The Flat Planet Project is a remarkable wiki project run by Simon O’Carroll from Ontario, Canada, and Neil D’Aguair from Surrey, UK. These two teachers of Religious Education met via the blogosphere and together came up with a simple yet incredibly effective research project for their students with topics such as climate change, vegetarianism, air pollution and endangered species. In the process, they took the students much further than they ever expected. In this episode we talk to Simon and Neil about the behind-the-scenes of the Flat Planet Project.

Using the free Wikispaces service, their students worked collaboratively across the Atlantic to create an incredibly impressive joint project. Along the way, both teachers and students got far more out of the project than they expected.

Some links we mentioned in the episode…

• The Flat Planet Project - Simon O’Carroll and Neil D’Aguiar
• Flat Classroom Project - Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay
• Wiki While you Work - Mark Wagner
• Free Wikispaces for Educators
• Simon Says - Simon’s Blog
• Intellectual Bohemian - Neil’s Blog

Enjoy.

 Episode 11: Taking it Further: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode we talk with Rob Ruberry and Jason Hando, two Australian teachers that have a good deal of experience with such Open Source tools as Joomla, Mambo and Moodle. We discuss how these tools could fit into your school and about the pros and cons of Open Source software generally.

Open Source software holds some interesting possibilities for education. With some amazing products around that are generally completely free to use, it’s no wonder that more and more schools are starting to look seriously at GNU/GPL Open Source as a viable alternative to the common proprietary software model.

Some links to the tools, people and ideas mentioned in this episode…

• Joomla!
• Mambo
• Moodle
• John “Mad Dog” Hall
• The Free Software Foundation
• What is “Free Software”?

 Episode 10: Open Minded: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download