Come on Cate!

The first step to embracing global collaborative projects is to do them. This might seem a nonsensical statement or even a little gilb, however,  I find I spend alot of time imagining what I could do, instead of just doing it! When I read Kim Cofino’s article on this topic I tired to come to an understanding of what I would want from a global project. I think for me I would need to :

1. Ensure it is meaningful - the experience would need to add meaning and context that could not be added without doing it.
2. Ensure that it is well planned - the experience must be well planned and carefully structured to ensure that all involved have clear expectations.
3. Ensure that it is completed purposefully - it must be structured and scaffolded to ensure that a set of goals are reached. For many these goals will be exceeded.

I have often thought about developing these types of projects, and thought and then thought some more. However, I have never actual got around to planning and developing one for my classes. I guess my reasoning is twofold, firstly I am scared that I will fail and all my hard work will be for nothing and secondarily I see the amount of extra planning and wonder how will I do it.I know these are excuses! As a Technology teacher I can see a multitude of ways that a global collaboration would add depth to a piece of work from sharing films and developing multimedia with other people to linking with the charities we already work with, internationally, to produce real and meaningful products. To be successful I think it would be important to use backwards design, as discussed by Wiggins and McTighe, ensuring I have clear goals and outcomes planned before I planned how I wished to get there.To say I have never done this is not strictly true, I have worked on projects with organizations outside of school, for example, I worked with a school in Moldavia. Pupils from both schools were asked to produce videos about school life. The pupils discussed ideas using Facebook and finally shared their movies and left comments again on Facebook. However, the pupils were working on separate projects and only sharing comments and the end results. The project also finished once the films had been shared, giving the pupils no time to make any of the improvements recommended or to engage in any meaningful relationships. So was this really collaboration? I don’t think so, I think it touched on the edges of collaboration, but not enough to make it meaningful. If it had done so, I think the pupils would have benefited from engaging with people from a totally different culture and their final product would have reflected this - it might not have been better but with diverse creative stimuli it would have been different.With the technology available, such as google docs, prezi and collaborative planning tools it is amazing that we are not all collaborating more, even accidently! I really believe that this is something that I need to focus more energy on. We have the technology, we have the units planned it now requires me to structure the global collaboration possibilities and for the students to take a leap of faith (and forget, maybe only for a moment, about increasing their grades).

“Collaboration by difference is an antidote to attention blindness. It signifies that the complex and interconnected problems of our time cannot be solved by anyone alone, and that those who think they can act in an entirely focused, solitary fashion are undoubtedly missing the main point that is right there in front of them, thumping its chest and staring them in the face.” Davidson

So it is time to step up and boldly walk towards global collaboration!Churches. A (Apr 2009) Blooms Digital Taxonomy. Retrieved from https://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Digital+TaxonomyCofino. K (Dec 2007) A Step-by-Step Guide to Global Collaborations. Retrieved from https://kimcofino.com/blog/2007/12/20/a-step-by-step-guide-to-global-collaborations/Wiggins & Mctighe(1998) Understanding by Design- A Summary. Retrieved from https://pixel.fhda.edu/id/six_facets.htmlDavidson. C (2011) Collaborative Learning for the Digital Age. Retrieved from https://chronicle.com/article/Collaborative-Learning-for-the/128789/