009. All details at http://flatclassroomconference.com

Additionally, the project organizers are seeking one to two schools in the Asian region to participate in this year's project.  Interested participants should email flatclassroomproject@gmail.com.

The project also involves Peer Review Classrooms (Sounding Boards) and any interested teacher is invited to sign up for this Group on the Flatclassroom Ning.  Expert Advisors are being sought to advise the students during the project.  Judges will be involved at the end of the project to review student work and provide feedback for a Global Awards summit to be held in elluminate at the conclusion fo the project.

“We believe that we are building communication bridges today that the students of tomorrow will walk across,” say Davis and Lindsay, the project's co-organizers.  “This project is ambitious, however, its success is built upon the fact that the teachers and classrooms that participate are of global quality caliber and have high standards of excellence.  We bridge cultural, religious, and public and private boundaries and are always excited to see the students thrive and succeed in this environment.  Our world is global and our classrooms should be too!”

“Although selection is closed, we are still seeking one to two classrooms in the Pacific Rim area to add to the project,” says Davis. 

For more information about this project see http://flatclassroomproject2008.wikispaces.com/Project+2008+Info.  Members of the press are invited to participate as observers and this year's project will also include a research component.  Lindsay and Davis also co-plan and manage the Digiteen Project (digital citizenship for middle and early high school students) and the Horizon Project and are planning the first face to face Flat Classroom Conference in Doha, Qatar in January sponsored by HSBC bank and Qatar Academy.

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