SOME RECENT CHANGES ....

 

©INTERNATIONAL LEADING SEAGULLS PROJECT

The International ICT Seagulls Project completed its 10th year. It was a STUDENTS’ project focusing on continuous improvement through İmece Circles (SQC) methodology and technology use.
Now, it is also the time for empowering teachers to lead the Circles as leading Seagulls!
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Do you want to be known at national and international platforms by revealing your real potential?

Do you aim at creating awareness for the present problems of your environment and finding out solutions for the betterment of life?

Do you want to move to the place and honour of a leading and innovative teacher through this project, as one of the pioneers of it?

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“©International ICT Seagulls Project” started in 2003 hugging all the students from Kindergartens to Colleges and completed its 10th year successfully with well-conducted 269 projects, not only in Turkey but in USA, UK, India, Nepal and South Africa (See www.bilisimcimartilar.com).  

In the Digital Age, a ten-year time for a project format is enough. Time is changing, needs are changing and we also must change to lead contemporary generations. The only thing remaining steady is the wonderful relationship between a teacher and his/her students. Sometimes we, educators, develop fears. We think that one day technology will take our places and education will be totally a technology-based with one way communication. As experienced teachers, we are aware of the human-to-human communication. Technology cannot replace a teacher’s love and affection which forms the core of teaching-learning process. As the designer of innovative ICT projects for some time, I wanted to emphasize the significant role of “teachers” upon the new generations and I wanted to empower the teachers once more. Teachers are not robots. They have their own initiatives and personal, educational backgrounds. They deserve to be trusted. They deserve to make some important decisions within the educational policy. But, unfortunately they cannot. So, within this project, I want to give the decision of forming his/her project teams choosing from the voluntary bodies. Those bodies might be students, NGO members, PTA members, administrating bodies, colleagues or people from the community, parents even; the business people who will support the educational issues and help make a great (WOW) change. As a result, title of the project has changed like the format and the contents:
                                                  INTERNATIONAL LEADING SEAGULLS (TEACHERS) PROJECT!

The project will start on 15^th January 2014 and will end on 2^nd June 2014. Then, for 10 days, assessment step will take place. As mentioned above, all the initiative will belong to the leading teacher. In other words, all the target groups, main theme, members, contents will be determined by the teacher and s/he will be responsible for the labor of division along with the project members for all the steps, processes, procedures  including the videotaping, preparing the ppts and Blogs/Web pages. We want to empower teachers from the very beginning to the end. As you know MOOCs (=Massive Open Online Courses) are very popular among the world-wide known universities. In our project, teachers and their teams will prepare their Oops! (=Open Online Projects) and (I hope) will cause billions of WOWs(!) around them as a result of great change they create.

PDCA Mindset and analytical problem solving steps (SQC Methodology) will form the essence of the planning and implementation, and sharing will be realized through technology use. Leading teachers will participate in three categories. The assessment will be conducted in those categories:

1. Teachers/Instructors (working at state or private schools, belonging at every level and all subject areas including colleges)
2. Teacher trainees/Student Teachers (Attending Anatolian Teachers’ High Schools and Faculties of Education)
3. Retired Teachers (Every level and all subject areas).

Even though, we do not want to restrict the project topics, one of the following issues might be selected as the problem area. For a totally different field, you can talk to the General coordinator. Here are the main themes of this year:

1. Educational issues,

2. Environmental problems,

3. System and Leadership-focused problems,

4. Violence, Humiliation, Inequality and Rights,

5. Disabilities,

6. Media and Ethics.

In order to take part in the Project, the “Standards and Ethics Project Protocol” should be signed by the teacher and also the administrator of the organization/school. Ethics and technical conditions are important issues. Volunteerism is another important principle in the project.

This project has not a materialistic award. The most important thing for a teacher is to add his/her creativity, love and Imece (=collaboration) spirit to his/her personal and professional lives. It will be understood easily that having national and international reputation through a real İmece project is the greatest award for the teacher and for his/her students.

The participants might attend the “17. ICSQCC” which will be held in Kingston University, London, UK in June 2014. There, you will present your project and see some other SQC samples.

The Projects will be handed in on 2^nd June 2014.

In order to get more information, please contact Dr. Hayal Köksal, General Coordinator.

TEL: +90 212 341 26 01                  CELL: +90 532 373 84 87 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
E- MAILS: hayal@hayalkoksal.com     koksalhayal@gmail.com     hayal@boun.edu.tr

THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST.