What is iEARN?
Quotes from iEARN teachers:
a Dutch teacher recently shared similar words.“it was like the curtains in my classroom were opened and we could see the world again”
a Moroccan teacher said, "the iEARN network has played an important role in my professional life . It opened a window through which I could see the other world , besides, it helped me get out of the dark shell I was hibernating in.I used to work in class alone with students which made both of us feel bored, but thanks to iEARN projects we managed to get rid of the bordom and be active. IEARN is the torch that illuminated our path and made us work in a family atmosphere though we're from different and remote places.
Before telling you what I do, you need to know what iEARN is all about and how I became involved. iEARN, the International Education and Resource Network, is the world's largest and longest-running k-12 global learning network. This non-profit educational community empowers teachers and students to undertake projects designed to make deeply engaging connections to their local curriculum while making meaningful contributions to the health and welfare of the planet and its people.
Started in 1988, iEARN is currently active in over 125 countries, with 1,000,000 students participating as part of their education. I joined iEARN in 1990. iEARN UK was accepted as a member of iEARN International in 2004. I was elected to the iEARN Executive Council in 2005. 
iEARN overview.doc
Early years in iEARN
I first became involved in iEARN in 1990 when I was the Principal of
Foster High School in Tukwila, Washington, USA. I had developed an interest in bringing the world into our classrooms after my experiences visiting schools in France, Germany, China and Korea. In the summer of 1989 I studied in Korea as a Fulbright Summer Scholar. By October that year, the Soviet Union was cracking at the seams and the Berlin Wall tumbling down. I took an evening off from my duties as High School Principal and attended a reception held in honour of a Headteacher from London who was doing interesting projects with computers. That Headteacher was Brinley Morgan. Following a visit to London the following spring, Brinley and I decided to set up an educational link between my High School (Foster High School) in Seattle with Brinley's Secondary School (Walworth School) in London to explore the new technological opportunities that had opened up with computers.
Brinley and I were both interested in computers and this new technology. Through iEARN we were able to obtain some 'lumaphones' early video telephones that sent still black and while photos through the telephone lines. We also set up email links between our schools using 3.5kb Internet connections. Through our iEARN programme our students were able to email, have live chats and send photos of themselves using the lumaphones. Our teachers began to get to know each other and share ideas about how they taught subjects. The drama teachers in Walworth School and Foster High School collaborated on a play called 'email'. The play was later performed on both sides of the ocean to great acclaim!
After Brinley and I married in 1992, and I relocated to the UK, I attempted to introduce iEARN to other schools around the country. But at that time there was little understanding of what this technology could bring. Schools were content with their pen-pal programmes and exchange visits to Europe. I accepted a position teaching at Thanet College in Broadstairs, Kent and began to get my students involved in iEARN projects such as Vision and the Contemporary Magazine.
In March 1996, a gunman in Dunblane Scotland opened fire on a class of five- and six-year-olds, killing or wounding all but one person. Fifteen children and a teacher, Gwen Mayor, died at the scene. This horrific event brought an outpouring of emotion and sympathy from around the world. Being the only iEARN school in UK, we received nearly 700 emails from children, teachers and parents expressing their anguish and sending words of comfort to the people of Dunblane. Our students read and responded to every email. They were carefully printed off and sent to the Dunblane School along with our sympathy. This event had a deep impact on students and teachers alike at Thanet College and really demonstrated to us the power of the Internet to bring people together . In July 1996, I was fortunate enough to attend my first ever iEARN International Conference in Budapest Hungary and share the Dunblane story with teachers from around the world. This was the 3rd iEARN International Conference. I felt the global power of this network for the first time and made some wonderful friends in the iEARN world.
Over the next few years, links between iEARN at Thanet College and iEARN Russia were formed. Two groups of students and teachers from Moscow came to develop English language at Thanet College. Brinley and Cheryl met with iEARN Teachers in South Africa in 1996 and attended the iEARN Russia conference in 1999. Learn more...
iEARN in the 21st Century
iEARN in the UK continued to grow slowly over the years. Individual iEARN members attended iEARN International conferences but there was no central organization. After joining Learning Skills and Development Agency in Wales in 2001, I began to encourage teachers to get involved with iEARN. In 2002-03, 8 teachers enrolled on the new iEARN On-line professional development course and became involved in YouthCAN and the Bullying project. A teacher attended the iEARN International Conference in Japan and delivered two papers. In October 2003 the first iEARN UK national meeting was held in Cardiff attended by 20 teachers and educators. The outcome of that meeting was a mandate to establish an official iEARN Centre in the UK. The iEARN UK members agreed a mission statement and aims. The following May, iEARN UK was officially launched in Cardiff and iEARN UK was accepted for membership in iEARN International.
iEARN UK students continued their involvement in YouthCAN and EU Spring Day sharing their experiences via video conferences with other YouthCAN students around the world and giving their first international presentation at the 11th iEARN International Conference, 'Content and Collaboration in an expanding Europe and a Shrinking World" held in Kosice Slovakia on 11-17 July 2004. I took the opportunity to meet up with old iEARN friends and to make new ones.
In 2005, iEARN UK, under the leadership of Executive Officer, Mary Gowers, iEARN UK successfully bid for a contract to develop an iEARN project called 'One World' linking environmental issues and key skills. In 2006, iEARN UK students and teachers took part in the first Dysg Youth Conference on Global Stewardship. Once again, they used a range of key skills to take part in collaborative online project based learning activities. Students also took part in iEARN Learning Circles.
iEARN UK began to take an active part in iEARN International conferences and Youth Summits in Slovakia (2004), Netherlands (2006) and this year in Egypt (2007). Meanwhile I began to receive invitations to deliver workshops and talks about iEARN in UK and then in Slovenia.
I have invited iEARN Coordinators to Wales to make keynote speeches to the Annual Wales: the e-Learning Country Conferences. These experts included: Bob Hofman, iEARN Netherlands and Dalia Kahlil, iEARN Egypt.
This past year I participated in the first Asia Pacific iEARN Regional Conference held in Tokyo. iEARN Country Coordinators in 20 countries came together to develop iEARN projects and establish a regional network. One example of this network was the exchange of Teddy Bears. I was honored to take a Teddy Bear from Raglan Primary School to exchange with a primary school in Taiwan.
In September 2006, I teamed with Eliane Metni, iEARN Lebanon, to deliver a presentation on a successful Learning Circle called ‘Equity Beyond Diversity’ for the Dissolving Boundaries Conference in Northern Ireland.
During 2006-07 iEARN UK continued to provide ‘One World’ Environment days for students in schools across Wales and England. In addition, iEARN UK coordinated several Learning Circles for “Water, Water everywhere?” and “Sports, is it Fair?”. The DELLS-Dysg Youth Conference held in March 2007 showcased several projects incorporating iEARN project work.
In April 2007, I was one of 5 international experts on a virtual teacher conference held in Netherlands using wiki and video links. A follow-up face-to-face conference will be held in November 2007.
Brinley and I traveled to Taiwan in May 2007 to deliver lectures on 21st Century Skills to teachers in three different schools, and to University students. I also co-delivered an iEARN teacher’s workshop to 40 teachers from Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia.
In July 2007, we will lead a group of 15+ teachers and students to the iEARN International Conference in Egypt. While in Egypt I will coordinate the iEARN International Assembly meeting and deliver two papers.
iEARN Executive Council
iEARN International is a decentralized global network of educational groups working collaboratively and sharing the same goals. The majority of the project activities in iEARN are initiated and managed by teachers and students in schools around the world. It is governed through the iEARN Assembly comprised of recognized iEARN Centers around the world.
In 2005, I was elected to the Executive Council of iEARN International. The Executive Council is an elected three person volunteer committee that conducts the daily business of the international network and facilitates discussions and decisions by the Assembly.
Representing iEARN Internationally has been a highly rewarding and all-consuming activity in over the past two years. Membership in the Executive Council is a unique and special role in iEARN. We volunteer our free time, we sacrifice our family lives. We argue and we laugh. We learn how to overcome time zones, cultures and the nuances of English language as we represent iEARN Countries around the world.
The variety of different questions and issues we have faced is astounding. The responsibility of speaking for 130 countries and over 1 million children is awe-inspiring. The privilege of working with educators across the globe- hearing their hopes and dreams, wrestling with their fears and hardships is humbling. The opportunity to work with integrity as part of a real cross-cultural team with professionally dedicated and self-sacrificing fellow Executive members is inspiring.
I can’t think of anything I have done in my career that has been as satisfying!
So what do we do? Some of our the Executive Council tasks and discussions over the past two years include (nb. Some of these activities are devolved)
• Membership:
- o Processing questions and applications for new IEARN contacts, representatives and centers
- o Developing a system for supporting teachers/educators from ‘orphan’ countries (e.g., countries where there is no iEARN country coordinator
- o Dealing with inactive Centers or iEARN coordinators
• iEARN Country Coordinators
- o Revising iEARN Country Coordinator on-line handbook
- o Arranging for iEARN Coordinator training at Annual iEARN International Conferences
- o Arbitrating conflict between iEARN Centers or within iEARN programmes
• International Conference
- o Arranging for applications and selection of upcoming iEARN International conferences
- o Supporting iEARN International Conference team in the run-up to the Annual Conference
- o Scholarships and fundraising for International Conference
• Youth representative
- o Maintaining contact with iEARN Youth Representative
- o Arranging for the Election of Youth Representative every two years
- o Providing support for the Youth Representative (identified a mentor to provide advice and support to the Youth Representative and ensure that a close relationship exists between the Youth programme and the teacher/educator programme)
• Annual iEARN Assembly meeting (face-to-face and virtual)
- o Preparing agenda for iEARN Assembly meeting
- o Leading the iEARN Assembly meeting
- o Coordinating arrangements for Assembly meeting with current iEARN International conference team
- o Preparing annual report (including arranging for call for and collation of iEARN Country reports and preparing iEARN Executive Council Annual report
• iEARN International
- o Managing the iEARN International office.
- o Collecting iEARN International Contributions
- o Managing iEARN International budget expenditures
- o Arranging for election of new iEARN Executive Committee members
- o Coordinating votes for iEARN International resolutions and activities
- o Maintaining records of "ACTS" of iEARN International including all agreements of iEARN International agreed in the year. This "Acts Book" must be signed by the EC on behalf of iEARN International and submitted to Spanish Government annually.
- o Submitting 'Foundation Documents' for iEARN International to be posted to the iEARN International website. These documents should be posted in Spanish and English.
- o Arranging for translations of iEARN International documents as required
- o Maintaining a virtual office repository of key iEARN International documents including applications from iEARN programmes around the world
- o Liaising with iEARN International website managers as needed
• Coordinate Collaborations and partnerships
- o Developing guidelines and templates for establishing Memorandums of Understanding between iEARN Centers and outside organizations.
- o WEC – Partnership agreement between iEARN International and the World Education Corps
- o Adobe Youth Voices Project – monitoring progress on WEC
- o Operation HOPE (helping other people everywhere) IRCC (International relief coordinating committee)
- • Represent iEARN International (or delegating this role) at conferences and events and in discussions with partner organizations
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