In December, Jeff Allen helped put on a statewide videoconferencing event in Washington where students gave clues about their community to other participants, who then had 30 minutes to try and figure out where each student group lived.
What fun! And what a great use of disruptive technology (classroom videoconferencing) to promote learning, critical thinking, problem solving, as well as good times. My own state of Texas has started some statewide videoconferencing events hosted by TETN, called “Texas Connects.” Students in our schools need to be doing MORE events like these!
My hat is off to Jeff and others who helped put on the “Where in Washington” event, as well as Carol Willis and other Texas state videoconferencing leaders. Virtually every school district has videoconferencing equipment, in many cases these are used intensely for high school credit courses– but events like these that can involve students in elementary and middle school as well seem to be rare. This would be a great grant writing opportunity for university folks– we need more organizations facilitating these types of collaborative events!