KDSL is seeking a summer intern to assist with social media, marketing, and outreach.  This internship is an excellent opportunity for students interested in international education to gain understandings of the issues in field and to have hands-on experience developing services for the international education community.  The intern will be an integral member of a small team and will have opportunities to design and lead project initiatives.  The internship will be conducted virtually and will require approximately 5 to 8 hours per week.  The internship is unpaid.

Duration of internship: June 2012 – August 2012

Location: Virtual (use Skype, telephone, and the Internet)

Expected activities:

• Main responsibilities:
  • Research and contact international education organizations
  • Collaborate with marketing and outreach
  • Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Blog)
  • Manage customer relationships
  • Manage project timeline

Ideal candidate:

A successful candidate will have:

▪       an interest in international education, education reform, and/or comparative education

▪       an entrepreneurial spirit and self-starter attitude

▪       excellent research and writing skills

▪       excellent work ethics who will see tasks through completion

Other qualification:

A successful candidate should also:

▪       have access to reliable Internet services and Skype

▪       be able to communicate with team member several times a day via email.

▪       Tech savvy

▪       Able to begin mid-June 2012

If selected for an interview, candidates must be able to provide two references who can speak positively about their work ethic.

How to Apply

▪     Email a copy of resume and a letter of interest in Word or PDF to KDSL2007@gmail.com

Deadline to apply: Friday, June 8 at 5:00pm EST.  Potential candidates will be contacted for a Skype interview.

For more on WCEN please visit http://worldclassednews.com/

During her journey as an educator, Trabelsi reports that she had the opportunity to cross paths with many other global educators, whether they were colleagues, friends, teacher trainers, or administrators. From each new setting, she was able to draw depth from these relationships that shed new light on her own perspectives on education and language learning. Through these relationships forged, she says she “learnt how to widen up the spectrum of my understanding of other people’s perceptions and ideas on education, life, teaching and a range of other topics.” She has also learned a great deal about other cultures and building bridges across nations through education. Trabelsi was inspired by her colleagues and through a great deal of debating and inquiring with those around her. She has learned astronomical amounts about what works and what doesn’t when working towards global education and what is necessary for bridging gaps between classrooms to gain perspective worldwide.

For Trabelsi, the largest obstacle she had to overcome was her “own limitation in reaching out for a new or an updated knowledge or information related to her field of expertise or to education” and trying to match her own priorities with the abilities of the school to meet the school’s need or her own personal goal for the school’s well-being. During her time working at The American School of Tunis, her friend Furaha Youngblood said to her “Fatma, education is the only field where you still have an impact on the next generation. This is the field where the change happens.” Youngblood’s words acted as a catalyst for her to enhance her career for the rest of her life and changed her way of teaching. From that point on, Trabelsi has dedicated her time in the classroom to enhance students’ educational experiences and she has thrived from discovering their similarities and how they work together. Her perception of the world is continually changing as the more she grows and learns, the more she wants to share with her students. Her goal is simply to help them see beyond the boundaries of a name, religion, nationality or continent,” despite the difficulty that may come with trying to change a mindset, her devotion is unwavering.

As for changing students’ perspectives and molding their characters, Trabelsi says that is both the responsibility and privilege of the individual educators and administrators as opposed to the entire school. She believes that schools run by open-minded, experienced, flexible administrators will have the most success encouraging learning and setting up the right environment for students. Trabelsi works tirelessly to ensure that she and her fellow educators are catering to the individual needs of students and working towards keeping all students motivated, engaged, challenged, and involved both within their community and beyond.

Educationally Yours,

Emily Blackshire
Global Education Collaborator Intern
KDSL – Know.Do.Serve.Learn
Website: www.knowdoservelearn.org
Blog: http://www.kdsl.wordpress.com/

Email: emilyKDSL2007@gmail.com

EdCamp Dubai, First of its Kind in the Middle East

EdCamp Dubai, held at Bradenton Preparatory Academy on May 12, 2012, attracted educators from all regions of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). From nursery to university, participants represented a diverse range of teachers who came with a purpose to share experiences, uncover and debate hot topics in education. Here are a just a few of them:

To read more visit Justin Reich’s EdTech Researcher Blog Post.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edtechresearcher/2012/05/the_big_ideas_from_edcamp_dubai.html

KDSL was interviewed by Josh Haynam, co-founder and editor of Entrepreneur Stories an Entrepreneur with a passion for disruption.

To see the interview visit http://entrepreneur-stories.com/know-do-serve-learn/

Visit Entrepreneur Stories at http://entrepreneur-stories.com/

• KDSL Intern introduction
• Collaboration and What’s new at KDSL
• Mathletics
• Global Education Conferences

KDSL Spring 2012 Newsletter

2. Writing. KDSL is devoted to sharing and collaborating with K-16 education stakeholders worldwide. This is done via the KDSL Blog, Facebook, Twitter, and newsletter. A KDSL intern would have the opportunity to contribute to these various sources.

3. Leadership. There are many opportunities to learn and expand leadership skills within the organization.
KDSL seeks a resourceful, intelligent, detail-oriented, hard-working individual (college aged-student preferred) who is capable of excelling in an intellectually stimulating work environment. Research experience is desired, strong writing skills a must and Internet experience greatly welcome. The time commitment is 5-10 hours a week for this virtual internship to begin in late July/August 2012 for 3-6 months. This internship can be used to gain college credit or as an independent study. Please browse the KDSL weblog at www.kdsl.wordpress.com and the website at www.knowdoservelearn.org for more information about the organization.

KDSL is an equal opportunity employer. Individuals interested in the internship should send a cover letter, resume, 2 references, and a writing sample to: KDSL2007@gmail.com by 8 June 2012. Interviews will occur on Skype.

EdCamp Dubai is different than any other conference in the way that instead of sitting passively for lectures, the attendees are the presenters and agenda makers – covering topics that are relatable to all educators and that fit individual needs. Through this method of presentation, the attendees forge friendships and network beyond the conference as well, obeying the “law of two feet” and moving to the session most useful to each individual.

At the “unconference,” there are an array of topics that Kevin is expecting to be presented but these could span across the board to fit any and every individual concern of the educators in attendance. Expected topics may include literacy, technology, entrepreneurship, early childhood development/early years learning, and policy. Because the ultimate goal of EdCamps are to improve professional development, increase learning, and teaching potential, educators are put in the driver’s seat to choose what they want to learn or need to learn to teach their students. Kevin says, “We also want to start to learn about practices across the various curriculums represented in Dubai. So what can I learn from the British, American, Pakistani, Indian, French, German systems? How can we collaborate? Also, what can higher education learn from early years learning? What can educators learn from entrepreneurs? Dubai’s education system is so diverse. Teaching here I learned that but rarely had the opportunity to connect with my colleagues from other schools, levels.”

Because they want educators to take the lead, you’ll have to keep up with them through social media (or just attend yourself) to learn about what is going on throughout the day. To learn more, check out:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/edcampdubai
Email: edcampdubai@gmail.com
Website: http://edcampdubai.wordpress.com/
Wiki: http://edcamp.wikispaces.com/edcamp+Dubai
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edcampdubai 
Register to attend:  http://edcampdubai.eventbrite.com/

EdCamp Dubai will take place on Saturday 12 May 2012 at Bradenton Preparatory Academy Dubai from 8:30am-4pm.

Educationally Yours,

Emily Blackshire
Global Education Collaborator Intern
KDSL – Know.Do.Serve.Learn
Website: www.knowdoservelearn.org
Blog: http://www.kdsl.wordpress.com/
Email: emilyKDSL2007@gmail.com

Introducing, the world’s first tuition-free global university. The University of the People, founded by entrepreneur and activist Shai Reshef, is the very first online university that is non-profit, open to anyone across the world with an internet connection, and completely tuition-free.

The University of the People relies on contributions of time and course materials by some of the best professors around the world and utilizes current technology to provide courses globally. U of People’s approach is working because the school is built on a non-profit format. Students are charged nominal fees for sending in an application (customary for any sort of university, private or public) and the organization is able to function at very low costs. The school also provides opportunities for disadvantaged students to wave application fees completely, depending on their country of origin.

The courses work based on e-learning and social networking techniques, and courses are taught online by volunteer professors. There is also an emphasis on collaborative, or peer-to-peer, learning, all done online.

The University of the People currently offers associate and bachelor’s degrees in both Business Administration and Computer Science and is planning to expand to all disciplines that can be adequately taught online.

While the effects of this higher education model are yet to be seen, the university is surely growing. UoPeople enrolled 180 students from 49 different countries in September of 2009. By January 2012, student enrollment had grown to over 1,300 students from 126 countries across the world.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who writes on the topics of online university.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katherynrivas87@gmail.com.