Eric,

Thank you for the leadership in the IC4 Project. It’s encouraging to see students from additional sites in Kongoni participate. 
Certainly, as you’ve mentioned, post-COVID-19 education would give primacy to peer learning mediated by smart technologies. There are moves towards online teaching as countries confront the impact of corona in schooling and education. I see IC4 providing the much needed experience and evidence to shift from teaching to learning.   
I’ll be challenging you soon to speak to the team at Eisenhower Ave.  and/or Mountain View for an expanded space.

Keep the faith In your Service to Humanity!

Liege, as always, thank you, and hope to see how the Kenyan Ministry of Ed is operationalizing teaching during the shutdown.

Danielle,

You've been an inspiration to the team of facilitators and students. It is amazing how you and Zach organized the meet ups, especially when the indefatigable liege Eric was in Geneva. Keep up the leadership, history has a great place for your contribution!

Danielle,

I have been inspired by how you make things work; organise the meetups, always available during those meetups, updating us when neccesary. Your effort has been magnificent and thank you for that :)

Denis, we appreciate you more than you will every know!  Your leadership in facilitating meet-ups and motivating/organizing our students in Kenya since early 2017 has been incredible.  Proud to have you on our team :)

Ateng, thank you for your constant support and encouragement; I will always have utmost respect for you because you have been key to our connections on the African continent.  Much gratitude! 

Danielle,

We appreciate all the efforts you have always put to ensure ic4 runs smoothly together with other team members. Its always a pleasure facilitating a meetup knowing that you are behind the camera to help with any difficulties that may arise. Thank you so much!

Ateamate,

We don’t take for granted the pioneer role you played. There must be many looking unto you as their mentor. Continue serving humanity 

Hi Rebecca, and thank you.  Originally this was a teacher professional development project, introducing teachers and then teacher-student teams into developing effective media to help teach STEM topics.  A lot of this took place in Kenya and Namibia through government education ministries, or else in prior NSF PD. Every teacher has been recruited in a different way.

We try to regularize the interactions as much as is possible with time zones, and hold zoom meetings, long before the pandemic.  As far as norms, we have usual virtual meeting etiquette, but also have graduates from the program who are skilled facilitators; they create an ambience of respect and assuring that every person is recognized and encouraged and that time constraints also matter.

In Kenya, we do identify enthusiastic teachers in rural remote schools who are passionate about STEM. They do spend hours of their own time -supporting kids even if no one asked them to do it. We provide equipment, tools and resources to support their clubs but in most cases, they find things they can improve with what they already have. Also, students teach the teachers what they have learned on their collaborative projects and it pushes them to learn new skills and ask questions. Some teachers have transformed their professional practice as a result and in some schools they are recognized by school administrators with their passion project.

Rebecca, I just looked at the site.  Very cool on several levels.  As a former contributor to and parent in FCPS (lived in Fair Oaks) it is nice to see this.  And we will explore a connection with them.  I see that you are familiar with higher education near a baseball stadium on 35th street in Chicago.  I taught K12 straight down on 47th street, in my years after UC and before Northwestern.  And OAS - very cool also.  I was in UNESCO between 2018 and 2019 on leave from Pepperdine.  Hope to connect in some way.

Eric, you've given a concise response to Rebecca's questions. I wish our friends - the teachers in IC4 will give a brief personal account of their experiences, expectations and motivations! It might help illuminate the fact that some teachers get motivated seeing the growth in learners' engagement, confidence and possibly competence, especially towards self-efficacy as they 'discover' their human worth.... Waiting for the teachers self-account...

I have seen the great work on Global Schools shared by Rebecca. There is great convergence, although my quick scan shows that most of the FCPS schools are in Virginia, US. It might be useful to see how the Potraits of a Graduate configures across diverse cultures. Pass congratulatory message to Rebecca

Dear Eric, Zach, and Ateng',

Thanks to all of you for your very concise responses! I am so pleased that this project has fostered such strong relationships and a unified vision for what you hope to accomplish.

I actually am helping to facilitate some of the relationships between FCPS' Global Classroom and schools across the Americas -- I'd be happy to set you all up with a call with Global Classroom (if that is within your scope of efforts right now). I'm wearing many hats in this particular process right now, so please contact me at my personal e-mail, rebecca.elizabeth.vieyra@gmail.com if you are interested. (And yes, FCPS is only schools in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. However, I understand that they have somewhere around 15-30 schools around the world, I think, with which they are collaborating).

I know that one of the struggles that Global Classroom has reported is finding the curricular overlap between classes. How do you handle that?

Lastly, Eric, it would be great to connect about your work through UNESCO. I'd actually love to get your insight on multilateral organizations, especially through an academic framework. Please reach out!

I'm a little late to this thread, but wanted to touch on the notion of curriculum overlap.  Our students are from grade levels and learning different things in their schools, but since IC4 is an informal learning group (aka after school clubs) the topics can afford to be fluid.  In fact, the diversity in topics is usually a benefit in meet-ups.  If another participant is less familiar with that topic, that elicits questions that both deepens the confidence of the presenter and understanding for the participant asking.  Thank you for sharing interest in our project, and for letting us know about FCPS' Global Classroom project (I'm originally from VA so also quite interested ;)

Rebecca and all,

I am one of the teacher leaders at South Fayette in Pennsylvania. I was recruited to IC4 at its inception by Dr. Hamilton after he met our Director of Technology and Innovation, Ms. Owens, at a pen based learning conference.  He heard of our emerging computational thinking and STEAM initiatives and along with Ms. Owens, they presented me with the opportunity to facilitate an IC4 group in our district.  As for communicating goals, a website was created (ic4.site) that has information posted for the general public, but also has a separate section for members.  The goals, expectations, calendars, means of communication, and links to content collection were all housed in this website.  This evolved over the years and we primarily rely on Slack as a means of asynchronous communication and content sharing.  We use Zoom for our global meetups.  Now that we are at home due to the pandemic, South Fayette holds weekly meetings on Zoom as well.  At our site, these weekly Zoom meetings are well attended and students enjoy the opportunity to connect with one another. Because of these weekly meetings, our students have stayed motivated to learn and create projects. We also have one or two students attend a global meetup on Saturday mornings.  Throughout the history of IC4, the way students complete the projects has evolved.  It has been a very organic process - we started with assigning students based upon interests.  Then we moved to a three tiered approach where students created projects first on their own with teacher guidance, then partnered with another site with limited teacher involvement, followed by a self-initiated collaboration across sites.  This scaffolding gave students greater ownership of the process and product over time. Recently, we limited the amount of time given to students in completing projects so that they would not lose interest or motivation. The products were shorter in length, but the number of completed projects increased (at least from the South Fayette site).  Students enjoy completing the lightning round round projects where the topic is more focused.  There are five topics (one per letter in STEAM) for students to research and produce a video or Sway presentation.  They have 2-3 weeks to complete the project.  This includes joining a discussion, presenting their early findings, participating in a global meetup, giving and receiving feedback, then submitting a final presentation. In addition, there is also a weekly "TicTok" challenge where they respond to a question in a video less than 30 seconds long (they can use TicTok if they wish, but many choose just to make a short video).  Another way we have motivated our students is by having them take turns creating Trivia Battles for one another.  These 10-question presentations have become a staple in our weekly local virtual meetups and participants enjoy testing one another's STEAM trivia knowledge.  Thank you, Rebecca for your question.  I hope my perspective helps you understand our project better.  Thank you, as always, to Dr. Hamilton, Danielle, and the entire IC4 community for your continued support.  This is a valuable opportunity!  

Shad, we are so grateful to you and AJ for your leadership at our SF site (and in your case, being with us since the very beginning!).  Thank you for sharing your experiences in the project as an educator working with the students, as this is valuable insight for others to see, especially where we are in our design iteration.  Amidst the current world circumstances with the pandemic, your site has increased in activity and we have been thrilled to see that engagement.  We appreciate your commitment to keeping the students connected through IC4-- the student projects have been so informative (wow, making organic leather, different approaches to water filters, cool Rube Goldberg machines, revisiting Scratch projects) and fun (competitive rounds of STEAM trivia battles!).  Many thanks to you and the South Fayette site for your awesome contributions to the community :)

Michael,

You've asked thought-provoking questions - and in deed IC4 is a research project, as such the process and results are of interest. Eric has aptly responded to the questions, and I might just add that there is observable evolution of behavioral patterns among students. Some students (Kenya, for instance) are socialized in ways that inhibit their speaking freely, with the risk of being seen as 'dull'. At initial stages, such students would be shy, but as they progressively (get 'immersed' in the project and) speak freely to their peers and facilitators. This might be evident but the quantitative ethnography analysis Eric mentions might give more insights. I guess we need to keep these questions alive!

Hi Michael,

greetings from Finland! One topic what the students from Finland, Kenya and US have been working on is the climate change. They have been studying, how you can adapt to climate change, how our food is changing due to climate change, and for example how our physical environment has changed. 

Veera 

Veera, I have been wondering how different these changes are in southern Finland and Helsinki in contrast to Salla or even further north into Lapland towards the pole.  This is an area I hoped to learn more about.

Hi Eric, an excellent video that highlights the possibilities of this expansive project in a short amount of time! Could you say a bit more about your intercultural competency tool? I'm interested in how you envisioned its use in this project. I'd like to think more about the application in this context as well as others.

Kelsey, we are trying to use an instrument that an early career researcher has used and expanded in Germany, in addition to the ENA.  (I will try to find this in the next day or so.) But eager to see what measurement ideas you might be able to share

That would be wonderful, thank you! I have recently been looking into VALUE (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) rubrics that were developed by AAC&U. They have rubrics for assessing Intercultural Knowledge and Competence, Global Learning, Civic Knowledge and Engagement - Local and Global, and other areas of learning. These rubrics were created with college students in mind, but may still be informative for assessing the great work being done in IC4.

Thank you Catherine and great question. I am a site leader on this project in Kenya. I have observed students on this project teach one another concepts during online meetups. They do teach others from other sites what they have learned or researched on their project ideas. When they do so or when they are questioned during project collaborations, they improve their own understanding of the content and enhance their own learning.The questioning from their peers also pushes forward new learning.

Thank you for your question Catherine. Our experience in the IC4 project has been that synchronous and asynchronous collaboration are complementary in many ways. In addition to helping students learn about STEM content, the synchronous video conferences (meet-ups) also facilitate social interaction and community building among participants from different sites. Students are able to connect naturally on a more personal level as they chat about their interests, experiences and cultures. These social connections can be seen as the building blocks that enhance their sense of comfort, trust and psychological safety in the meet-ups. As a result, participants feel more at ease in asking questions, sharing ideas and offering feedback — thereby contributing to their own learning as well as the learning of others.

At the same time, having an asynchronous communication platform (we have been using Slack in the IC4 project) allows for greater flexibility in how students can interact and collaborate. This has been critical given the global nature of the project and the physical limitations associated with synchronous meet-ups (due to time/schedule differences, internet accessibility, etc.). The asynchronous platform is often used by students to continue collaboration on ideas discussed together in the meet-ups and to share completed projects.

In this COVID-19 environment, we are in the midst of transforming some of our in-person professional development activities to a virtual environment.  We've discussed working with synchronous and asynchronous tools as none of us can imagine being on-line on zoom for the usual 7-hour workshop day.  So designing the best asynchronous activities will be critical.  Ideas about water (I noticed some such activity in your video) especially are welcome.  Also ecology and biology.  Our project is normally held in a public aquarium, now closed.  What tools (tablets, internet connections) did your project have to provide?  It's ironic that it is as challenging to communicate across one American city as it is for you to communicate around the world, maybe even more so

Jeffrey, it is a great question and a great observation.  We do not really have tools beyond a way to use synch and asynch communications and a purposeful strategy for creating projects.  We have had a formal system for students to plan how they will communicate with each other (called a project charter) but we have found those are not used so much.  (We do use Slack, but it does have space limitations, unless using corporate pricing which is not realistic for working with a lot of students.)  Would be happy to discuss further.

Hi Catherine,

you asked about asynchronous and synchronous learning in the project. I am the country leader of Finland and think that both methods have their own positive sides on collaboration. It is important to have online meet-ups where the students have a possibility to see each other face-to-face. This makes a good start for collaboration. But, it is also important to collaborate asynchronously in order to concentrate on doing what was planned online. In addition, asynchronous collaboration, for example collaborating by using Slack makes it easier to collaborate if you are not a native English speaker.

Veera

Catherine, on your question, as much as possible we want to emulate real-life experiences - and in our daily relationships, we function both synchronously and asynchronously.  One area where the complementarity is especially interesting, though, is in the synchronous video conference.  We believe that when students can collaborate with their peers from the comfort of their own culture while observing peers outside of their culture, cross-cultural anxiety is minimized. I am not sure how vividly our data directly supports that conjecture, but I think it is an important dynamic.  Thank you for your question.

Sometimes younger than that!  And it is amazing to see 20 year olds like Ateamate and Denis, ok he is a little older, run the global meetups.  Yikes!

They are really brilliant too. I can recall being taught coding in one of the meetup[ around 2017/2018] that involved Finnish students and Mpesa Foundation Academy. It was really fantastic collaboration between the schools.

I agree-- I have learned so much from the student presentations at meet-ups, and how well they handle questions and feedback from others.  And to echo Eric, I am very grateful for our masterful facilitators who foster a welcoming environment while keeping things moving!

I have never heard the observation "students get to experience firsthand that we all have a different accent." It is one of the most moving and beautiful things I have heard.   

Eric,

Pass my regards to Israel and Dr. Carmona. The meetings we had in San Antonio were quite illuminating and it's my belief that most of the plans will be actualized after the pandemic. The perspectives of Dr. Carmona at UTSA were diverse and rich, will find space in some of my interactions. Thanks for keeping me connected to great minds and great work to the younger children in Africa through IC4

We are hopeful that the projects in San Antonio will find a place for IC4 - those can be crucial connections, and yes, we look forward to the plans being actualized as you put it.

Mr Rector, well-noted. One thing that we stress is that the future also belongs to those who are furnished tractable opportunities to develop leadership and complex problem-solving competences.  We hope to see our students following more intellectually, socially, and economically prosperous paths because of their involvement.

Samuel, this project has been so enriched by teachers in Kenya, and we are looking forward to hearing about the paths of the participants from east Africa. Thank you!

Samuel, I echo Eric's comments.  Interest and participation from our participants and educators in Kenya has made such a difference in IC4.  Thank you for sharing your thoughts and we are so excited to keep going!

Hi Ron, How is Colorado?

Dr Cole, we are working on scaling, though there are many challenges.  We are trying some foundations.  

Hi Jonathan, thank you for the questions.  The main recruiting tool is trust capital with educators - with whom have we worked, with whom do we have strong relationships, and who trusts us the way we trust them, with a willingness to learn and a shared commitment to the principles of help-giving and participatory teaching that were the basis for the project.  These relationships usually take years to develop, but the network always attends from the outset to equity of access.  Schools are the insurers of this access though.  For example, we work with the Kibera region outside of Nairobi, one of the most economically distressed urban areas of Sub-Sahara.  It is the school with which we work that assures equitable participation.  Sometimes we start with a new group, though, which is also a refreshing thing.  Because there are activities taking place at all hours, it is difficult to call it after school or Saturdays, but that might be the best way to describe it.

Thank you, Eric, for adding that context. 

Denis, thank you so much for your welcomed reflections on both the video and your experiences in IC4.  Your direct insights are valuable (especially as someone who has been with us since the beginning, and seen the design iterations and working through challenges!), and we are equally grateful to you for your leadership, care, interest and reliability with the efforts in Kenya :)  There aren't enough words to fully express this appreciation!

Michael, thank you.  One thing I have learned in this thread is how the Kenyans facilitating in the project actually highlight the very thing you are asking about, that there is a cultural dynamic.  It is difficult to say how it unfolds, because the Kenyan students generally become less subdued and more comfortable with their US, Brazilian, and European counterparts.  If Ateamate, Denis, or Ateng' see this, or other Kenyans, please chime in.

Michael, the problem will only come in when we view those differences as abstables but if we treat them as opportunities we will get to learn and appreciate their existence. We are cool and comfortable with them. 

Thank you so much everyone, I wish I had time I would have said more:)

Our lives changed so much for the better when you and Ana Paula came into this group with your students.  Thank you, and yes, thank you for Luiz, translator and person extraordinaire!

Agreed-- Arquimedes, you and Ana Paula have been such a great addition to our IC4 family, especially with taking on language differences head on.  (many thanks to Luiz and Leonardo for their efforts in bridging the gap!)  Having participants from Brazil has enriched us in so many ways, notably with your passion for robotics and arduinos :)  We are truly grateful.

Thank you Greg! I can't agree with you more that STEM education in developing countries will be critical for economic growth not only for individual nations but globally as well. This pandemic is a reminder of how connected the world has become -- and just how dependent we are on one another.  Related to your question on measurement, we have been assessing the progress made by students involved in the project by analyzing several different types of data. These include student interactions in synchronous sessions and through asynchronous channels as well as participant interviews and the digital artifacts produced by the students. As you know, epistemic network analysis (ENA) has been one of the approaches we have used to examine changes in the discourse patterns of students as they participate in the global meet-ups. And definitely -- we would love to hear about your ideas on scaling the project!!

Greg, especially because of your research, I hope to exchange ideas on measurement and scaling.  Thank you :)

Dear Rebecca,

IC4 has benefited greatly from your involvement from Queens and NYSci.  I agree that the addition of Slack has been a big help.  Their main accounts are not realistic for the number of students in a project like this.  Their educator account is fine, but nobody over 16 is allowed to use it, which can't work in an environment that requires supervision.  Alas, I should not be complaining, but I am doing just that!  Thank you again for your ongoing efforts.

Bec, thank you so much for your reflections; you've seen IC4 evolve over the years and we value you sharing your insights!  I reiterate our appreciation for your efforts and organization for our site in NYC, keeping folks accountable and helping your students learn such high-caliber media making skills.  The video quality for the New York Hall of Science group has always been top notch, and helps others work towards the that video making potential.   I'm so glad you're a fan of Slack!  It has been such an important tool to fostering asynchronous connections for us :) 

Cathy, it is amazing to see what students can do during the pandemic through virtual experiences.  Glad this made a connection with you, and please contact us if you wish to engage further.

Ateamate, these eloquent comments capture what we hope happens with the IC4 students.  We are so fortunate that you are able to take time from your mathematics studies to lead secondary school students around the world in facilitating the meetups.  Thank you.

Ateamate, thank you so much for sharing your reflections from your journey, as you've been with IC4 since its early beginnings.  We do feel strongly that the work in IC4 is something that will be part of future work environments, and by extension, future learning environments, using virtual mediums to leverage the value that boundary crossing collaboration can bring.  We are truly thankful for you for your continued enthusiasm, energy and dedication to keeping IC4 going.  You are part of the promising next generation of leadership our world needs!

Brandon, thank you for sharing our project with others!  We are definitely interested in any feedback you might hear.  Feel free to reach out to us post-showcase at info@ic4.site

Dear Kevin, thank you.  We are planning several steps in a plan to enable more sites to participate and to engage policy-makers in forums that explore the possibilities for this kind of work in the future, post-pandemic.  NYSci has been such an important part of this effort, and yes, we do see expansion.  

Dear Martha,

Thank you so much - these words mean very much coming from you - and for anyone reading, I happily note that Martha and I were in first grade back in 1990 or some other decade-beginning-year in the previous century.  Our team is fortunate to work with these students who are both everyday and exceptional, all at the same time.  The energy and engagement you observe seems to feed itself, and that is so pleasing to see.  Thank you again.

Research on self-explanation as a cognitively powerful mechanism was at the core of the forerunners to this project, especially the work of Mickey Chi, and the notion of negotiated meaning is at the heart of th entire computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) movement.  Thank you for sharing.

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out our project video!  Scaffolding has been an iterative process for us, and we continue to refine, but the students and teachers in IC4 have continued to amaze us.

Thanks Samson,

Please share more on the areas you may want the team to improve. You can get more information on the project from https://ic4.site/index.html

Dear Ms Jukanovich,

Almost all of the interaction is in English, though our students in Brazil interact with their counterparts with the assistance of college students at Pepperdine fluent in Portugese.  As far as the greatest challenge?  I think finding ways that students can interact with each other outside of scheduled times. 

Hi Jennifer,

well, all students don't speak English well in this project. But you can overcome this challenge for example by asynchronous collaboration, so that students have more time to think what they want to say. I think, it is the professional expertise of the teacher to encourage the students to use also other languages than their own.

Veera

Jennifer, thanks for your interest and checking out our project.  Eric and Veera have addressed your questions, but just to tag on to your last question on piloting-- we bring on new sites into the project as there is sustained support from the school's administration and a teacher.  Both are critical, in addition to overcoming the gap between expressing interest and executing the administrative steps (ie permissions, for safety of the students) needed for the club to function.  This has been a major limiting factor to rapid scaling, but on the positive side, since the community is not excessively large, participants from different sites are better able to get to know each other via interactions on Slack and meet-ups. 

Dear Dr Sparks,

Thank you for this note. I agree that these tools are indeed a wonder of our time.  It is a great joy to work with and to be inspired by these students.  Thank you again.

Anna-Liisa, it has been an honor to work with Salla HS Russian students.  I look forward to returning to this place in Finland so near the northwest corner of Russia.  "We set out to study the Climate Change but as a side product we learnt how to solve technological problems,to support each other, flexibility, tolerance and not giving up with the common target. We also discovered differences in values and social ways of expressing things..." This is a very moving motivator for this work, and I thank you.

Hi Anna-Liisa,

I totally agree with you what you said about the original goal and the main thing of the project. People met each other, learned from each other and about themselves. I remember so clearly how one child was happy to notice how well she had guided others to work together. In the interview she said that she wishes to became a class teacher when she is older.

Veera

Veera, we have been trying to emphasize the notion of how students help or guide one another.  That is the help-giving nature of the project, and I am glad to hear this anecdote.

Dear Toby,

I have to agree that seeing these students collaborate produces optimism at a time of great discouragement on the world scene.  They do represent our future!

Eric,

Toby mentions the soft skills that are becoming necessary for everyone in the current times. She mentions "perseverance" and "hunger for knowledge" (curiosity) which might be a way of addressing negative attitude towards learning and life. As Toby says, these learners are the future and we could expand the reach

I think watching the learners on the global meetups is useful to see evidence of soft skills, and especially how students communicate STEM ideas with each other, and more importantly, how they communicate with peers and teachers who do no represent their own cultures.

Dear Ms Hardaway,

I like your point about collective wisdom and talents.  We are simply privileged to help create a forum where these can come out.

Dear Camille,

Thank you for the kind words.  We have been excited by the paths the students take.  Two of them from the beginning now facilitate many of our global meetups.  Another one of the alumnae was the main producer of the video.  But yes, we are looking forward to seeing and hearing about their exploits. :)

Eric,

Denis and Ateamate are here, plus Christine. Camille might want to also read their comments although it might be useful for Ateamate and co to give a brief response to Camille

What I love most about this collaborations is that learners learn from one another, not in memorized and already documented concepts, but rather, they explore and discover together. Learning from one another has been seen to work better than the traditional set up where learning comes from a central source of knowledge. 

Dr. Mukiri,

You've put it in a concise language. The outcomes of such a project transcend academics, as they prepare learners for what life in the everyday sense is - problem solving, collaboration, communication and developing a sense of one's worth. The latter would help develop a younger generation of decision makers!

Sure,

We learn that humanity is universal, the differences are because of geographical locations, and cultural socialization. The global citizenship is a goal of education in many countries and IC4 is helping the few learners experience it. These are competencies you can't just learn in class!

I know even Eric has helped some of us experience the citizenship, just as much as he has interacted with students, teachers, researchers and bureaucrats from some African nations

Thank you Dr. Mukiri.  Mr Ogwel's comments remind me of the workshop you first attended in Karen, when he articulated these comments about global citizenship, and affirmed their significance in the Kenyan culture.  

That was a great experience. How can we ever forget it! The ideas gathered there have since influenced how I engage with learners. I appreciate that learners can generate so much content, I end up learning from them!!

Alex, thank you for taking the time to view our video and share your comments. You are right, kids in IC4 choose a topic which interests them and then they focus on explaining the math, science, technology or engineering of the project selected. I know you as a STEM educator doing such an amazing work related to learning physics around Nakuru and would love us to connect.

Zach,

Loop Alex in, we need a coalition of unlike minds with a vision to empower the younger generation, is small and incremental ways

Alex, please contact us if there might be ways you are interested in connecting with us, as Ateng' suggests.

Thank you for participating in this project Christine and we are fortunate to work with you. As a teacher, I have learned a lot from you. You have increased interest in STEM at your school through your fun and innovative projects like the egg shell project.

Hi Christine,

Your participation in IC4 has been awesome since the beginning;confident, full of ideas and always focus. Keep it up and when you continue with the same attitude you can achieve a lot.

Thank for being part of IC4

Denis, 

The reflection by Christine answers part of What Camille asked earlier. Who knows, if we keep growing the team of mentors from the ex-participants, and enrol more memebrs, IC4 might soon be a movement. Keep up the focus

Mr. Ogwel,

Thanks for the complement. You have been a great asset to the IC4 community and I can't be grateful enough for sharing this platform with you. You inspire and motivate people.

IC4 is growing, how it was before compare to now, there are a lot of improvements and I can't wait to see it as a “huge movement".

Denis, I think it is great how you call IC4 a "huge movement." It (IC4) has grown in just a few years! Denis, you are fabulous meetup host and I always enjoy when you lead a meetup! And we (IC4 Team) are always getting better, thanks to leaders like you!

Toby, this is so cool coming from you. Thank you :)

Your daughter inspires us!  And she has from the outset :)

Thank you for your note Pius. It is very exciting to get such an encouraging message and representation from an IC4 parent.

Thank you Mr. Ayieko for sharing how you have been amazed by the work of the young participants in IC4. We are really grateful.

Eric, Zach and Denis,

The account of the parent is a new dimension in our discussions, both in the video showcase and the implementation of the project. We need to here more from Pius and other parents, and get it documented. 

Am curious because in the new curriculum, we not only emphasis on competencies but also encourage Parental Empowerment and Engagement. This is a dimension that might provide evidence for policy decisions, especially when circumstances force us (parents) to stay with the children at home. There are quite a few questions that might be useful to pursue as we delve into the experience and role of parents of the participating students. 

Pass my best regards to Pius!

We underemphasize parental roles, in part because our access to parents is limited, but I agree with you that this is an untapped dimension.

Mr Gray,

That is quite a way to put it, and now I need to look up mutualism - it sounds like an interesting or valuable construct to consider in how we think about and communicate IC4. Thank you!

This "aquatic' ecology by Jeff is a good one. Am aware of high-level ambitions to harness blue economy. For the students in IC4, some of the projects could be on sub-water ......, may be, just may be!

I'm so grateful to see parents commenting-- such a valuable perspective that we don't get to incorporate often in our project.  Thank you for your support and sharing your thoughts, Jeff!

Chief Okafor,

It has been quite some time and I believe you continue making the best contribution to education through the civil society.

True, technology penetration might be a challenge, but flipping the coin and capitalizing on the gains that such ways of learning might have on the children. Is there something else we could do to empower the learners? don't we need to provide evidence to policy makers to prioritize quality education? Aren't there resources that might be used/ allocated for improve learning experiences of learners in such challenged areas? My response would be a YES for all the questions and similar ones.

Please Toocey, when and where do we reconnect after COVID-19?

I think Ruth Akumbu from Cameroon may be launching a forum soon to explore this, and I know she is planning to contact each of you.

... and hoping to build our various connections with schools and universities in Nigeria.  I know Toochakafor/Toocey is eager for us to expand.

I actually wanted to ask what's delaying the connection, but has to hold a bit with understanding that the pandemic must have played a bad role. I am glad to know that the project is progressing smoothly. 

Alice, we are so grateful to have you on our project team, especially with your connection and leadership to growing our IC4 presence in Nigeria.  Your talents and organization behind the scenes has been so incredibly valuable in helping the IC4 ship to function!  

Thank you Tabby, this is definitely the case! I think one of the most exciting things about IC4 is that the students are bringing their own set of skills, experiences and perspectives to the projects.  At a meet-up just yesterday, we had a middle student, who has prior experience working with leather, share a project about "growing" synthetic leather through bacteria using just tea, sugar and water!  Carrying out the project allowed the student to pursue an area in which she had knowledge and interest -- at the same time, the project was helpful for other students in seeing and learning about bacterial growth. Another project that comes to mind is a climate change project done by an IC4 participant living in Svalbard (island in the Arctic Ocean), in which he shared the changes that has been occurring on the island. Hearing this first-hand perspective--and to be able to ask questions, etc.-- added so much to the learning of the students from other parts of the world.

We are trying to explore the interest-driven-creator IDC theory that has been developed, primarily by Asian researchers.  It seems to have great promise in informal science education.

Thanks, Thomas! Yes a huge proportion of kids in the STEM network have sustained activities, work on their collaborative projects and meetups during this period of school closures but not all. Some kids in very rural remote areas do not have access to either internet connectivity or the required hardware to work synchronously. They have adapted to to low resource/low connectivity contexts and continue to work asynchronously.

This is great, much as I feel sad for those in rural settings.

Makes me think, does the project help learners while using the the regular school syllabus? How will the rural kids catch up once the schools reopen, Zach? 

As a Special Education teacher in the U.S., I understand your concern for catching up to the curriculum when schools reopen. I have had to transform my classroom to online distance learning and the main goal that I have for my students is keeping them engaged and motivated, as I have often seen in IC4. With my online classroom, there have been struggles for everyone with motivation and engagement, but I remain positive!! I have learned and grown from my involvement as a researcher with Pepperdine and IC4. I believe that IC4 has set a precedent for all classes of the future!

We have not had a focus on engaging students with identified disabilities or those who might be enrolled in special education programs.  I am not sure how that would appear, but I am sure it would require more encompassing frameworks.  Let's continue to consider over coming weeks.

Hi Dr. Hamilton,

The best way to engage SWDs in anything, including online, would be "inclusive mainstreamed" instruction-meaning SWDs would benefit most with a non-disabled peer-buddy who is really tech-savvy, both to lead STEM content and to model and support the SWD. This =COLLABORATION!

These my instincts and experience, but I have Plenty of data/peer-reviewed research to back up my claims!

TTB

Toby,

The inclusive dimension is of interest, and getting access to some of your work might be helpful for me in Kenya. 

Thank you so much for those thoughts, Toby.  We are so grateful to have your support and talents on our research team, especially with your award-winning educator experience.  When the Covid 19 pandemic hit and schools were having to make significant shifts, we realized that not much needed to change in IC4-- we have been working in a virtual setting since inception, so IC4 was essentially built to sustain in the current situation, and our students and teachers feel a more confident in navigating the online transitions that have been happening with most schools.

Taylor, thank you so much for serving on the research team and for your poignant comment on how the current crisis has revealed the need to adopt to virtual settings, something which IC4 has aimed to promote.  

You make an excellent point, Mr. Nardi! One of my favorite moments is to see the children working together as friends on a project. I particularly love when they gather in little groups of two and three around a computer in a zoom meeting. Their engagement is more confident, and they support each other. When they are alone, I notice that it is hard for the new kids to interact, and the response to questions is a brief (one to two words).

Dr Nardi... I don't think we have ever framed this as entailing a needs-based model of motivation.  This would be a theoretical direction.  We have overlapped a bit in describing some of this work in terms of self-determination theory.

I surely need to find more on ‘needs-based’ as Dr. Nardi points. I admire the experience of the learners developing self-direction and setting own goals. We might as well find out the complex nature of triggers to their motivation 

Patrick, we are so grateful for your commitment and efforts in supporting our site additions in Kenya in the last year!  Your enthusiasm and reliability has made such a difference.  Thank you for being on the IC4 team :) 

Patrick, 

Thank you for the work that you do to help students in Kenya prepare for a global future where collaboration is critical. We need more teachers like you across the continent, teaching children the valuable skills that IC4 has highlighted in this video. 

Thanks Ruth for the plans to connect more dots through the invite I responded to. We’ll share more insights on what we’re doing at national and continental level as a Centre (www.cemastea.ac.ke)

I agree, Sarah! :-)

Edwin, we are grateful to have you as a teacher site leader in IC4; SAG has been such a key site for us since the very beginning, and we have evolved and grown so much as a community since then, and much of it is attributed to the energy and success for the Kenyan SAG team, notably with Denis and Ateamate.  Thank you for your continued support and belief in the work IC4 aims to accomplish!

Edwin, Many thanks to you too. You have made a lot things possible at SAG, good evironment for learning and creation of projects. You have made students to feel comfortable around you. Getting a teacher with such personality is rare, IC4 is honoured to have you.

Edwin, 

I love that you mentioned confidence. It is fascinating to watch the change in the confidence and comfort level of students as they continue to participate in IC4. I am glad to hear the impact it has on them in the classroom. I am particularly thrilled that you brought up the impact on teachers. IC4 first point of contact, in my opinion, are the teachers. The teacher have to learn and get comfortable almost at the same rate as the students. As an RA, I can confirm that IC4 activities have greatly impacted how I collaborate on Zoom, slack, and sway. Thank you for sharing your insights and experiences. 

Edwin,

It has always been a pleasure working with and around you. Thank you for believing in us from the start till now. Also, you have been a great example to us with your undying commitment to see students learn and have a conducive environment to carry their projects. 

Edwin, your experience gaining more background in technology was one of the aims of the project, in that we wanted to see ways that students could wind up not only helping peers, but teachers.  More generally, we wanted to foster an ecosystem of learning, whereby individuals could help and be helped in learning.  You have been a great model of helping students and I am glad to see this reflection on your own technology development.  Thank you.

Thanks for support to Edwin and other teachers. 
The investment in time and encouragement might not be a daily teaching routine but surely help students prepare for life after school 

Mike, thank you for your comments and reflections on the project.  I want to echo the appreciation I shared with Patrick regarding your support for our sites in Kenya.  We are so grateful to have you as part of the IC4 team!

Danielle,

Mike has the capacity to have a very vibrant in the western region in Kenya. I admire his passion for mentoring and support young minds to acquire functional STEM capabilities 

That is high praise coming from you Dr Nathan.  Thank you.  We have been working on ways to enable participants to engage in more complex science, when the initial task of creating the collaborations and the communications has been at the forefront of our efforts.  There seems to be something analogous to a Maslow hierarchy for these collaborations - they have to be established before moving up the pyramid.  I don't know if that makes sense, but the projects are growing in depth and that is a great thing to see.

Eric, 

I might not have full details of your transformative vision but I admire your flexibility, adaptability and resilience. That you are able to get milestones of goals and keep the long term vision is evident in IC4- communication and collaboration is a goal but learners soon get into ‘depth’, just like media making. I remember Model Eliciting Activities from our 1st meeting 13 years ago and the rekindled memories at the evening class of Dr. Carmona in UTSA. 
Is the response to Nathan kind of describing ‘organic’ forms of autopoietic systems in IC4?

I think to echo on Eric's comment-- at the onset of participation, there's a lot of scaffolding and enculturation, as participants get used to the norms of communication (meet-ups and Slack) and opportunities for projects. Once they become acclimated to the norms of the community, they can move into more complex projects and thinking.  I think another aspect we also try to foster is substantive peer to peer feedback, which our facilitators try to help model and encourage.

Dear Mr Ogwel, 

If the question is what is our vision for creating a self-sustaining system, that is a main goal.  We want to learn more about how the collaborative systems function. and articulate those - that is the research side.  An autopoietic system is indeed the operational or practical goal!

Gareth,

Many thanks! You are more than good at coming up with project ideas. I can recall you and Helena were working on forensic science. I love the discussion we had together both on slack and during the meetup.It was so fantastic how you guys were explaining every detail in a systematic way.  Thanks for being part of IC4.

Forensic? It means that we have teams working on themes for the future. Incorporating Artificial Intelligence and Zach might be keen to see some big data thinking - surely will open students perspectives. 
Looking forward to see more coding 

Gareth, thanks for posting!  Good to see representation from NYC :)  So grateful you joined us in IC4 this year, you definitely have an eye for videomaking and a bright future ahead.  

Thank you Amy! Yes, we have been using epistemic network analysis (ENA) to examine the group discourse from the online meet-ups. Given that participants are able to see one another in these video calls, we are also exploring the role that affect may play on group discourse by looking at their nonverbal behavior and other visual cues (facial expressions, gestures, etc.).

Lee,

The diverse ways if characterizing communication is illuminating. A focus on observable (verbal & non-verbal) and inferred (the constructs through ENA) are part of the‘research.

By the way, do we have any accounts of students from Pepperdine who visited my neighborhood in Namibia?

Sahah,

Thank you too for being part of IC4 community:)

Denis,

Could it be possible that participating in IC4 helps one to develop a sense of responsibility? How, for instance did it feel to be asked to facilitate the sessions, shortly after high school? Don’t you consider your peers looking upto you for guidance to be ‘growth’? 
I could replace Denis with Ateamate and Christine and wait for responses to these rhetorical questions 

Mr. Ogwel,

In my first IC4 meetup, I was very nervous, I couldn't stand being seen on the screen. I was afraid of being ask questions that I knew very well that I couldn't undertand because of different in accent. I hope you understand what I mean. But Zach was around to help where necessary.

About facilitating, I organised with Ateamate that she would be doing facilitation then my part would be to help the students with whatever they needed, show them what to do, how they are done etc but at the back of mind, I knew that the day will come that I will be asked to facilitate. What I did was to prepare for the moment, I started by facilating one of the midnight meetups which the turnout was a bit low so that I dont get nervous. There were few people, I  had a normal conversation with them concerning their projects and that when I realized how great it was to facilitated. In 2017/2018 october, November, December, I didn't a lot of facilitation until I get use to it. It was a hard nut to crack but I had to give it a shot.

A sense of responsibility? I can say yes. Being part of IC4 and at the same you are a student, you need to know how to schedule your time, balance everything. You need to know that at a given time you should be in campus, another, you should in St. Aloysius either helping students to come up with projecr ideas or facilitating the meetup. On my side, I made it a bit easier for me after I had vie for the class representative. I didn't want to miss any piece of information that might be passed to my fellow students without me being alert. To be honest, IC4 has made me to be able to manage my activities very well and I love it :)

Cyrus, I agree that IC4 has provided a glimpse at what a classroom setting should look like!

I love your comments about innovation-finding solutions and solving community problems! Well said!!!

The students are working together to solve global problems. Being online has actually made students more connected and stronger!

Cyrus is giving quite an essay, very encouraging.

True for the Kenyan students, that IC4 opens their horizons and they aspire for better things. Ultimately their aspirations might be better shaped than if their circle of collaborators were just within their immediate locality. For those from other nations, their exposure may be obvious and unnoticed, but we cherish these opportunities 

It is great to read these comments, Israel.  I confess that I have not been as mindful of parental involvement as I should have been, and your point and others spur me to redouble attention.  Thank you!

Hi Maisha... Am I correct that you are Robert's daughter?  I first met him when I was working in the Chicago Public Schools in the 1990s.  I was managing an NSF project, and we provided some support for the Chicago Algebra Project that Dorothy Strong and others were leading then.  I also remember Bill Crombie and Cleeta Ryals from that time, though Cleeta passed not much after that.  And that was around the time I met Frank Davis, also on your team.  I will talk to our team and see if there are some ideas for connecting, and please do likewise.  If something works, it would be wonderful.  Thank you for your note and kind words, and please give my regards to everyone on your team.

Hi Eric, I am Bob's daughter.  Your connections with our work run deep.  I've shared your video with my leadership team and our math literacy workers to begin thinking about how we might connect. Thanks!

Maisha, I drew attention to our exchange with some of our project leaders, including co-PI , Dr Danielle Espino.  She replied "I saw that exchange happening, that connection is bananas.  What are the chances?  Too cool and my brain is spinning."  So we are contemplating also, and look forward to seeing if something will materialize.  I am at eric.hamilton@pepperdine.edu  Thank you again.  It is an honor to have such a discussion with you and the Algebra Project.

Edith, thank you for taking the time to check out our video!  We enjoyed yours and hope to potentially connect with teachers/students engaged in 5-step process of your project (ie if they made a video on an example of learning functions, our students would love it!)

Edith, that is an interesting observation.  We actually ask our students to make written reflections during our synchronous sessions, and of course there is a lot of back and forth conversation over the asynchronous platform of Slack.  One thing we are trying to understand is how the dynamics of a collaborative activity system eclipses the tendency for anxiety or mistrust of those who differ from us.  As Israel Ramirez said above about collaboration "We learn that all of us have different accents."  Only he said it more eloquently!

Hi Michael, thanks for visiting our project video and taking time to post/comment! Since our project works with after school clubs (informal setting), we don't necessarily have set curriculum, though some students develop projects based on topics they are learning at school, but many do it based on interest and exploring a topic.  We do offer some prompts for students to respond to as a way to help scaffold some ideas, but they aren't limited to that.  The media creation is completely up to the student-- generally the media will be videos or Microsoft Sway, but the key is they are focused on how they convey information to their peers, but trying to add some dynamic to it (we're always impressed when people add transitions and background music!).  The technology of making the media comes up in conversations a lot, exchanging ideas and feedback on improvements to each others' work.  

You again have a knack for saying something more eloquently than I could.  Thank you for highlighting this dynamic.

Well said, thank you so much for that thoughtful reflection on the student-teacher relationship.  You are an exemplar of how that dynamic can be so impactful!!