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Welcome to the Online Progressive unSchool Community of Practice **List**
For more information about this project please watch this Prezi. Also see this presentation about the process leading to OPuS. The OPuS1 discussion forum is located here: http://OPuSone.ning.com To add your CoP details make a new page, copy/paste the format from an existing details page, put in your content, link to new page from this page. Follow the [|#OPuS1 hashtag on Twitter].
 * = [[image:Screen_shot_2011-02-21_at_3.50.11_PM.png width="191" height="90"]] || @Curved Roof Architecture

Fred Bartels ||< A CoP for exploring sustainable building with a particular focus on curved-roof architecture. CAD software has opened many new possibilities for incorporating more curves into architectural design. Participants in this CoP will play with those possibilities and look for opportunities that become available when you break out of the box. ||
 * || Creating Lives of "Whole Heartedness"

Susan Carter Morgan || What do we know about mindfulness? How can we create lives of focus, "whole-heartedness," and care? Does this take a new form of attention literacy? Let's explore what we can learn from those who practice this way of living. ||
 * [[image:Screen_shot_2011-02-21_at_4.55.15_PM.png width="151" height="111" align="center"]] || The Chemistry of Cooking

Laurie Bartels || Why does the amount of water used to boil pasta make a difference in how the pasta cooks? Does it really matter how much you stir ingredients? Do some ingredients play nicer with each other than other ingredients? What foods can be used as substitutes (for dietary restrictions, to lighten a recipe, for flavor…)? What impact do the cooking supplies (metal, glass, wood, plastic) have on the recipe? What is the difference between what seem like similar ingredients, such as baking soda & baking powder?

This CoP will guide participants in answering these questions and more in the"Chemistry of Cooking – a hands-on exploration of the transformation of food when it is combined and cooked. ||
 * [[image:Screen_shot_2011-02-21_at_5.01.57_PM.png width="71" height="127" align="center"]] || Exploring the Big Questions of Life

Stephen Hurley || I'm interested in creating CoP based on the big questions of life. Inspired by the work of Christopher Phillips: The Socrates Cafe, it would be fascinating to bring this method of inquiry and reflection online, and make it accessible to a wider audience.

So often, school is about learning what we already know about the world: the answers. In the spirit of inquiry, it would be cool to foster the development of more questions! ||
 * [[image:Screen_shot_2011-02-21_at_5.18.42_PM.png width="160" height="97" align="center"]] || Exploring Creative and Ethical Uses of Social Media

Pat Hough || A CoP for finding and building upon the bright spots in creative and ethical use of social media at the middle school level. What's working and why? @kids: are you sick of us adults talking at you about bullying? sexting? your online reputations? your digital footprint? What is it about our approach that makes your eyeballs roll? Is this topic even important to you?

//I would love to know//. It would be great to have the opportunity to create a better dialogue about what's going on and how you feel! ||
 * [[image:Screen_shot_2011-02-21_at_5.11.29_PM.png width="137" height="83" align="center"]] || @Exploring the Singularity Concept

Linda Vasu & Fred Bartels || FutureScape: What is the [|singularity?] Where is technology headed? What might the future look like as the boundaries between artificial and human intelligence blur and converge? What are the ethical considerations?

This CoP explores far out thinking, the [|Long Now], ways of meeting humanity's [|pressing challenges], science fiction as the long view....planet Earth as [|lifeboat].... Vernor Vinge's famous [|Singularity paper.] ||
 * || What's Fair?: Fair Use, Copyright, and the age of Remix

David Boxer || Inspired by Gabriel Peters-Lazaro's work at USC's Institute for Multimedia Literacies on remix culture and my growing interest in this work, we will explore the opportunities for educators to teach fair use, copyright, and the creative commons. ||
 * [[image:Screen_shot_2011-02-21_at_4.57.44_PM.png width="128" height="94" align="center"]] || Leadership and Teaching

Alex Ragone || I'm interested in creating a CoP around leadership and teaching. I've been running a number of student leadership programs. I believe that giving students leadership opportunities engages them in their community leading to stronger and better learning opportunities.

I'm interested in sharing how others run student leadership opportunities and being a clearinghouse for developmentally appropriate activities for students. ||
 * [[image:http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3535/3881994177_686bacea57_m.jpg width="152" height="114" align="center"]] || "The Future of the Book -- eBooks, eMedia or ???"

Alex Ragone ||  ||
 * [[image:http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSs5H1stJvFAOXaTpiUOXMAWDpWxNiXKweNtWWjc9tCmLi9Uw1YDA width="122" height="107" align="center"]] || Writing | Publishing for the Web

Linda Vasu || A CoP on writing | publishing for the web using multimedia and mixed genres. Stretch critical thinking, writing, design, and visual skills by digging into topics of interest. Use structure, voice, and style to craft compelling pieces about real and imaginary people and events -- memoirs, personal essays, opinion pieces, blogs, short shorts, Twitter posts, Twitter novels...the possiblities are endless. Fast-paced immersions in a broad spectrum of readings. Focus on design thinking, form and content, craft and practice. Individual and collaborative projects. ||
 * = [[image:Screen_shot_2011-02-21_at_3.55.25_PM.png]] || Living and Learning with Social Media

Basil Kolani ||< A CoP for taking a class and living in social media. I think we do too much to separate students from their personal world online and official school spaces where we feel safer engaging in them -- but then we turn to our PLNs and live personally and professionally online at the same time. Students should be given that same chance, but they'll need to be engaged in those spaces. Social media becomes the subject AND the classroom. ||
 * = [[image:Screen_shot_2011-02-21_at_3.59.23_PM.png width="137" height="114"]] || Game Design

Al Doyle ||< A CoP for exploring **game design** for absolute beginners who can level up to absolute professional game designers by progressing through ever more complex tools for creating games. **Low threshold** : anyone can join / **high ceiling** : no limit to how far one can go. Many tools to explore and many other CoP's to connect with. ||
 * = [[image:Screen_shot_2011-02-21_at_4.01.19_PM.png]] || Exploring Music Outside the Traditional Boundaries

Reshan Richards || A CoP for exploring music and musical expression outside the boundaries of traditional instrument, theory, and music history classes. Many now believe that musicality is a trait that is carried by all people and the sophistication of which is simply accelerated in certain individuals based on circumstance and environment. This space would be for exploring and designing environments where music is used by young people to support and extend their ability to demonstrate their understanding of what they know. ||
 * =  || Doing Broadcast Journalism

Matt Montagne ||< A CoP for learning about broadcast journalism by creating regular, live Internet radio/video broadcasts. ||
 * = [[image:http://hyperex.co.uk/startrek.gif width="177" height="139"]] || Writing Fiction for the New Media ||< Publishing houses: gone. Bound books: gone. Paper: gone. It won't happen for a while, but why not try it out now? How does the new media affect the short story? The novel? The author - reader relationship? Fiction can go places it simply could not just a few years ago, with embedded images, video, audio, group whiteboards and automatic updates - and more - all possible structural elements of a fictional story. This CoP will combine a very old art - making up fiction - with this new media and explore the possibilities. ||
 * =  || Exploring Visual Literacy

Ann Hamel (w. Debbie Abilock) || Explore and discover the power behind //Visual Literacy//. Understand how what we see influences what we understand. Discover the ways that photos, graphs, and diagrams make a difference in how we analyze and synthesize data. Study the work of Edward Tufte and others who have made an impact on the display of visual data. Learn to read and write visual "language" in order to understand why manipulating photos can enhance or otherwise affect the message of the photo. Play with fonts and see how they impact the information conveyed in the typewritten word. ||
 * = [[image:Screen_shot_2011-02-21_at_5.03.03_PM.png]] || Exploring Philosophy Through Sophie's World

Chris Pryor ||< I am interested in creating a CoP on teaching Philosophy through the novel **//S//**//**ophie’s World**// by Jostein Gaardner. While the story is entertaining and clearly an example of the fantasy genre, each chapter delves deeply into the greatest philosophers of ancient and modern days, providing robust content for both writing and discussion. This CoP would teach students how to think, how to write, and how to understand the world around them on a higher cognitive level. ||
 * =  || Exploring the Natural World
 * =  || Exploring the Natural World

Matt Montaigne ||< A CoP for those who are interested in learning more about and exploring our natural world. This course idea is built on the following, "If we're going to make effective decisions regarding our natural world and resources, then we need communities of individuals who have an intimate understanding and appreciation for our planetary systems." To a certain extent, people of first world nations are quite disconnected from the natural world. This learning experience looks to help participants build their natural intellect and intelligence. ||
 * = [[image:LitAlivesmall.jpg width="125" height="125" align="center"]] || Literature Alive: Teaching Literature in Virtual Worlds

Beth Ritter-Guth ||< This CoP will be for those interested in using virtual worlds like Second Life to teach literature. Participants will create virtual world environments suitable for sustainable teaching and learning, and will work together to build interactive and engaging assignments and assessments. ||
 * = [[image:reno-geocaching2.jpg width="132" height="102"]] || Geocaching across the Curriculum

Beth Ritter-Guth ||< This CoP will be devoted to using GPS technology to foster a love for nature and learning. All participants will be become members of GroundSpeak's Geocaching program (free membership), and will find and hide educationally rich geocaches! ||
 * =  || Women's Voices on the Net

Page Lennig ||< I'd be interested in developing a CoP to explore women's voices and contributions to Internet and Social Media. Do women have more of a voice on the 'net? Or are there similar boundaries as in the physical world? Do they have more/fewer opportunities? We may compare newspapers, online journals, blogs, youtube, tv, books, twitter, and more. ||