Vive la Collaboration!

Gail and Jen at OESIS Boston 2013

When I am talking with colleagues at my school about teaching online, one of the things I try to convey to them is that you really can create meaningful relationships with students online. My online students are as much "my kids" as my face to face students are. What I didn't expect was to create a professional relationship that led to a face to face friendship. But that's what happened, thanks to VHS and the OESIS (Online Education Symposium for Independent Schools) Conference in Boston this October.

My new friend Jen Weeks, French Teacher and Academic Technology Coordinator at Kingswood Oxford School in CT is an expert at online learning as she has done all of her graduate coursework online. It was through her graduate work that Jen enrolled in VHS's 21st Century Teaching Series Courses. One of those modules, Becoming an Online Teacher, pairs participants with a master teacher already teaching a VHS course.

Jen was assigned to co-teach my French Language and Culture course in the spring of 2013. As a co-teacher, Jen facilitated discussions, assessed the students' work and built a relationship with the students through her comments and the resources she provided to them. As we co-taught, Jen and I conversed and got to know one another virtually through various online tools such as Skype and Google Hangout.

Then this fall, VHS asked me to participate in a panel presentation at the OESIS conference where Jen was attending. We recognized each other immediately at the first keynote and spent the rest of the conference comparing notes on our technology and language experiences, visiting and even dining out at a French Bistro. French teachers who are also Technology Coordinators are rare, so finding that we have virtually the same job (pun intended), including coordinating online learning at our schools, made it all the more fun and meaningful.

We're now planning an online collaboration between our French classes. So what started online, then became face to face, has now come full circle. It just goes to show you - you never know where online learning will take you.

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Nostalgia is Dumb



I saw a light bulb commercial the other day with the tagline "Nostalgia is Dumb." The message was that it's foolish to stick with an old solution when a better one is available. Sounds like a no brainer, but the word nostalgia got me thinking about a situation which exists in many of our schools. Many of us have a body of, shall we say "mature" faculty, who remember fondly a simpler time in the life of the school. I know, because I'm one of the "mature" ones. And let's face it - reminiscing is fun. But the way I see it, there are two problems inherent with this nostalgia when it comes to education.
One is that memories tend to be kind. We forget the problems, the headaches and the limitations of that simpler time. Yeah, was it really that much fun to type your tests on a typewriter using correction tape or fluid to fix your mistakes? To fill out grade cards by hand? To stuff envelopes to send progress reports to parents? Yes, it was nice before email and cell phones not to be bombarded all day with messages and information. But if you needed information or to get in touch with someone, think how much harder it was and how much longer it took. It wasn't all rosy.

The second problem, I think is more dangerous to schools. The nostalgia is a distraction from our goals. It takes our attention away from stretching and learning and directs it toward the past and stagnation. How many times have you heard a teacher say "I've done it this way for 30 years and it still works for me." Maybe. But is it working for your students?

I don't think it's OK to expect kids today to learn the way their parents did, which, of course is not unlike the way their grandparents and great grandparents learned. They might suffer through it. They might actually gain some skills. But will they be excited about learning? Will they learn the skills we know are essential in the 21st Century workplace such as problem-solving, media literacy, information literacy, collaboration, and communication, among others? Will they leave a positive digital footprint, and will they have an ePortfolio to show to college admissions officers and future employers?

Maybe it's time to leave the reminiscing for the high school reunion and direct our attention to the future - our students' future and how we want them to leave our schools. I think the ad was right. When it comes to education, Nostalgia is Dumb.