Investigation - General Investigation

The flat classroom project is based on Thomas Friedman's 'The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century'.

The flat classroom project aims to 'flatten or lower the classroom walls', in other words help students connect with students of different countries and experiences. We will achieve this by creating a video/digital artifacts of our chosen topics and then display them on the global wikispace for international judging and comparison. To create these digital artifacts we will be using the best source of information, the wikispace and the previous works of other students. However a vast majority of the information will be research based as well as personal opinion based, for example for wireless connectivity I could include my personal use of iPhones and wireless internet while backing it up with statistics found through research.

The design cycle is the key to successfully completing this project because the design cycle gives us guidelines and requirements, that we can set ourselves, and steps that we must follow to achieve our specific goal. The first step of the design cycle is to investigate, a very logical step because if we do not know what we were trying to create how could we create? Second if we don't design our product and try different methods of approaching the solution how could we get the best possible solution? (in our case the most educational video) If we don't plan how can we manage ourselves in order to set deadlines and know when our project will be completed and how much work we would have to accomplish in the chosen timeline. If we don't create how can we solve any of our world's problems. And finally if we don't evaluate and reflect on what we did right and what we did 'bad' on how can we improve ourselves and make a brighter and better future? Hence the design cycle is the key to successfully completing this project.

It is very important that we develop new and more efficient work skills because the world is not what it used to be. Knowledge has become power and time has become money, hence without these new technologies and ways to apply them into real world situations we would become obsolete and unable to compete in the flat global market.

The creators of the flat classroom project are Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay. I do not know who Ms. Davis is however Ms. Lindsay was a teacher at Qatar Academy and I experienced her commitment towards the project as she brought the flat classroom project to Qatar Academy in 2009.

The world 'flatteners' identified by Friedman includes the following:

Flattener #1: Collapse of the Berlin Wall, 9 November 1989. This was a significant event and the beginning of the new era where communism has ended and individuals were given choices and more freedom. And Friedman states that with the fall of communism the PCs appealed to those individuals who wanted to create their own information and share/connect with each other. So flattener #1 was the most basic and fundamental step of the 'flat classroom project'. The collapse is also significant to the project because without the event we would have never developed (or rather much much later in time) a more user friendly internet where freedom is practiced and widely spread.

Flattener #2: Netscape. Flattener #2 changed the internet from something professionals and educated people could use to something everyone, no matter the age (from babies to grandpas), can use. The easier accessibility then led to the ability to manipulate word documents, music, videos, pictures, and many other everyday files on the digital computer screen.

Flattener #3: Workflow Software. Flattener #3 is when the computers and machines became able to communicate with other machines with no human contact and when this began the need for standard language became important, hence HTML and SMTP were created so that any data could be opened by any computer through the interenet.

Flattener #4: Open Source. Flattener #4 is people contributing to a bigger organization and works from around the globe, the best examples would be Wikipedia or our project 'The Flatclassroom Project'.

Flattener #5: Outsourcing. Outsourcing is when parts and big components of the companies are spread around the country and different services are concentrated in difffernet places. For example most of the servicing parts of the companies are spread around the cities and concentration of people however the manufacturing factory may be further away from cities as it is not (generally) environmentally friendly. And Friedman believes that this spreading of digital companies has created a far more efficient digital world as well as a cost efficient world.

Flattener #6: Offshoring. Flattener #6, as you know offshoring is when parts of the companies are moved to different parts of the globe for lower production and operation cost which results in more profit for the company. The biggest and well known company for offshoring is China. And now many countries are competting with each other for more business and more economic development as many of these countries who are available/famous for offshoring are in need of profit and money.

Flattener #7: Supply-Chaining. Friedman believes that retail shops like Walmart are best companies and shops to use technology to supply themselves, record sales, and keep track of the shipping orders to different parts of America.

Flattener #8: Insourcing. Is when different companies work for each other. For example a computer producing company may be the ones to produce and manufacture them however another company may be responsible for the maintenance and reparing the warrantied computers. We are also going to be applying this 'flattener' to make our lives much easier.

Flattener #9: In-forming. Flattener #9 refers to search engines where people can find so much information at the flick of your fingers.

Flattener #10: The Steroids. The Steroids refers to the personal appliances which includes your iPhone, iPods, Mobiles, hand held PCs, smarphones. They are called the steroids because they can process digital medias from music to videos to word documents and it can all be done in a matter of seconds hence our personal appliances may be one of the most powerful devices and flattener in our world.

We will create a video based on one of these topics:1. Connecting the World Online (CWO) 2. World Wide Web(WWW) 3. Work Flow Software(WFS) 4. Uploading: The Changing Shape of Information (CSI) 5. Web 2.0 (W20) 6. Globalization and Outsourcing (G&O) 7. Google (GGL) 8. PLEs and Social Networking (PLE&SN) 9. Mobiles and Ubiquitous (M&U) 10. Virtual Communication(VCom) 11. Wireless Connectivity (WCon). And our videos will help to demonstrate the practical use and importance of these topics to the people who are yet unaware of its effectiveness and efficientness.

While we try to create these videos we will be keeping to the rules of digital citizenship. These include: digital access (ability to use the internet and various other 'digital' items), digital commerce (purchasing from sites such as eBay), digital communication (ability to give and take information using the internet), digital literacy (ability to know when to use certain programs and applications), digital etiquette (manners while talking and sending information to others), digital law (legal consequences), digital rights and responsibilities (privileges that must be respected and know its extent), digital health and wellness (keeping your physical and mental health at a healthy level), and digital security (keeping your private information such as credit card number and such safe).

We will be working and collaborating with various students from both our real world environment as well as students from the online environment to create these educational videos.

For the first term of 2010, the flat classroom project will be completed around the end of February and the awards will be given in March.

By contributing and taking an active part of the project we can learn many essential skills which can and will help us provide a better future for ourselves as well as the global community. By taking part we learn the essential skills of outsourcing and digital communication, the digital etiquette and the manners we must keep while using the internet, and finally allow us to face realistic projects where dead lines and responsibilities and consequences are more coherent and clear.