Tech Thursday: Global Day for Education

In today’s “Tech Thursday” article, we’ll find out how the Global Collaboration Day for Education is laced with Common Core, Workforce aligned education.

A Bit of History, First:

Before we get to the latest information, I wanted to provide you with a bit of history on the Global Education Conference Network. I first wrote about them in June of this year. In that particular article, I shared with you how evidence to the ‘state led’ argument was blown out of the water. I was able to connect Harvard University and others to the GECN. See: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/06/05/fom-2015s-ccss-whoppers-so-far/

If you’d like a bit more of an idea about the background of the GECN, the annual conference is co-chaired by Lucy Gray and Steve Hardagon. The Network itself (website:
http://www.globaleducationconference.com/) is a “collaborative, inclusive, world-wide community initiative involving students, educators, and organizations at all levels. Our activities are designed to significantly increase opportunities for connecting classrooms while supporting cultural awareness and recognition of diversity and educational access for all.” 

Be sure to check out the Advisory Board as well. You may be surprised at who the participants are.:
http://www.globaleducationconference.com/page/advisory

Now that you have a bit of history, here’s a brief look at what’s ahead, globally education wise. On September 25th, 2015, the “World’s Largest Lesson” is going to be taking place. 
A Global Leadership Summit is being planned for sometime in the Spring of 2016, while a Global Education Day will be held in June 2016 at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).  (more about all these in a bit)

 
Declarations in Global Education:

From the co-leader, Steve Hardagon, a declaration he wrote and presented in 2013 during the GEN Conference. this excerpt on the value of global education:

“Because we are citizens of our individual nations and also part of a larger human family;
Because it is important to learn about other cultures and to understand the similarities that unite us and the differences that define us;
Because global understanding, empathy, and compassion depend and are built on communication, shared experiences, and relationships;
Because we increasingly live in a “global village”;
Because we increasingly work in geographically and culturally interconnected ways;
Because we are interconnected physically and our ecological and resource-use decisions impact others;
Because we share a world which appears to be increasingly fragile;
Because complex worldwide problems need collaborative, cooperative, and intelligent solutions….”

To read the entire Declaration, visit:
http://www.stevehargadon.com/2013/11/a-declaration-of-value-of-global.html

So who IS the man? How is he qualified as an educator? Is he tied to the CCSS Machine?
Answers can be found on his website as to his personal history and educational experience.
As far as being tied to the CCSS Machine? ABSOLUTELY! How, you ask?
Blackboard, Microsoft, the U.S. Dept. of Education, the U.S. State Dept., CoSN (Consortium for School Networking; see their corporate list of members:
http://cosn.org/about/membership/membership-directory ), PBS, and host of others, too. However, it’s his work with the KnowledgeWorks that is the most revealing. If you’ve followed my blog long or listened to some of my audio appearances, you are familiar with how KnowledgeWorks is tied to the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers) and how much of their work is devoted to 100% aligned communities. (See my published articles):
Oct. 2014: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/10/24/fom-friday-knowledgeworks-or-knowledge-quirks/
Dec. 2014: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/12/19/fom-friday-ed-reform-sans-common-core/
Feb. 2015: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/02/19/tech-thursday-cradlecareer-conference/
March 2015 gave us three: a) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/03/12/tech-thursday-difference-between-careers/
b) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/03/15/rmt-cc-education-and-marriag
c) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/03/31/ftf-ccss-pearsonites-at-your-higher-ed-campuses-now/
May 2015: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/05/04/monday-musings-learning-for-whom/
June 2015: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/06/07/rmt-halting-a-ccsscte-aligned-workforce/
August 2015: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/08/06/tech-thursday-career-pathways-meet-competency-based-pathways/

If you see nothing else from the number of articles above, click on them long enough to see the ‘tags’ between the titles and the body of the article. What do you see?  You should see several repeating themes and  names of certain organizations. My point in including each of them is because KnowledgeWorks has an all-encompassing agenda. The foundation has been laid. Check it out.

As far as the ‘other’ declarations I was referring to in the subtitle above? The UN’s educational declarations!! See the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights , Article 26 (http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/), the UNESCO’s “Education for All” statement as found on their UN-related website:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-for-all/ and the UNESCO’s Declaration of how it carries out the UN’s Declaration. (see: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/human-rights-based-approach/60th-anniversary-of-udhr/unesco-and-the-declaration/)

ISTE, International Society for Technology in Education):

The website: http://www.iste.org/
One of the main mission sponsors? Microsoft! (scroll down the main page of the website to see the logo)

What’s a bit unusual is the ISTE has several sets of standards, depending on your role in education..and YES, they cater to the CCSS (Common Core State Standards)! See: http://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards  (if you’d like to the CCSS specific standards, see: http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-in-action/common-core;  be sure to look into the Project ReimaginED)

That “World’s Largest Lesson”:

As part of the GECN’s “EverNotes” (see: https://www.evernote.com/pub/lucygray/globalresources#st=p&n=d000f90f-a46d-4fac-9058-af75e0d1ce9c), the “World’s Largest Lesson” is actually a joint project of UNICEF and TES (UNICEF is an arm of the UN, United Nations, TES has  a global impact with an American group’s help in its founding. Which group? Oh, I’m so glad you asked! The AFT (American Federation of Teachers!!) Need to see it to believe it? (see: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/us/partners) Here’s an excerpt from the TES Global ‘about us’: “TES Global is a fast growing and digital education business committed to supporting teaching and learning. Our mission is to help improve performance and standards in education by both supporting the world’s teachers with a portfolio of tailored digital services and providing the world’s most respected higher education data and analysis..” For the portion of TES that’s not global, “We’re proud to be part of TES Global, a fast-growing digital education company that’s been supporting educators worldwide for over 100 years. ” To see more about TES and TES Global: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/us/about

 

 

 

 

 

Wait a minute..isn’t the UN in New York right now holding its General Assembly?! YES!
The schedule: http://www.un.org/en/ga/info/meetings/69schedule.shtml
Now, according to that schedule the votes are to be taken over 3 days, one of which is the same date the “World’s Largest Lesson” is to be carried out!!

Related to all this are the two resolutions which will impact American education (and involve the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals, as well as include the  SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals):
a) http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A%2Fres%2F69%2F244
b) http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A%2Fres%2F65%2F1

The MDGs impact education, see this excerpt: “By packaging these priorities into an easily understandable set of eight goals, and by establishing measurable and timebound objectives, the MDGs help to promote global awareness, political accountability, improved metrics, social feedback, and public pressures. As described by Bill Gates, the MDGs have become a type of global report card for the fight against poverty for the 15 years from 2000 to 2015. As with most report cards, they generate incentives to improve performance, even if not quite enough incentives for both rich and poor countries to produce a global class of straight-A students.”

The SDGs by contrast impact the physical world and are ” an important idea, and could help finally to move the world to a sustainable trajectory.”  The document tying the MDGs and the SDGs together can be found: MGDstoSDGs

As far as the “World’s Largest Lesson”, be sure to view the “Other Resources” page where you can see each of UN’s agenda points in a kid friendly way. (https://globaldimension.org.uk/worldslargestlesson/)

Closing: 

I hope you share this very important article with as many folks as you can who still think CCSS is “state led”, or “American only”.  I hope you help me to continue to expose where every scrap of CCSS Machine agenda, global ties, and any other connected pieces therein are!