The Flat Classroom   Schools: International School Dhaka and Westwood Schools Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh and Georgia, USA Name: Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis

The Flat Classroom Project is a genuine assessment project between 11th grade students at International School Dhaka in Bangladesh and 10th grade students at Westwood Schools in Georgia, USA. Based on the ten flatteners found in Thomas Friedman’s book,The World is Flat, the objective is to create a 'Flat Classroom' where two classes work as one.

This project pushes the boundaries and 'flattens' the walls of the classroom, expecting all students and teachers to collaborate as if there were one classroom, not two or more. It draws on the wider educational community for input and expert support and feedback (international judging panel for example) and uses collaborative Web 2.0 tools such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, and RSS. Students discuss real-world scenarios then create their own content. All students created a final personal video based on their research and on interviews related to their topic, sharing video footage with their partner so that each multimedia piece had content from both sides of the world.

Best Practice:
“Technology” is not a single tool, but a whole toolbox—use the right combination of tools for a particular project, and be prepared to add new tools over time.