Last week I went to a 6th grade classroom in which the students were writing to pen pals in Mexico. Some of the students knew spanish and others didn't, so they had to really work together to put together these letters. I think that this was an excellent example of collaboration and the difference that it can make.
















There are only two other people working in this office, so during a typical work day I generally work directly with no more than two people. Indirectly, I coordinate often with more people over email in an effort to work together when it is not possible to have direct contact. For exaple, I am now emailing the person in charge of printing the pdf documents of the Wild & Scenic film festival posters that I have been editing on photoshop for the past couple of weeks. Over email he is sending me specific things that need to be altered in order for him to print out the posters and I am taking his advice and asking for help with parts that I do not understand. On a field trip day, I will have direct collaboration with at least 20 people.

Direct collaboration with others is important because it allows you to be very clear on what you are doing and enables all your questions or concerns to be answered. Collaboration with multiple people is also good because it allows for more than just one person's ideas to be presented, which leads to better results.

A lot of time the work that I do here is affecting many people who I have never directly made contact with. For instance, when I update the databases with member's names and addresses or send out thank you notes to different people, it makes a difference in many people's lives, although to me it is just a small task.

The more advanced technology becomes, the less we will have a need for direct contact. There are already ways for people to talk to and see eachother without being in the same room or even the same fascility. My guess is that the further into the future we get, the less often we will have direct collaboration.