Janna McColgan's List: Communities of Practice

Helping Children Around the World to Read and Learn | Scholastic.com

Educators Overseas helps qualified, native English speaking teachers and school administrators from America, Canada, the UK, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand find teaching jobs around the world.

Remember having penpals through the postal service? ePals Global Community is the new online educational penpal exchange. ePals connects instructors and students all over the globe. In my classes, I would use this tool in a class to go on virtual field trips, collaborate on projects, share resources, language and cultural exchanges. In the case of homeschooling, home-bound or exclusively online learning, I would use ePals to connect students so that they could see, speak with and write to each other, taking part in a classroom beyond the walls of their home for developing social maturity.
ePals Global Community is teacher-centered, empowering adults with "role-based permissions and policy management technologies that can create multiple learning experiences and manage what students see and with whom they engage."(ePals, 2013) That being said, once communications are established, resources shared and global community projects are put in place, teachers can nurture student-centered, project-based, learning experiences. ePals Global Community promotes connectivism. In ePals, students collaborate critical thinking, knowledge, the diversity of opinions, network and promote global citizenship by using 21st century technology.

Classroom 2.0 is a free, social networking site for those who wish to share digital lessons, videos, discussions and more! Classroom 2.0 is community-supported and offers opportunities to get connected with educators and like-minded individuals eager to collaborate and learn from one another.

This site serves as a resource for upcoming art contests and exhibition opportunities for visual artists and photographers. Artists and art students of all ages have the opportunity to present their work publicly through these venues and get recognition. Additionally, they might win contests for money or scholarships and find exhibition opportunities to enter. "Unlike other static email lists or opportunity newsletters, our submissions database is continually being updated with high quality listings." I often present my students to this updated information regarding contests and exhibitions to help them find recognition for their resume and hard work.

The ICDL (International Children's Digital Library) is an online library that offers books from cultures found throughout the world. Their mission is to teach tolerance and respect for diverse cultures by providing free access to children's literature. The site is graphically interesting, easy to use and aimed to lure all ages. Choosing a book is easy: They are organized by age, collection, language, featured books, character types and more!

iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is a non-profit organization of teachers and students who use technology to globally network and collaborate on projects aimed to enhance learning and global citizenship. Although this site is aimed for educators to seek a project they think their class may be interested in, students can view the iearn collaboration centre for researching and suggesting involvement in any of the listed projects. The projects are designed and facilitated by teachers. An example of one such projects can be found at this link: https://collaborate.iearn.org/space-2/group-17

ArtsEdSearch provides a collection of arts education research. This site offers summaries and analyses of studies that impact educational policy and practice. The main research focuses on students' cognitive, personal, social and civic development as art is integrated in their school curriculum. Other studies include "educators' instructional practice and engagement in the teaching profession." Studies submitted to this organization are reviewed by a professional panel of scholars who are supported by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and The Wallace Foundation.

Art Education 2.0 is an online professional learning community of art educators. The site requires its viewer to sign up for a free "ning" membership in order to enjoy all its offerings. Now that I am a member of this community, I can participate in forums and groups projects. Members can also share and view photos, videos and create new art projects. One project I would like to take part in is "Shells for NJ Shores - Create small "seashell themed" works of art and sell them to raise money for those who need assistance recovering and rebuilding in New Jersey." Science, social studies and art classes combined can learn about the devastation of hurricane Sandy in 2012 and work together on projects to contribute to their needs.

This site uses podcasting technology to offer virtual field trips for children, hosted by children. Episodes include a nature hike to promote Earth Day, an interview with a meterologist in Colorado, a visit to New York City during Christmas and more! Every two weeks, new episodes are added. Each podcast offers rating scales, share creativity in story-telling and are approximately 1 - 5 minutes in length. Additionally, educational activities accompany the podcast to extend the learning experience.

Global Voices is an international community of bloggers who report on citizen media all around the world. These reports are not often the stories and news shared in popular media, but instead emphasizes the voices that are not ordinarily heard. Global Voices, translated into more than 30 languages, was created in 2005 by fellows from Harvard University.
With respect to education, Global Voices has created a virtual community of citizens who have linked text, photos, video and more in order to share interesting educationally-related hot topics from across the world.

http://globalvoicesonline.org/-/topics/education/

Teachers Without Borders (TWB) connects teachers from all over the world with each to share information and discussions regarding globalization and educational change.
TWB promotes activities run by international educators in support of educational leadership and setting educational goals in local communitiies. Free resources are available" to help teachers around the world learn, connect, collaborate, and create online; in schools or community centers, in workshops and seminars".

The United States Copyright Office promotes the protection of personally authored works such as stories, visual art, poetry, music and more. The role of the office is to act as a place of registration and recording of copywritten items. In addtition, the Copyright office assists Congress on all matters related to copyright laws.

Artsonia.com is a virtual museum that displays fine arts created by art students across the nation. They feature special galleries like that from members of the NAEA, share themes and schools the students represent. This site provides an excellent spotlight for the students' work, teachers' accomplishments and an exchange of ideas. An added bonus is the publicly voted "Artist of the week" for ages Pre-K - 12. The winner's work is featured on the front page and companies, like Dick Blick, offer prizes as part of the honor.

SlideShare is made up of a community of people who have contributed presentation information for business people, educators, health care professionals and more. Slideshow features a blog, powerpoints, videos and favorites section for individuals and organizations interested in popular topics. SlideShare's community share ideas, research, and information from across the globe. The presentations & documents can be downloaded, reused or edited for their own work.

Open Educational Resources (OER) offers free use of teaching and learning materials. OER Commons is geared toward educators, students and all learners who wish to search,browse, evaluate, use and discuss education resources. The materials may be downloaded for core subjects like math, and specials, like art education. The resources may be shared and some are even editable and available to re-post.

The National Art Education Association is an organization of art educators, scholars, researchers, students and artists who support visual arts education. The NAEA promotes diversity and cultural exchanges in art education as well as a network of members who collaborate on lessons, currricula, awards and resources. Hot topics include developing core art standards, art literacy, cross-disciplinary subjects and shared e-portfolios.