Monday, January 30, 2012

Call for Submissions - The Classroom 2.0 Fifth Anniversary Book Project!

Dear Friends:

This March marks the 5th anniversary of Classroom 2.0. Wow! It's pretty amazing to think of all that has happened in the world of social media and education during this time, and I'm especially grateful for the role that Classroom 2.0 has been able to play in what (I think) are ultimately significant opportunities to rethink and refocus education on the participation models of Web 2.0.

A HUGE thanks to each of you in Classroom 2.0 (or one of the other educational networks), whether you're celebrating your own five years or just five days!

For this milestone, I've been looking to do something for and with the community as a whole. (Of course, if you know me at all by now, you know there is a virtual event/celebration in store... but more on that later :) The more I played with the idea of a community-sourced Classroom 2.0 publishing project, the more excited I got about it. However, this would not just be the creation of a book, or just the collection of your best wisdom and practices, but it would also the building of an ecosystem that encourages and provides YOU now and in the future with the opportunity to take new leaps in this world of peer-expertise--and in particular, to becoming a published author (and there's an author in many of you waiting to come out, I know!).

For those who have already taken that leap and have been writing or publishing, my hope is that this will be a way to give you exposure to the larger Classroom 2.0 and other educational networks audience. Feel free to submit things that you have already written, as long as you have the rights to do so. I'm teaming up with Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers) and Chris Dawson (ZDNet Education), and our combined audience reach should be over 125,000 educator right off the bat.

So here it is! This is the official call for chapter submissions for Classroom 2.0: The Book. EVERY chapter submission received will be posted and promoted on Classroom 2.0 as a stand-alone "white paper" available for free to download. Even if (and particularly if!) you've never written a chapter or whitepaper before, or been part of a book project, we really want and encourage you to do this.

You are or are becoming the experts, believe it or not. You've been working with these tools in the classroom, library, media center, your home, or other educational venues and we want other educators (and the world) to know about your experiences, your successes, your not-so-successes, and everything else that has mattered as you've used emerging technologies to inform or change teaching and learning in the education world. For all that is said about "21st century classrooms," you are likely already leading the way in something you actually do. We hope you will consider sharing your expertise and practical ideas for using Web 2.0 and emerging technologies in education.

We will be selecting some number of the submissions and inviting those authors to allow us to publishing their chapter an actual physical volume/book which will be printed and sold (and if we are lucky, maybe even distributed by a publisher who can make your work known even more widely). The book will be an anthology of the most compelling practices and best examples for using emerging technologies in schools, and we are hoping it will be widely recommended, purchased, used, and passed around! We hope it will help an even wider audience to learn more about what "Classroom 2.0" looks like, especially those teachers, administrators, parent, an policy-makers who don't yet understand the value to students of the engagement, voice, connectivity, and awareness that these tools can bring to teaching and learning.

We are giving you a lot of latitude on the topic and structure of your contributions, and you are also welcome to submit as many chapters/whitepapers as you would like. To be considered for inclusion in the printed book, we encourage that your chapter(s) be no longer than 2500 words and be geared toward the practical with learning objectives and examples of activities. We aren't discouraging "thought leadership" material, some of which will definitely be included in the book, but the book will predominately weighted toward practice and the practical. (We do reserve the right to not publish material that is not related to technology in education, is offensive in any way, or does not meet basic minimum standards for readability.) Whether your chapter is available online and/or is included in the book, you will own the rights to your own material and you are free to republish in any other medium without needing to contact us. You are also welcome to submit work you have published previously as long as you can still provide us with the rights to publish on our side.

When I think of all the amazing work that you are doing with the tools of the web--blogs, wikis, podcasts, social media, social networking, virtual learning and conferences, gaming, search/web/media literacies and fluencies, participative technologies, etc.--I cannot wait to see and share your submissions. We will start taking (and posting) submissions immediately and indefinitely, but to be considered for publication in the physical book, your submission(s) must be received by March 15th, 2012.

Submission instructions and more detail are available HERE, and there is a forum area at the bottom of that page where you can ask questions in case we've missed something important or you just need clarification. We do feel a deeper mission with this project, and hope you will join us in this effort.

See you online!

Steve
Steve Hargadon, Founder, Classroom 2.0

with Richard Byrne and Chris Dawson

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