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WHY WE COLLABORATE

7/12/2012

2 Comments

 
I just spent two hours last night, until almost midnight EST, re-recording an instructional video with my partner-in-crime Cheryl Morris.  She had already spent close to fifteen hours editing the original attempt, which, though not bad, just wasn't up to the standard we have set for ourselves.  I was exhausted, hyper to start with, but devolved into only partial coherence as the evening wore on.

And I loved it. 


It was a struggle, yes, and it took a really long time, and there were moments where I just wanted to give up and go to sleep.  But there was this other person on the other end of the video/Google Hangout, pushing me, gently demanding my best.  

So I did it.  And I loved it. 

That's the crux of this whole flipped process for me.  There is love--of the process, of the knowledge gained, of the camraderie--and there is encouragement (plus a little kick in the pants when I need it). Here we are, two 10-ish year veteran teachers on opposite coasts, creating something new, something original, something that neither of us would have dreamed possible alone.  

Alone, it would be too much work.  It also would not be nearly as pedagogically sound.  Beyond the friendship and the hard work is kind of a positively thrilling pedagogy--we're not lecturing students in a virtual classroom, drawing pictures and delivering facts in a technologically proficient way.  We are modeling thought processes and letting students see the machinations behind the curtain, so to speak. 

We're being real, we're being messy and silly and occasionally profound.  

It's a beautiful thing. 

And I love it. 
-----------------------

If you want to see some of these videos, go check out our YouTube channel, ThomassonMorrisInstr !

If you want to contact us, we'd love to hear from you on Twitter:
                                                     Cheryl-- @guster4lovers; Andrew-- @thomasson_engl
2 Comments
Carla Belyea link
7/12/2012 03:19:11 am

This is great. This is the whole point of learning - communicating and collaborating with others. Finding those that are passionate about creating and working together to make something the best. Love it.

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Cheryl Morris link
7/12/2012 05:50:44 am

I approve of this post.

Seriously though, I think the joy we have in the process is evident in the new footage, too. I'm so glad we decided to reshoot it, and especially that we did it last night when failure was fresh in our minds (yes, I would call the first video a failure). But this one wasn't.

Thanks for being the best ever collaborative partner, dude.

The only thing I would have changed was the part where Camtasia crashed from 3 AM to around 5 AM. And I'm still not sure how to make it into a single video...

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    I'm Andrew. I write about learning. I like to learn. 

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