Rocking Buggy One

My official 'work' up here in Churchill ended today with the final 2011 Tundra Connections webcast that was powered by Edmodo. Facilitating webcasts with an audience of this magnitude has been a completely new experience for me. The feedback that I've gotten from friends & colleagues was been overwhelmingly positive, so I guess I did alright in this capacity.

In thinking about the scope and magnitude of what we've been doing aboard Buggy One this week, I'm amazed by the reach of the Tundra Connections program. While the audiences this week haven't been record-setting for Polar Bears International, they have been by far the biggest audiences for the Tundra Connections program this year.

The ability that technology affords us to connect and collaborate with different people in different places is really exemplified by this experience. We're in one of the harshest, most isolated environments the world has to offer, and the technology aboard Buggy One gives us opportunities that could not have existed a mere decade ago.

Hundreds of classrooms connected to our webcasts each day. In all likelihood, each of these three webcasts were viewed live by approximately 10,000 students from around the world. Not only did these classrooms connect with us, they also connected with each other through the Edmodo PBI Community by asking questions and sharing their experiences with other participants. And the best part is that these webcasts have all been archived, so that they can be continue to support learning in classrooms around the globe.

It's hard to know what's happening on the other end of the camera when you're streaming content out over the web. But what really hit home for me was some of the immediate feedback from teachers that were watching these webcasts and sharing the learning that was taking place within their own classrooms in real-time. Like Leslie Dent-Scarcello, who teaches a Grade 5 class in Bird's Hill, Manitoba. Within minutes of today's 'Polar Detectives' webcast wrapping up, Leslie shared this example of the authentic learning that was taking place in her classroom during the 'Polar Detectives' webcast - AWESOME!

Thanks, Brooke, for sharing your work with us :-)

You can find archives of all three webcasts from this week on the 'Video' page of this blog. And just because my adventure in Churchill is almost over, doesn't mean this blog has to come to an end. I still have so many more photos to share, stories to tell & messages to convey from my week spent rocking Buggy One along with all the other panelists.

If you've been following along with my big adventure this week, how has this experience translated into deeper learning for you and your students?