W2O Announces "Our Ocean Space"

"The Sea Connects All Things"

The World Ocean Observatory (W2O) is pleased to announce the launch of Our Ocean Space, a web-based network for the exchange of ocean related projects—art, audio-visual presentations, and other imaginative formats—created and uploaded by young Citizens of the Ocean to share with their counterparts worldwide. The intent is for teachers and students both to upload and share their ocean-related projects with other classrooms, linking together young people through their understanding and interpretation of ocean systems. Our vision is that teachers and students will begin an exchange between classrooms, using Our Ocean Space as a catalyst for direct international connections between ocean students and stewards everywhere.

By uploading a project to Our Ocean Space, you are creating a unique page on thew2o.net site which allows you to share PowerPoint files, to add a gallery of images, and to upload other media, such as video links via YouTube. We must require teachers to address copyright clearance for submitted photographs, music, and other literary and graphic materials. Each new project will be marked as a "DRAFT" and reviewed by the W2O Editor for appropriate content. Once approved, the project will be live on the site. Our intent with Our Ocean Space is to create a secure environment to share presentations, content and ideas for educational purposes only. Students and teachers will have the opportunity to comment on particular projects and to share ideas between users. As projects accumulate on the site, they will be organized and search-able by subject and region. In order to keep Our Ocean Space safe and secure for users and content, we ask that users create an account. Your unique user name and password (you will be sent an email after you register with a password to log back in) will be required to upload new projects and to comment on existing ones.

We hope you will engage in this global educational exchange, and that connections between teachers, classrooms, and nations will emerge. The W2O is predicated on the assumption that "the sea connects all things" and we offer this free service as a manifestation of a growing, international exchange of ocean information and educational service.

We invite you pass the Our Ocean Space link on to educators in your organization or teachers in your area who might be interested in sharing a class project. Please send an email to tbadger@thew2o.net if you have questions regarding log in or project upload. We’ll look forward to watching Our Ocean Space grow in the coming months.