Collaborative Workshops

SEED Workshops
Collaborative Workshops

These week-long events bring together students and teachers from several schools in one country. They are animated by a team of SEED staff members, Schlumberger volunteers, students and teachers from SEED schools and collaborators from the Future of Learning Group of the MIT Media Lab. A variety of hardware and software tools are made available to enable participants to realize their project goals.

A SEED Collaborative Workshop is a learning community in which people of all ages come together to learn and to work on projects. The usual roles of teacher and student blur as everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner. As Melissia, a workshop particicpant said, "I like very much that children, young people and adults all share knowledge and ideas. No matter how young you are, you are taken into account."

An important goal of SEED Collaborative Workshops is to provide professional development for teachers in SEED schools. Including students in the group allows teachers to see immediately how young people learn and develop projects in the Learning While Doing environment. Teachers are sometimes surprised at how much their students can accomplish when given the proper support. Teachers and students find themselves in an unfamiliar relationship as colleagues working on projects together. The workshop environment serves as a model of how they might work when back at school.

Since participants come from several schools there is a basis for future cooperation on SEED Collaborative Projects. Students and teachers may remain in contact with each other through the SEED Bulletin Board.

For most participants a SEED Collaborative Workshop is a rewarding and memorable experience.