The Circle of Sharing & Learning

Give and it shall be given unto you… (Luke 6:38).

This week for my studies I’ve been thinking about collaboration, and I’ve been getting ready for the beginning of 5 weeks of MysteryQuests and HistoryQuests starting April 20.

The “quests” started with us participating in Where in the USA with LearningSpace, an organization that closed its doors in 2004. Soon after we started running our own MysteryQuest USA, MysteryQuest World, and this year we added HistoryQuest5 and HistoryQuest8 to address new MI curriculum needs.

In the meantime, several spin-offs occurred, starting with Joan Roehre‘s Wisconsin History Mystery. She asked for permission to adapt our materials. So did Roxanne and Angela with Texas History Mystery, and Heather with MAGPI’s MysteryQuest USA.

It’s taken a few years, as they have grown their programs, but now the learning is coming back this direction. It circles around.

PPTs for Facilitation
Last fall I facilitated a Landmark Challenge for Roxanne and discovered the beauty of PowerPoint visuals to supplement the visuals. I’m a visual learner, and have a hard time with audible only instructions. Why didn’t I think of that before? So this week I asked Roxanne for her Texas History Mystery PPTs so I could get them up and running for my quests next week. The PowerPoints include:

  • A reminder to mute
  • The agenda
  • List of schools/teachers participating
  • Some little puzzles to guess related to the topic
  • A reminder on materials

Tips for Camera Ready Presentations
Heather just posted a great list of tips for camera ready presentations. I’ve incorporated this link into my “presentation reminders” email for my quests. What a great list!

So, are you wondering if you should share “your stuff”? Then… my answer is, YES, of course! The returns will come back to you eventually! As others use, modify, and improve “your stuff” it gets better!

What are YOU sharing with the K12 videoconferencing world?

0 replies on “The Circle of Sharing & Learning”

  1. That’s a great post, Janine. And so true. Without the generosity of others, my program definitely would not be where it is today. Hopefully, next year I’ll be in a position to share back. 🙂

    • Agreed, Lori!

      I had no idea the possibilities of videoconferencing when I began my job. Shane knew how to run the bridge and make the connections and we both knew how to Google. That is how we found Janine’s online class and started learning from her and then started participating in JAZZ and then the learning explosion came!

      Now with Twitter and all the connections, it seems that we continue to share and to grow and all of our programs increase in quality and quantity.

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