Belgium, Turkey, Maryland and Seoul: A Two-Minute Summer Vacation
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A pleasant update or two, and more convergences.
Six days ago I acted on a whim to try to make more international connections. I saw subscribers in my SiteMeter’s daily stats from Russia, Belgium, and Turkey, and posted a friendly “shout-out” asking them to introduce themselves.
That two minutes of effort was so worth it. Belgium sent me an email, and we’ll be Skyping soon for a podcast; and the Reinventing Project-Based Learning website had a link that led to Tom in Turkey, who I invited to be my “friend” on one Ning or another, and who ended up being the subscriber in Turkey I wanted to “meet.”
Not only is Tom a PBL guy, he’s also blogged about Illich and unschooling on his Tryangulation blog.
Then the “Four Convergences” post with the “Voices from the New American Schoolhouse” Sudbury video resulted in a very nice comment from the video’s creator (including a complementary DVD of the full 80-minute documentary from which that clip was an excerpt), and after a couple emails, a decision to Skype again for a second podcast.
All from acting to follow up on a moment’s desire based on an attractive “what if?”
It all amazes me, this new form of “summer vacation.”
(Photo: 7.10.2007 Luggage by j-blocker on Flickr)
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Clay: It’s exciting to see the web of connections grow among us all. If in your ’summer vacation’ wanderings you run across teachers and projects to profile, we’d love to know. We are especially interested in student collaborations across a distance.
Best,
Jane
[Reply]
Jane Krauss
22 Jul 07 at 6:17 pm
Hi Clay,
Wonderful to hear about these connections. A related question:
What kind of administrative support opens the doors for the collaborative projects you are envisioning? Any advice for teachers who are not (yet)getting the level of support they need from school leaders?
Good luck–and please keep us posted.
Best,
Suzie
[Reply]
Suzie Boss
22 Jul 07 at 10:42 pm
Jane and Suzie,
Will do, Jane. Suzie, it’s a good question, but I’m darned if I know. The only role my admin has played in any global collaborations I’ve done is simply providing the laptops for the classroom (that we’re going 1:1 next month will be a great improvement over laptop carts, since students can do 24/7 connecting and learning when they own the machine).
Three tech coordinators - Jeff Whipple in Canada, Karl Fisch in Colorado, and Kim Cofino in Malaysia (soon Thailand) - helped make this possible by approaching classroom teachers with the projects I wanted to work on. The fact that they did more than blog about the idea was crucial.
Beyond that, though, my thoughts about admin’s role are limited.
[Reply]
Clay Burell
22 Jul 07 at 11:03 pm