Leah and Devon are global educators based in Magnitoba, Canada.

This case
study explains how their students connect across a whole year for collaboration
learning and share many online global collaborative projects, tools and
resources.

Meet Leah Obach

Leah is in her early years of teaching and is teaching at Hamiota Elementary

School. This elementary school strives to engage students in a well-rounded
education. They believe that athletic programs, service learning and technology
infusion enhance students educational experiences. Important aspects of Leahs
teaching practices are collaboration and project-based learning.

Leah met Devon when she was completing her student teaching. Devon was
Leahs mentor teacher. Together they developed an innovative learning project
and were selected as Microsoft Innovative Teachers. Now their classrooms work
together to tackle projects and learning activities.

In 2014, Leah travelled with the Canadian team to the Microsoft Global Forum in
Barcelona, Spain and helped develop the Challenge to Change Project.
Challenge to Change Projects vision is to have different ages of students from
four countries work collaboratively to address sustainability issues. They
introduced their classes by playing Mystery Skype. Throughout the class they
researched local environmental issues and shared their findings through short
videos.

Meet Devon Caldwell

Devon is a junior and senior kindergarten teacher at Oak Lake Community

School in Manitoba, Canada. She is also a sessional instructor of preservice
teachers. With working with little and big kids she has come about some
interesting collaborative learning experiences. Her little ones taught her big ones
about discovery learning by sharing their favorite hands-on exploration activities.

Participation in three Microsoft in Education Global Forums and later designation

as a Microsoft Expert Educator has been a huge impact to her teaching practice.
With her and Leahs students and a variety of local and global partners, they
have developed a body of collaborative project-based learning that they refer to
as Little Hands Extended. They have worked hard to meet curricular outcomes
and develop 21st century skills while making a difference in the world. Through
this process they have learned to be guides and facilitators of learning by
providing just enough, just in time instruction and giving students what they
need to be successful in their projects.

Classroom and Collaboration

Devon and Leah work together throughout the school by establishing one
community of learners between geographically separate classrooms. The two of
them explain to their students that they will be working together throughout the
year. To introduce the students to one another they conduct a videoconference
so they can see each other and have a conversation. Students can continue
interaction through social media, additional video calls or email.

The project goals are that:

Students will cooperate and collaborate with others to identify and explore
important issues
Students will develop and implement action plans that address issues they
have identified as important
Students will use ICT responsibly to build knowledge, achieve curricular
outcomes, and think critically/creatively in authentic situations
Students will become informed, responsible decision-makers, playing
active roles as global citizens and contributing to others well-being

Overview of Classrooms and Collaboration

Students become one community of learners using ICT.

It is a student-directed approach
Interdisciplinary-students meet outcomes in all subject areas.
Collaborative projects are long-term
Collaboration is ongoing between classes throughout the school year
A collaborative project-based learning approach is used.

Road map for collaborative PBL

Introductory lesson/ project launch

Collaborative brainstorming
Selecting a topic of interest
Identifying a problem or an area to make a difference
Developing an action plan Identifying relevant teaching and learning
Executing the plan
Reflection, feedback & suggestions (ongoing)
Sharing through social media (ongoing)

Collaboration Examples

Nation Sweater Day: Classes worked together to organize events at our schools
to promote energy awareness and energy conservation.

Olympics Projects: Students connected with athletes via social media and began
to follow the Olympics passionately. Then the idea emerged to launch a postcard
writing campaign to show support four our athletes. Students worked together to
design collages of Olympic artwork to be featured on the front of postcards. The
students also wrote messages of support on their specially designed postcards
and sent them to our Canadian athletes via social media and mail.

Reusable Bag Campaign: Students came up with the solution of reusable bag
reminders and then designed, created and distributed their reminders.

Litterless Lunch Challenge: To reduce litter and help the environment students
participated in an inter-classroom competition to have the most reusable
containers in their lunch each day.

Farmer Appreciation Day: Students created an action plan to recognize the

importance of farming and show their appreciation to local farmers. Students
collaboratively organized and hosted an event to give farmers a break, show their
appreciation for their work and to recognize the importance of agriculture.

One Hour, No Power: Students tracked their energy use for three days and
identified needs versus wants in terms of their energy consumption. Then
students each gave up an energy-consuming want for four days as an energy-
saving effort. They also participated in One Hour, No Power challenge that
involved the class going without ANY power for a full hour.

Technology Tools

Leah and Devon take a best tool for the job approach when selecting effective
technology to support their students. Often students start to suggest tools to use
for tasks once theyve been introduced to some of the options available.

You can use video conferencing technology like Skype, Bridgit and Facetime to
work with their partner classrooms. You would use these video conferencing
tools to share ideas, make plans with other students as well as connect with
experts.

You can use MovieMaker to create an awareness videos, share what they have
learned, or create a video about a holiday.

You can use social media such as Twitter to help reach a wider audience outside
of the school and family.