Introduction
Jim Moulton (jmoulton@horton.col.k12.me.us)
Thu, 27 Mar 1997 10:10:40 -0500
I am the staff developer on the Community of Learners Team. Our network
connects 21 schools in midcoast Maine via a cable tv backbone. I came to
this project after 8 years as a grade 3 teacher in rural Bowdoin, Maine. We
are in the third and final year of NIE funding.
Collaboration was key to my teaching in Bowdoin, as my 3rd grade colleague
and I integrated an archaeological project across the curriculum, taking
the kids out into the community and bringing the community into the school.
Many of our most valuable visitors were the traditionally non-involved
members of the comunity, the old-timers who hung out at the store. But
they have the stories, and their participation created a wonderful model of
engagement that went both ways.
I bring this same commitment to my work in electronic networking, keeping
my focus on the systemic use of the potential. By making the connectivity
we have a tool for every component of our towns we will be going far to
make the school/town boundaries disappear.
Eeryone has something to contribute, and it is how we go about the
experience of education that weighs as heavily as what we teach.
Collaboration needs to be everywhere, and the network makes it easier.
A good model of what we are beginning to build is a project called, "Hands
Around the Bay", a collaboratiove study of Merrymeeting Bay. It can be
seen at:
http://www.col.k12.me.us/MMB/
Jim
Jim Moulton, Staff Developer, Community of Learners Network
jmoulton@horton.col.k12.me.us http://www.col.k12.me.us
V-207.729.2959 F-207.729.2967