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To:   All K-12 Teachers
From:  Jan Wee (for Margaret Riel)


Please share with your teaching staff!

Thanks,

Jan Wee, LMC Director
**************************************************************************************************

Subj:   Learning Circles move to a new home

                        ANNOUNCEMENT:

                LEARNING CIRCLES FIND NEW HOME
    ON THE INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AND RESOURCE NETWORK (I*EARN)
      _______________                      ______________
      |  ___________  |                    | ____________  |
      | |           | |                    | |           | |
      | |   0   0   | |                    | |   0   0   | |
      | |     -     | |                    | |     -     | |
      | |   \___/   | |                    | |   \___/   | |
      | |___________| |                    | |___________| |
      |_______________|                    |_______________|
        _|__|/ \|_|_....TELE-COLLABORATION..._|________|_
       / ********** \                       / ********** \
     /  ************  \                   /  ************  \
    --------------------                 --------------------

        I*EARN - Youth Making a Difference in the World
                   Through Telecommunications


Learning Circles are a model of cross-classroom collaboration
originally developed on the AT&T Learning Network.  Learning
Circles will be a new option offered to teachers and students
by I*EARN beginning in Fall of 95.

Through a grant from AT&T Foundation, I*EARN will transform the
original AT&T Learning Network curriculum guides into a hypertext
Learning Circle Guide that make it available on the World
Wide Web for universal access.


    ***            Bringing the I*EARN and               ****
    ***      Learning Network Communities together       ****

I*EARN is an international educational network which has a strong
focus on, and commitment to address social and environmental
issues from local, national and global perspectives.  Through
I*EARN students and teachers work collaboratively on curriculum-based
projects that make a meaningful difference in the world.  It seeks
to prepare students with broader international awareness
and skills needed in an interdependent world of the 21st century.

Similarly, Learning Circle interaction increases student and teacher
awareness of regional and cultural perspectives on a range
of issues.  But more important, working in Learning Circles helps
students and teachers learn how to work with people at a distance.
It promotes a sense of respect and cooperation among people with
different views, values and concerns.  This form of international
tele-collaboration is the work place of the future. The technology
will change but the value of learning to work across cultural,
lingual and geographic boundaries will remain.

Curriculum-based collaborative education has always been one of the
goals of I*EARN. Therefore, I*EARN is very happy to have Learning
Circles as one of the options that they offer to its growing community.

-->>>  Learning Circle Structure
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   o A changing, small group (8-10 classrooms) for each session:
        Teachers and students are connected to a new set of classrooms each
        session. These network connections make it possible to cross social,
        cultural and linguistic categories to form a team-teaching and
        learning environment.  It is the meeting of new teachers and learning
        from them that provides the teachers as well as the students
        a rich learning environment

   o Highly interactive:
        These small groups are not places to lurk.  Joining a Learning Circle
        is a commitment to be part of a learning community.  All members play
        a critical role and the goal is to provide a supportive environment so
        each school will find the interactions rewarding.

   o Theme-based Project-learning with content from the schools:
        One of the most exciting aspects of Learning Circles is that
        teacher are involved in learning along with their students.
        It is not a case of "outside" expertise delivered to teachers
        but instead it is a network designed to help share the  expertise of
        talented teachers from around the world. The tele-collaboration
        among the teams of teachers provides on-going in-service for everyone
        involved.

    o International Participation:
        The more teachers and students work with people from different places
        the more they learn about themselves. While the motivation to
        participate in Learning Circles is often to learn about others, the
        result is often a deeper understanding of oneself in contrast to
        others.

There will be two 14 week sessions (September-December and February to May).
A shorter Classroom Connection Session will be added as soon as the 14
week sessions are well established.

Eventually all of the current Learning Circle themes (and some new ones)
will be available. However for this first session, there may be a limited
number of themes.  At the minimum there will be:

        Computer Chronicles - Journalism (Writing)
        Places and Perspectives  -  History and Geography (projects)


OPPORTUNITIES ON I*EARN

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| I*EARN                                                               |
|  * World-Wide Contacts of Educators in over 20 countries             |
|  *  Access to a range of on-going network Projects                   |
|  *  Full Internet Access for those that do not already have it       |
|  *  Access from Internet accounts via telnet                         |
|  *  Membership in a  community of teachers and students              |
|     who know that they can "Make a Difference" in their world        |
|                                                                      |
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


The work of building a global community is costly.  But, as a non-profit
organization, I*EARN is able to receive income from fund raising and
grants, keeping costs to schools to a minimum.  Schools are also asked to
help
support global tele-collaboration by paying a membership fee.  For more
information on joining I*EARN:

For written information and/or an application and any specific questions,
contact the I*EARN staff at:

          I*EARN International Secretariat
          345 Kear Street
          Yorktown Heights, NY  10598
          Tel: 914/962-5864
          iearn@iearn.org

   * For general information on I*EARN, send an e-mail message
     to: iearn-info@iearn.org

   * For those of you with gopher or WWW access, please feel
     free to take a look at the on-line information on I*EARN:

               gopher gopher.iearn.org 7008

            URL: gopher://gopher.iearn.org:7008/1

                 http://www.igc.apc.iearn/




Permission to reposted granted.
Contact Margaret Riel for more information:  mriel@attmail.com
        or mriel@weber.ucsd.edu


posted by Jan Wee (member of LM_Net)


Jan Wee, Library Media Director   Internet: WSALEM@UWLAX.EDU
West Salem Middle School          Bitnet:   WSALEM@UWLAX.BITNET
450 North Mark Street             Phone:    (608) 786-2090 (sch)
West Salem, WI  54669             Phone:    (608) 786-2767 (home)


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