My journey to the Microsoft Partners in Learning 6th APAC Regional Innovative Education Forum in Singapore began with a simple idea that grew into a collaborative learning opportunity for a small elementary school in Northeastern New Brunswick. The students at Janeville Elementary School (JES) had been following a character education program from The Josephson Institute called CHARACTER COUNTS!® and the principal of the school, Heather Smith, had approached me as their technology mentor to find a way to promote their positive actions to the rest of the world. After brainstorming and trying a collaborative project that didn’t quite fit our needs, along came marvin 3D animation software. As part of a pilot project, our school district decided to implement marvin in five school settings and themes. Here was our opportunity!
Heather and I started planning our project and began putting that plan into action. We were off to a great start and were excited to launch the project with the students. We were given the opportunity to create a unique avatar for our school, and because the school did not have a mascot we decided to have one created. I enlisted the help of a high school art teacher who, in turn, enlisted the help of her students. One student answered our plea for a mascot design, and he submitted a sketch that we really liked. The design was submitted to nticed for avatar creation in January 2009 and we patiently waited for its return. While we were waiting, events beyond our control started interfering with the continuation of the project.
Heather was hospitalized and put off work. However, that didn’t stop us from communicating via email and phone. We still planned and I managed to develop a partnership with an expert in video production. We decided to wait until Heather returned before launching the project with the students. Besides, we were still waiting for our avatar. Several weeks later, Heather was back on her feet and returned to work, but by this time my father was hospitalized and transferred to our provincial Heart Health Center 400 km away. For those people who know Heather and me, throwing in the towel is not something that we can easily do, but we were seriously thinking that we should bow out of the project. Our superintendent decided some friendly competition was needed to inspire and motivate the pilot participants and a district media festival was in the works. That is all the inspiration Heather and I needed. In the meantime, I was encouraged to submit our project to Microsoft’s Innovative Teachers Awards and decided that I had nothing to loose.
By this time Heather was back at work full-time, and I was working part-time (My Dad was still 400 km away in critical condition in ICU, and I would make weekly trips to be with him). We were still waiting for our avatar to arrive and when he finally did, I was in Saint John. Instead of waiting until I returned, we decided to unveil our avatar to the students via video conference. I must say, we have a wonderful network of technology mentors around our province, and because of this I was able to organize a video conference from the office of one of my mentor colleagues in Saint John. The students at JES were excited when they entered the library and discovered that I was in another part of the province chatting with them. Although our connection encountered a few glitches, we were still able to effectively launch the project and stir up lots of excitement.
Our project was officially underway. Two students from grade 5 were selected to participate and I worked closely with them while they developed their video. They took on several roles of script writers, song writers and directors. They told me what they wanted and challenged me to find a way to fulfill their vision. We encountered many technology glitches along the way, but had excellent support through our district technicians and marvin support personnel. One requirement that Heather had for the project was to include the student body in some way. This was accomplished by incorporating artwork created by students in K-5 as backgrounds in the video. In addition, the lead students wrote two songs, taught them to their peers and incorporated them in the video.
Needless to say, we ALL persevered and managed to get the video completed (view our video here) and entered into our district’s media festival. JES is a small rural school and the entire student body was able to attend the festival and cheer on their classmates as they showcased their video. It was truly a remarkable experience for all involved; from the parents who created pennants for the student cheering section,
Cheering Section
to the secretary who sewed a mascot just like our avatar.
I am once again working with a group of students from JES as we embark on the creation of a few more videos for their character education program. Their basic videos are almost completed and need a little editing before they are ready to share. In addition, the marvin fever is catching on and JES has already hosted visiting teachers from another part of the province. Heather and I have also presented the project to our district teachers during our opening days in September, and we have presented it at a provincial principal’s summit. In addition, I will also be presenting a session on incorporating marvin in the curriculum during the provincial elementary council in May.
This is just the beginning. Singapore, here I come!
a little cafe setting where we were given a personal tablet that allowed us to connect to other people around the globe, scan electronic signs and save the information into our personal calendar, interact with others and share our files and experiences with anyone we choose. Although it was a futuristic look into a classroom, we have the ability now to connect globally and collaborate electronically. The tour wasn’t just about the technology, but the concept of a connected world.
