Flat Classroom refers to the concept of students interacting and collaborating with other students around the world through technology. Key events that enabled this included the fall of the Berlin Wall, which increased connectivity, and the creation of the internet browser and web-based tools that allow people to work together and share information globally. Examples of digital technologies that flattened the world include search engines, digital media players, outsourcing, and cloud-based work collaboration software.

1. Flat classroom TalaHashem

2. What Is Flat Classroom? Flat Classroom is basically the concept of students interacting with other students abroad. The idea is to interact with students in different locations to knock down “walls "or “barriers” and create a flat classroom where students all over the world can interact and work together to learn, according to Tom Friedman’s book “The World is Flat” in 2005.

3. Fall of Berlin Wall (Nov 9, 1989) The fall of the Berlin wall allowed people to connect easier. The wall was basically blocking communication between people. It was also the end of communism, which gave people more freedom and made them a bit more liberal. It also led to the creation of IBM PC/Microsoft Windows.

4. Birth of Internet Browser Netscape This established a dot com bubble that aided people and made them understand just how major the investment of the internet. The dot com became cheap access of fiber optic information transmission network which even third world countries were able to have access to and use.

5. Workflow Software This lets people share the same ideas at the same time, even if they are in different locations. It can be a huge help, for example, when someone wants feedback from someone else, they can give it to someone else using Workflow software and get their opinion. Examples are: XML, and SOAP. In other words, machines can communicate with other machines without the involvement of humans.

6. Open sourcing When people can work together even if they are in various locations to put something together. Examples include blogs and Wikipedia, because anyone can edit and contribute to them. The downside of this is that people can post inaccurate information and people might believe it.

7. Outsourcing Paying workers outside of your organization or company to get a job done, is outsourcing. It is basically using other figures outside of your company or organization to help you achieve what you want, and paying them. Dot Com let countries such as China, India and Eastern European countries use data line mostly for free. Because of this, the whole world could use India’s smartest people for help in software, accounting, and other professions.

8. Off shoring When a company moves it’s company’s location from one place to another. Companies began to break their business into 3 parts: buying from a country, selling in a country, and a part to do in a country. This can be viewed as a company’s way of taking advantage of a cheaper country because they are moving their business to another place just because it’s cheaper.

9. Supply Chain Management (SCM) When companies use streamline items distributing and shipping. An example would be Wal-Mart, because they are interconnected to the degree that they record it through corporate headquarters , without human intervention.

10. In Sourcing Small companies can even do businesses globally without opening a shop anywhere else. A good example is UPS, as it fixes problems for other companies other than itself, for example Toshiba. The only thing it is it is done by UPS, instead of Toshiba.

11. In-forming Google is a great example of a search engine that uses in- forming. It allows people to find information about basically anything and everything so “never before in the history of the planet have so many people – on their own – had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people," says Friedman. The development of search engines is an immense accomplishment, for example Friedman said that Google: "now processing roughly one billion searches per day, up from 150 million just three years ago“.

12. The Steroids IPods, and mobiles are examples because they are digital devices that are made personal. Their content can be changed and altered at anytime by the owner or someone else in a matter of seconds. This can be an advantage because it makes perfecting things easier for people.

13. Bibliography: culch.ie blog.techdreams.org thewebtools.com nimbleuser.com cyberdesignz.com borderbuster.blogspot.com ak-online.biz http://virtualeducators.blogspot.com/2008/01/10-flatteners-of-world.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Flat