Collaboration Without Boundaries

It’s a feeling many have around the rapid speed and trends around technology in our workplace and with our students. A few months ago Sarah introduced the use of the app Storyrobe. I was interested and could see the potential. Then life events took over: Christmas, meetings, report writing, hockey games, exercise, learning to use a smartboard, and more.
Then last weekend, finally a Saturday morning to muse on the computer for my own pleasure. There was Stroyrobe again. Wow, did I have fun. This app opens many doors for students of all ages who struggle with written output. From a beginners point of view it is easy to use and manageable. Thanks for sharing Sarah, we are enjoying this one immensely!

Last week I used my LiveScribe pen in a meeting. I took notes as the group assigned jobs and set dates for tasks to be completed. The beauty of using the LiveScribe pen was that I was able to go back and filling in information that was not clear in my notes.
But, one must about caution using the LiveScribe pen in meetings. General rules about privacy need to be instilled in the user. I made it clear to the group that I was using a recording device and wanted to try it with their approval. In meetings it is easy to get off topic. Discussions and comments take place, which when taken out of context can be misinterpreted. Yes, the pen has a pause button, but you must remember to use it. So I began to wonder what are people’s thoughts on a recording device being used in meeting or conversations?

We were getting a “Thank You” card ready to circulate through the classroom when one of the students said, “Why don’t we make him a video instead, its way better!”  The students were quickly jazzed and full of ideas regarding what it could look like.  Old fashioned me was still thinking a card would be nice.  Reading the hand written comments before popping the card into the mail for the recipient is something I enjoy.  It’s my long held value that after receiving gifts you should follow up with a thank you card and everyone in the class should sign it.  So instead of handing the card desk to desk for each individual student to sign, a collaborative discussion began.  You could feel the level of engagement shift.  Students had ideas regarding which pictures to use, which students should speak and what the content needed to be.  I listened as they reasoned with each other and decided who the powerful public speakers are in the classroom.  I heard that everyone in the school should be included in the video.  But most of all I learned that my long held values about giving thanks can still happen, just in a more student engaging format.

Well I did it!  Today I was able to figure out how to embed video clips into an animoto video.  It is such a wonderful feeling.  I am reminded how students feel when they figure something out when we provide just enough prompting and support.  No one did this for me, I did it all on my own, but I trusted the people who are supporting me.  My next quest will be to figure out how to stop the video clips from getting cut off a bit.  If you have any ideas I would love to hear it.  Next, I’m going to have students make their own.

As an educational leader and learner involved in this project I have come to accept that it is okay to take more than I can give at times.  I am a learner also, trying to add to my own professional repertoire and skill.  So, while my collaboration group is helping me with my gmail account (it seems I can only ‘respond to all’), my edublog posting problems, using Elluminate without a mic and switching the livescribe pen from Spanish back to English, I am moving forward with my learning.  The group supports me with my challenges and encourages me when I’m feeling like a failure.  I’m not able to truly understand the use of Twitter, Lifecards, or putting video on the school blog using html language and that’s okay.  I am able to question and inquire.  I am able to bring what I am learning to the students in my school to perk their interest.  On Friday I was able to give a struggling student the livescribe pen so he could independently write and tell his Halloween story without waiting for a Special Education Worker.  Through the use of technology, I gave a child his academic independence and that smile on his face felt “OK”
to me.

Pitter patter went my feet quickly down the hallway and into Ms. May’s classroom.  It worked!  I’ve posted the Crazy Hair Day video on line!  Come and see.  Before I knew it two teachers, our secretary and myself were staring at the computer screen in my office.  Beams of smiles came across their faces and eyes twinkled with amazement as our students and staffs pictures danced across the screen to music on our new Alert Bay Elementary edublog.  We were all in awe.  The reality of what was happening and what we could accomplish with our students, our community, and ourselves was just the beginning. 

I first designed the edublog as a way to showcase to parents activities and upcoming events in school.  There was a need to reinvent the way we were connecting to our school community.  Newsletters were not getting home.  The group of educators that belong to Collaborations Without Boundaries had inspire me.  Sarah I’m sure would have called it an agonizing conversation, but she listened as I told her me dream of communicating electronically with parents, about my lack of confidence and abilities with computers, my wishes to have the newsletter on line, the time available I have and the reality that I feel connected yet isolated living on an island away for the group I am working on this project with.  And from this the school edublog was born.  It’s still a little rough around the edges, but it is alive and well.  Students love watching the videos of themselves and sharing it with their parents. 

As educators we aspire to inspire others, especially our students.  To delve into what makes them wonder and the subjects that excite them; that their learning be meaningful and relevant.  The same holds true for our own learning.  In sharing my inquiry of learning, I have seen other educators in our school stimulated. As others help me build my own capacity in the use of technology to better connect with parents.   I in turn help those in my school build their capacity. Ms. May’s class now has their own edublog.  She has set up links to math sites and phonic sites where her students can go.  She has linked places to help support parents in teaching children how to tell time.  Students in the grade 6/7 class all have Animoto accounts and have asked me to come in and teach them all how to make a movie.  This is something I would have never dreamed of being able to do a month ago.