Through my husband Jamie’s PLN on Plurk, I have been able to hook up with the delightful Carrie Whalen and a group of great educators for a book study on Will Richardson’s book: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.  We are using a meeting room app called Wiggio which is entirely text based, but has served our group quite well as a collaborative tool. 

After watching the “What is Wiggio?” video above, I began to wonder if this tool might have more to offer me than a one time book study platform I was invited to join.  I participate in a lot of groups on and off campus and I tend to live in frazzled state of frustration as I try to remember who I’ve emailed, who I’ve spoken to in the hallway because I know they won’t be checking their email, who is absent and not getting the information at all, and what information did I include/exclude when I communicated with the folks I was able to contact. 

What if I had one place where I organized all of my different groups?  What if all of my members had their cell phone numbers, as well as email addresses in their profiles?  What if I wanted to let all of my students parents (who don’t use RSS) know I’ve posted new information on my classroom blog?  Wouldn’t it be great to send a text to everyone without having to go dig my cellphone out of my purse? Could Wiggio make my life easier and  be a great platform for future collaborative book studies? You know, I think I might give this a try…

I’ll let you know how it turns out! 

Susan Hopper from the St. John’s Episcopal School in Dallas, shares ways to implement projects collaborative projects from around the world.  The information about the project and all of the contact information can be found at the “What’s Happining in the Global Learning Center”

Formula for 21st Century Learning:  3Rs x 7C’s = 21st Century Skills

Project is only as good at the partner you get.  Make sure you have guidlines in place for timelines/dates for information exchange. They do this over a Skype call in order to discuss the details live with all teachers involved in the project.

The most powerful projects involve 1:1 learning: student to student.

Use a class survey to familiarize the students with the project.

Set up a website for the project.

Students work in the project is posted on the site to be shared with all campuses involved in the project.

Teddy Bear Exchange

 Classes exchange a teddy bear, then each class connects for 10 mins. per week on Skype to share what the teddy bear did when it goes home for a week. Some teachers  want to be able to Skype any day when they have a question.

Skype Weather Reports with a class in another part of the world.

Grandparents from around the world, Skype in to read to the grandkids that live anywhere. Great way for them to be able to visit their kids when they live far away.

Go to the Whats Happening in Global Learning

www.iearn.org to find projects and people connections.

As teachers, we have so many reasons for doing the things we do in the classroom.  We follow the state curriculum, district objectives, content area curriculum, and curriculum office/campus initiatives.  We have favorite units, things we have always taught, things our team likes to do, and the next thing that appears in the textbook.  There is the newest technology tool that we need to try, in order to remain on the “cutting edge.” We even make sure that we address all of the “pet peeves” of the next year’s grade level, so they won’t be disappointed in the “new crop” they are inheriting.  In the midst of all of this “stuff” do we lose site of our most important purpose – meeting the needs of the kiddos?

The thing I love most about collaborating with my colleagues, on and beyond my campus, is the way it helps me to continuously reevaluate what I am doing with my students.  Sometimes it is easy to get bogged down in the mire of academic expectations, but I always try to take a moment to ask myself Nancy’s question.  “Why am I doing this, and how is it good for these kids?”  Sometimes it causes me to make a quick change to what I am about to teach, sometimes it doesn’t.  But it does accomplish one thing - without fail. It reminds me that I am not just teaching a curriculum, I am teaching children.  After all, isn’t that why we all got into this game in the first place?