Greetings, GEC Members! 

Here's a quick update and what's been going on in our community. Please take a moment to visit items that may be of interest to you. Members are also welcome to post projects or queries to our discussion forum. US schools will be starting their school year soon, so this is a good time to enlist people in projects!

Also, a huge thanks to ISTE, our GEC Global Education Summit planning committee, and our Ignite presenters for making our first summit happen in June! We're thrilled to report that our large conference room was filled with interested folks, and we hope that everyone made new connections. Check out our summit wiki page and this news video from ISTE! 

Steve and I also had the opportunities to several conferences in June and July to spread the word about  work in this community. At the Asia Society's Partnership for Global Learning Conference, GEC members Julie Lindsey, Anne Mirtschin, and Silvia Tolisano participated in a great panel with us. Hopefully, video of this event will be posted at some point. Make sure to take note of this conference as it's a great face-to-face opportunity to gather with other globally minded educators!

Our Membership

Welcome to all of our new members! We are close to 11,000 members strong, representing over 140 different countries. New members are joining our community at the rate of about 100 new people per week, and many seem to be coming from the Middle East and Africa, thanks to iEARN's involvement in this year's conference.We're thrilled by our growth!

The Conference

Our conference is set to take place during International Education Week, November 12-17. It is free and takes place entirely online in the easy to use the Blackboard Collaborate platform. We will be providing training opportunities in September and October, so stay tuned for announcement for those dates.

The call for proposals (iEARN members click here) has been open since May and we are starting to review these. Once a proposal is accepted, a presenter can schedule their session for the conference week. If you want to make sure you get a good spot on the conference calendar, submit soon! To see current accepted sessions for the general conference, please click here. 

Some tips for conference proposals:

• There are two separate conferences going on at the same time, so please make sure you submit using the correct set of instructions.
  • The Global Education Conference
  • The iEARN Annual Conference and Youth Summit (iEARN members submit here.)
• Read all of the instructions very carefully. Make sure to tag your proposals as indicated. October 15 is the deadline for proposals. 
• Make sure your proposal ties to the mission of the conference. This is NOT a general education or technology conference. 
• Once your proposal is accepted, make sure you publicize your session and the conference via various social media.
• Any for profit groups must be a sponsor of our event in order to host a session. This excludes individual consultants, but includes consulting groups. You may not advertise a consulting group in a session unless your group is a sponsor. 
• International Advisory Board members should attend one of our next set of meetings scheduled for August. Please go to our group for more information or consult our Events listings. 
• Drop in help sessions are scheduled for August. Join our Blackboard Collaborate room on specific dates for help with your proposal or projects. See our Events for dates and times.  This is not training time for Blackboard Collaborate. Those sessions will come in September and October. 
• Our sponsors and partners are listed here; our international advisory board is listed here. Steve updates these pages periodically.
• Please pass on our press release to any interested parties. 

Additionally, we are currently announcing keynote speakers on a rolling basis. You are welcome to contribute to our suggested list of keynotes here. We will keep suggestions in mind and some may be invited to participate in future conferences; keynotes are invited at the sole discretion of conference leadership. At this time, we are particularly interested in hearing about high-level female thought leaders, particularly from outside the United States. 

Recent Discussion Forum Posts

Items that may be of interest to our membership:

• See all discussion forum posts here. There's some great stuff buried within our busy community!
• Homely Planet Radio
• Virtual Play!
• What is World Class Schools?
• Opportunity to Skype with a Classroom
• Schools - Past, Present and Future
• Skype on Global Issues
• How We Shine!
• London 2012 Olympics
• Cultural Songs
• Environmental Issues
• Skype About Presidential Elections

That's all the news that's fit to pass on to you in July! Look forward to meeting many of you at our various meetings scheduled in August! Stay cool or warm, depending on your hemisphere!

Lucy Gray 

Conference Co-Chair