Collaboration with Schools Around the World

We all know that collaboration and communication are 21st century skills. We all want to incorporate these skills. What pushes us? What holds us back? What works? What seems to stall?

At the beginning of this year (January 2008), I wrote a blog post titled Collaboration Projects- Doomed to fail? that drew many comments.  I was presenting the issues I was facing regarding arming global collaboration projects at my school as the following:

Lack of interest and participation efforts from my school’s teachers in order to participate in existing global collaboration projects.

Not being able to find willing and committed classroom teachers from other schools to work collaboratively on an idea or project envisioned by our school.

It was very frustrating not being able to pursue what I felt was a win win situation for our teachers and students. Connecting them via technology to others like them around the world… Global awareness…collaborative technology tools… living and breathing 21st century skills at its best. Why was I running into obstacles/resistance?

Well, it looks like that (lack of ) patience on my part was playing a factor in the equation. Without really changing much and continuing to find, offer, and present opportunities to my teachers, it looks like we are off to a great start this school year.

Continuing to be enthusiastic about the possibilities… continuing to look for a partner-teacher at other schools around the world…and continuing to offer my help and support in the initial stages are essential ingredients… Not giving up when a collaboration-relationship fizzles out.

What are our objectives for those first “baby-steps” collaborative projects together?

• Organize a schedule between two schools
  • Start and ending of school years (Northern/Southern Hemisphere)
  • Time Zones favorable to live video conferences?
  • Busy school calender/holidays/report cards/field trips
• Collaborative web based tools
  • blogs
  • wikis
• Video Conferences
  • technical aspect
  • social aspect for students
• Getting to know the teachers, students and country of partner school
• Create an atmosphere of trust and “reality” for our students
• Importance of ability/awareness to work and learn with others, separated through geographic and cultural distance/difference
• Awareness how small our planet has become, borders are blurring and disappearing

I have met the most amazing computer teacher this summer while in Argentina. Heidi M. teaches in the Elementary school of the German Goethe Schule in Buenos Aires. We have had some great conversations while I was visiting the school and she took off like a meteor. She was able to hook her 6th grade class AND their English teachers up with our 6th graders.

With a shared google document, we have planned video conferences between the two schools, are working on a wiki together, where each group of students will upload information about their own country to teach the others. The conferences have been helpful to find out WHAT kind of information the counterpart are interested in learning about.

Heidi blogged and uploaded images of the Skype conferences here and here.

Students are creating short video clips in Microsoft Photo Story  and MovieMaker about different aspects of their daily lives to be uploaded to a shared Wiki. We are also in the process of creating and uploading survey questions that bother groups of students will be answering and interpreting the results with their respective math teachers.

Another opportunity for possible collaboration presented itself last week, while I was in Lima, Peru. I had “found” Tatiana U. at the end of last school year on a SmartBoard Ning Network. Once I learned that she was teaching at a bilingual school in LIma, Peru, I contacted her to let her know that our school would be studying about her country and if she were interested in collaboration. Tatiana teaches Pre-School (yes, 4 year olds) at the Saint George school in Lima. We met the Sunday morning when Tatiana took us out for an incredible breakfast before we headed back to the United States in the early afternoon. We had brought a teddy bear with us to leave with Tatiana in order to facilitate the connection between the two schools.

Tatiana blogged about our meeting on her blog Pre-Kinder Deer

During breakfast we made plans how we could accommodate our two schools’ different school year, since in Peru the school year ends in December and does not start back up until March. Only one hour of time difference would benefit and facilitate live video conferences between the two classes.

We thought of the following in order to connect the two classes together:

• Shared storytime.
  Let’s read English and Spanish books together. Our Spanish teacher will help in preparing our students for the Spanish book. Let’s think of a book that includes lots of interaction/verbal responses from the listeners
• Sing a song together- bilingual song, round, etc.
• Play a game- counting out rhyme- Arbolito de Peru. Cuantos anos tienes tu?
• Share a meal on both sides of the screen. Share tastes and smells? Fruits? Salchipapas?

As soon as I returned to my school this week, I asked if our Kindergarten teachers would be up for the challenge of connecting our little ones with the Peruvian class. As always, I could count on our Kindergarten team. So Jose and his twin “Jorge” will be in contact soon.