Archive for Education

International School Songdo, Classroom 2.0 and Cisco Webex Technology

October 5, 2009 Education One comment
Classroom 2.0

Classroom 2.0 Virtual Q & A (ISS Director of Curriculum James Kelly)

By Don Southerton, Songdo IBD CityTalk Editor and Chief Blogger

Songdo IBD’s vision for the future includes intergrating people and technology. Recently International School Songdo educators benefitted from Cisco Webex technology. Conducted by  Bridging Culture Worldwide CEO Don Southerton an interactive virtual classroom ( Classroom 2.0) workshop discussed Korean eduction and its strong ties to the workplace. Following a short lecture, Southerton and the group of veteran educators engaged in virtual Q & A.

ISS Korean Culture Training and Cisco Webex Technology Video

Chemulpo to Songdo IBD Author Featured in Korean American Magazine

September 25, 2009 Education One comment

By Don Southerton, Songdo IBD CityTalk Editor and Chief Blogger

I was very pleased with a recent Korean language article in San Diego Korean American Community Magazine. The 2 page spread highlights Chemulpo to Songdo IBD: Korea’s International Gateway, which was released in August. The book has been very well received by the Korean community, both in Korea and abroad.  A high quality complimentary web version of the pictorial history book is available online.  Click Here.

(Click to view in full format)

Cisco TP 3000 and International School Songdo

August 25, 2009 Education Comments Off on Cisco TP 3000 and International School Songdo

Don Southerton shares with ISS educators insights into Korean culture

By Don Southerton, Songdo IBD CityTalk Editor and Chief Blogger

On Saturday August 22 PST (Sunday August 23 in  Korea) from Cisco’s Irvine, CA offices, I shared an amazing experience with a team of new Korea-based  International School Songdo ISS) educators.  My work centers on training and coaching executives and teams on Korean culture, norms, history, and expectations. I was thrilled to use Cisco’s TP 3000 telepresence technology to provide the new ISS team with insights into Korea and Songdo IBD.The training session aligned with both Songdo IBD core value as an ubiquitous city, and ISS as a model for Classroom 2.0 education. (For more information of ISS teaching model see Headmaster Dr. Jorge Nelson’s December 2008 comments of Learning- centric teaching).

2009: Year of the Ox

January 19, 2009 Education One comment
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Genre Painting-Plowing the field with the ox

 

 

 

 

 

By Don Southerton, Songdo IBD CityTalk Editor and Chief Blogger

2009 is the Year of the Ox according to the Chinese zodiac. Koreans, too, follow the  lunar calendar, but have rich, unique traditions regarding many of the 12 zodiac animals. A goal of this Blog is when appropriate to share some insights into Korean tradition and history.

For example, in Korea the ox was the symbol of the three main virtues – honesty, sincerity, and self-sacrifice. It works slowly, but steadily, and is always patient. Building a city like Songdo IBD is a slow, but steady process, too.

It is commonly thought that those born in the Year of the Ox are hard-working and loyal. They may be slow at times but they can be focused and determined once they put their mind to something. Such single-mindedness has lead to the expression “stubborn as an ox.” Moreover, there is a Korean idiom “reading the scriptures to an ox.” which refers to the pointlessness of trying to persuade someone who will not listen. 

For more info and additional Genre artwork on Korea’s ox traditions, see LINK.

Songdo International School tour from Chinese Mayor and Microsoft

December 15, 2008 Education 3 comments

By Dr. Jorge Olaf Nelson, CMO, Songdo uLife

 

Chinese mayor and guests tour Classroom of the Future

Chinese mayor and guests tour Classroom of the Future

On December 11th, two tours of the Songdo International School (SIS) were hosted by Gale International on the site in Songdo. In the morning the general manager of Microsoft Research – Beijing and team were given a tour of the entire IT/CCTV/Cable/broadcast TV infrastructure of the SIS campus. This tour was designed for them to get a glimpse of the state-of-the-art technology already in place at the school. They mentioned how impressed they were by the huge investment in IT and went away with a bigger picture of how SIS is truly going to become the Most Ideal Environment (their words) for Microsoft’s initiatives in international education.

In the afternoon a large tour group from China arrived in two buses at the school. They were escorted by Chairman Stan Gale into the SIS Classroom of the Future, where they learned about student-centric, personalized learning that SIS will offer to all students K-12. The SIS team presented the concept of School 2.0 – how children who attend SIS will be learning in small, collaborative groups with teachers who are Guides by the Side, not Sages on the Stages. The SIS team is using best practices as identified by Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School professor who has recently published a very successful book about where education should be heading.

See HBS publication http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5978.html for more info. Note Learning-centric (left) and Teacher-centric (right). Click to zoom.

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