Twittories and Instant Collaboration

After a month long wait, yesterday I finally received my copies of the twitter story called @manyvoices. Organized by George Mayo, (who has now moved into his next project, the online literary magazine for students called Space) this story, told on twitter by ten classes from all points around the globe was an "instant project" organized via twitter and email. Although I'm certain there was a lot of organizing and work behind the scenes that I never saw for this project as I was one of ten classrooms taking part and not a project organizer, George did a masterful job of getting people organized, to work, and then leading them through an editing process.

When these slim books showed up yesterday it made this project very real and powerful to me. Not that I hadn't valued it before, but for some reason, seeing these books in paper and print brought home what we had accomplished using a tool as simple as twitter. Think about it. Ten classes worldwide organized all by email and written on a free platform. Published on demand and distributed for only a few dollars to anyone who might be interested. We have come a very long way in only a few years.

This also has me thinking more about instant collaboration projects such as this one. Organized using twitter and email, more formal information communicated using a wiki and in a very short time, global collaborations emerge. The comment challenge currently being organized is the same type of project. Twitter, email, a wiki and collaboration grows. After my post yesterday on the student comment challenge, I am very glad to see that two more people have signed up. So far my class, Jody Hayes in New Zealand, and Shaun Fletcher, a fellow Canadian, are on board and we are looking for more. While these types of projects are often shorter in duration and less indepth then something lasting longer, I am wondering if they are also the difference between a lumbering multinational and an agile, fast moving start up. Projects that focus on the project, adding layers upon layers face a challenge in coming years. The knowledge and the understanding is different between instant collaborations and longer term projects, but for middle school and elementary students, the goals may be more related to collaboration, tool use and demonstrating the possibilities of using the web to work with others, there is a lot of value to dig into with these types of work.

Tags: GeorgeMayo, @manyvoices, Space, Shaun Fletcher, Jody Hayes