Beyond School

A Different Kind of Marriage

Work and life are still too busy to stop to blog, but this announcement excites me, because I’m not aware of anything like it happening in globally collaborative / flat classroom projects. And the more I think about it, the more interesting, pedagogically and geekily, it gets.

It’s this: Because the 1001 Flat World Tales (see and hear the first published high school stories from Seoul, Honolulu, and Denver, 2007) is a literally endless, ongoing k-12 wiki-writing project, it requires more “stewardship” than one teacher can provide.

So, while Chris Watson in Honolulu and I will continue co-driving the high school version of the 1001FWT, I’ve asked Kim Cofino of International School of Bangkok - Kim’s Always Learning blog makes her one of my Top 10 edubloggers and educators - and Jeff Dungan (his Groundswell here) of the Dominican Republic to take over the 1001 Flat World Tales on the elementary/primary school level.

They’ve said yes.

Why This is Interesting: Pedagogical Mashups

That’s it in a nutshell. I’ve asked Kim and Jeff to take 100% creative and pedagogical liberties with the Tales as they take the project into its second year. Anybody who knows Kim’s blog knows her creative and pedagogical cup runneth over, and while I don’t know Jeff as well, his enthusiasm for the project (he was in the first elementary workshop last year) and, it turns out, his direct acquaintance with Kim - they’d talked about collaborating on other things before I pitched the idea to them - makes their collaboration on new directions for the Tales a promising idea.

I look forward to seeing how they mash the project up, according to the developmental levels of the primary grades and, better still, according to their own creative applications of all Tools 2.0 to the project. Pedagogically, it seems a great way to learn new tricks by watching other teachers play “variations” to the original project’s “theme.”

It’s kind of like the excellent HBO Band of Brothers mini-series a few years back: One story over ten episodes, but each episode directed by a different director - thus each having its own unique style, and offering a playground of comparisons.

Another benefit of this arrangement should be obvious. Kim and Jeff are in separate hemispheres, so they can exploit the time-zone flexibility in any number of ways as they facilitate global writing workshops with new participating schools.

Chris and I are similarly set up to cover Western and Eastern hemispheres, respectively, on the high school level. And we’ll be free to mash things up relative to last year’s first outing as well.

I’m still hoping to find a team to take over for the middle school workshops (ages 11-14 or so). Drop me an email if you’re interested.

And, if you or anyone you know want to add a language arts or creative writing classroom to the project, contact Kim and/or Jeff for elementary, and Chris and/or me for middle school / high school.