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I recently had the pleasure to attend the annual ATLE (Alberta Technology Leaders in Education) Conference in Red Deer, Alberta. I go to many educational conferences and always come away with the impression that the people who attend these events are dedicated, committed and most importantly they care. They really believe in what they are doing and are always looking for ways to improve and benefit their staff and the children whose education they are responsible for.
I believe the best thing that comes from events such as these, is the collaboration between people with a common goal. I had the pleasure to sit with a group of people for dinner one evening and they were all talking about the issues that they were facing at their various school districts. One lady mentioned that they had a resource library that their staff had access to but it was empty as nobody had the time to create the content for it. A member of another school district immediately offered their content for them as a starting point and said they found the same thing when they started but once there was a little content there people started adding to it, modifying it, creating it and all that was needed was a little something to start it all off.
That led on to another conversation from another school district about a resource they had found online which provides content and only asks in return that when you add something new to your own library that you upload it to them as well. The words were – take all that you need and when you are ready to give back do so.
Maybe these people would have found each other online or by email or some other way but to watch it all unfold in front of me – with people face to face – collaborating in the true sense of the word was amazing.
The other great thing about this conference is their twitter feed which is just another way of collaborating with a wider audience. There was even someone from Scotland following the ATLE twitter feed! People were offering information, links, insights and commentary on things that matter to this group. People from far and wide all collaborating on a common goal.
Well done ATLE – keep up the great work!
