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Barb Garnett Tenessee,
USA Global
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Murphy: Hi, Barb! I know you're really busy with getting ready for your Parisan exhibition and the cheer squad, so I'm really glad you could spend some time with me and answer some questions I have! I've been hearing a lot about your project, Global Transport, and have already met with Donny. I'd love for you to give me some background about your part of the project and your responsibilities.
Barb: Sure! I’m Barb and I live in a small town in western Tennessee. I’m sixteen years old, and while I’m technically in the tenth grade, we don’t really go by separated grade levels for much anymore. Most of our schoolwork is done in multi-aged groupings, sometimes even multi-generational groupings when we are lucky enough to find experts or other interested people who would like to participate with us. This project is one with several ages represented. I’m the oldest in the group and sometimes have to act older than I feel to get things done! The project is an exploration of the kinds of transportation where we live. One of the newest kinds of transportation that we would like to investigate is a type of virtual reality, where we can put on special glasses and meet with the others in the group in a special area. This is just becoming available this year and is not very common yet, but we’re hoping that Derrel, who lives in Japan and is part of our group, will be able to get us the hardware that we need to try it out. He has contacts in Japan! We will be able to design what we look like in the room, and when others come into the room they will see and hear what everyone in there says.
Murphy: A major project like this takes a considerable amount of time. I find it interesting that some of you only meet at your Face2Face schools as little as one day per week. Talk to me about how you actually do the collaborating and communicating.
Barb: There are lots of things that we can do instead of meet together physically, which would be very hard since some of us live so far apart. Sometimes we do a type of video-conferencing, but our access is extremely fast. I use a laptop for access. I started to say “wireless laptop” but there’s not really any such thing as a “wired laptop” anymore! The access speed is fast enough that it is just like being in the room with the others in the group. I have a friend who uses his micro-computer for his projects like this. It’s small enough to carry in his pocket, and the video meetings are just as clear as mine. We also meet sometimes in real-time virtual class spaces called ClassChat. There’s no video there, though, so it’s not really as much fun to meet in those. The teachers like them, though, because they used them back when they were in school.
Murphy: Hmmm. Wired laptops? I think I still have one of those! Okay, now, this project is a real-world issue and you have the responsiblity of creating real-world solutions, so tell me how you see your project affecting the local community and even the global community. Barb: We’re looking at as many kinds of transportation in the world today as we can, trying to see which ways are safest for the users, most cost effective for the consumers, and the most environment-friendly for our world. Then we’re going to rank them and make a presentation that will be shown to the Association of Unified Transportation Organization in Paris, France in 2013. No one will actually be there, of course, since everybody can attend right from their own homes in each country. Meetings like that are very interesting when they are conducted online, since you are able to control how many delegates you see and which ones they are. Everything is translated automatically by the conferencing software – all of the languages known in the world right now. We can watch the person speaking in Swahili, but the words come out in English or Spanish or whatever language you have said you want. All of it is done automatically in real-time. Don, who is in the first grade this year, is really looking forward to the presentation, since he wants his dog to be on the screen with him. I think he thinks that everyone will have their dogs with them, and he wants to see what foreign dogs look like.
Murphy: I've heard about your presentation at the AUTO in Paris. I'll be ther to cover it! Which is why I'm interested in your response to my next question. It's always fascinating to talk to people before and after they've worked on such important tasks. Because after spending such a considerable amount of time on this project, I imagine that it's difficult to not be affected personally. Tell me about your position throughout the project and any changes you have made personally and how you have been affected as a result of completing this project. Barb: We take turns leading the group, but like I said sometimes it’s not fun being the oldest. Everyone shares the work, though, and that makes it much more fun. I used to put things off until the last minute, but working with groups when you have specific times that you have to meet and have things finished and they are counting on you and they can SEE you sitting there sweating if you didn’t do your part…. That has made me do much better about doing things early.
Murphy: I know what you mean about being the oldest! Sometimes it's not the oldest, but having the best understanding, or being the most senior... but like you said, there is always something to learn! And that relates to my next question: What would you change or do differently if you had the opportunity to do this project again, or on your next project? Barb: I would like to work in a larger group next time, with maybe everyone from different countries. The translation software makes it easy to understand everyone, and I like learning about what makes places where others live special.
Murphy: While every reporter covers the topics he or she needs to record.. there are always interesting bits that come from the people directly involved, that are not always apparent to the outside... What else would you like to share with the world about your project and the process by which it was accomplished? Barb: It’s pretty exciting working with different people all over the world on projects like this one. I like being able to see them and talk with them in real-time, but I also like the VirtualWorld access where we can change what people see in the groups. Sometimes that makes it easier to work together – when we aren’t so caught up in what the others look like. I’ve learned a lot about people and their cultures by working with them in projects like this, and because the hardware and software is so inexpensive now, over 80% of the world population is connected. Things have gotten much smaller, faster, and cheaper since I started to school back in 2002. Back then, many classrooms did not have computers and many that did have them did not really use them for projects like we do now. We met every day in classrooms back then, too, but when I was in sixth grade we began connecting online for 50% of our classes. In ninth grade, we started meeting physically only once a week. That time is usually spent working out project problems, doing research with others in the class, and networking for future projects and assignments. |
