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Lived experience of connected practice Actors in a large scale online intercultural exchange (OIE) (O’Dowd,2016) have taken time to reflect on their personal experiences of an OIE network (OIEN) through creating autoethnographic accounts (Nunan, 2010). Data reflect different contexts, roles and identities, providing an account of the transformative nature of connected practice. The data have been analysed using a grounded theory method to explore the various perspectives, convergences and divergences. Through this analysis ‘the researchers create an explication, organisation and presentation of the data rather than discovering order within the data. The discovery process consists of discovering the ideas the researcher has about the data after interacting with it’ (Charmaz, 1990 in Willig, 2013). The presentation will combine the analysis with visualisations produced as a result of open interactions through social media, sharing insights into the factors which have contributed to the richness and challenges of connected practice and how this can forge professional identities through the relationships within a network.

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"I am by nature uncomfortable with definitions: I tend to prefer contextual conversations with permeable "working" definitions and shades of gray. I think openness has many shades of gray."

https://elearnmag.acm.org/archive.cfm?aid=3185174
"This time of walls and travel bans demands conviction and ingenuity from critical digital educators concerned with gestures of openness and hospitality. To change the landscape on both sides of the walls that are being built to keep us apart, we need to show up and collaborate wherever we can." Maha Bali and Kate Bowles.
http://www.digitalpedagogylab.com/sides-networked-learning-world-walls/
CLAVIER. WTF?
was the working title for our conference submission for the Unicollab conference in Krakow.

In an attempt to define this acronym from my perspective I brought together blog-posts, photos, presentations, quotes et al.
It is a challenge to make sense of it.
DEFINITIONS
One has to start somewhere so I started with the acronym's constitutive words:

CLAVIER: Clermont and Warwick Virtual Intercultural Exchange Research.

CLAVIER: Connected Learning and Virtual Intercultural Exchange Research Network.

CLAVIER: "a Moodle course." I found this in a document and smiled.

CLAVIER Network: "a large-scale exchange that puts emphasis on informal interaction with minimal intervention from instructors. In this network, students can determine the nature of the activities that they would like to be engaged in and choose communication channels to blur the boundaries between formal and informal learning."
https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/44578/1/22_01_review%201_luogui.pdf

This attempt is already much more explicit and closer to what I would consider the truth, maybe it was written by my friend Teresa Mackinnon :-).

One cannot disassociate intercultural online/offline practice from research in CLAVIER.

ONLINE OFFLINE FORMAL INFORMAL

"blur the boundaries between formal and informal learning."

One might add: "blur the boundaries between online and offline."
One might add: "blur the boundaries between institional partnerships and online communities and affinity groups"
One might add: "blur the boundaries between disciplines."

One might add: "blur the boundaries between practice and research."

MULTIPLE SPACES/TOOLS ONLINE/OFFLINE
One might emphasise pragmatic and critical use of technology: if formal platforms were the initial starting point for the Warwick and Clermont exchange, they were not used at all for other partnerships or exchanges.
Tools used have depended on the types of exchange and its objectives and on the personal choice of the participants. A suggested Facebook group creation, for example, was rejected by students this year who preferred to rely on Facebook group messaging. One or two students have refused to use internet and have preferred to exchange letters. Student or teacher choices are discussed and respected.

CLAVIER: Moodle, Blackboard IM, Blackboard Collaborate, Skype, Google Documents, Google Hang-outs,Google Plus Communities, Youtube, Blogger, Storify, Wordpress, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, What's App, email, snailmail.
CLAVIER: "A Moodle Course" er not really.
MULTIPLE ACTIVITIES
Over seven years,a diverse range of activities has been used, depending on the exchange, on the moment.
Activities can be long-term or pop-up, teacher or student led.
CLAVIER: Information exchange, intercultural exchange, Cultura questionaires, surveys, collaborative story-telling, collaborative project development, video creation, blogging, tweeting, pod-casting, chat, email, video-conferencing, visit organisation, visit coordination, travel, professional interview simulation, gifting, conferences, teaching practice, teaching observation, research, teacher training.

MULTIPLE PARTERSHIPS/COMMUNITIES
The multiple partnerships and communities which have constituted CLAVIER have been identified with acronyms, some of which have become used as searchable hashtags on social media.

CLAVIER: #CLAVIER#WARCLER/#CLERWAR CLERKRA/KRACLER MOLCLER/OUCLER/DAKCLER/KANCLER/SANCLER/LINCLER/#CLAVEDU/CLAVBUS
#CLAVMED/WARKRA

Networks have developed via academic, professional or personal affinity.
Such personal affinity networks have also been identified with hashtags. These are some examples:

#CLAVFOOT/#CLAVROCK/#CLAVSKI/#CLAVMUSO/#CLAVSCIENCE/#CLAVSTORIES

CONNECTING, CRISS-CROSSING, DEEPENING
"Learning is the formation of connections in a network."
Stephen Downes
I take a look at the top tags on Touches of Sense...

CONNECTION is first, then C(onnnected)Courses, then #rhizo14 (Rhizomatic Learning), Education, Learning, Freedom, then, #rhizo15 (Rhizomatic Learning), then C(onnected)L(earning)MOOC, then Creativity, Meaning, and Complexity.

CLAVIER: Connected Learning and Virtual Intercultural Exchange Research.
Blog post titles tagged CLAVIER express connection...repetitively:

A closer look at these posts' associated tags, and the multiple connections are evident.

CLAVIER & RHIZO14
CLAVIER & CLMOOC
CLAVIER & DIGIWRIMO

Ad infinitum.

Criss-crossing...

"criss-crossing verb gerund or present participle: criss-crossing.

form a pattern of intersecting lines or paths on (a place).

"the green hill was criss-crossed with a network of sheep tracks"

Move around or travel around (a place) by going back and forth repeatedly."

"It was the third and fourth time that we had physical exchanges with students from Poland and the UK. It is these criss-crossing of paths with enable us to learn deeply and gradually to change together. It is a slow at times pain-staking process."

Over a period of seven years, I have connected and reconnected with people in different contexts online, people in #rhizo14 pop up and connect in #clmooc, in @vconnecting, in #digiwrimo, in #digped. Inevitably highly connected educators like myself or Teresa act as bridging nodes between vast numbers of people who may be offline or online.
I am constantly meeting people who I have only known online in offline contexts.

My personal/professional/academic learning networks inevitably blur boundaries of what constitutes CLAVIER.
My personal/professional/academic interests are already blurred .
One or two photos, one or two activities can help demonstrate this.

This photo is from what I have decided is a "CLAVIER" album.
CLAVIER connects people - teachers, learners, professionals, singers, dancers...whoever.

We have a class which I am teaching in Clermont Ferrand on the campus. Terry over in Kentucky is speaking about education (he took the decision not to school his kids) in a hangout with the teachers in a classroom via a smartphone which is being passed around a huddle of teachers.
I met Terry online, during the rhizo14 MOOC. We have become very good friends, working together on poetry, meeting for intermittent pop-up hangouts called "CLAVPICNICS". On the bottom left is Marcin, my colleague and friend in Poland, next to him is Maritta, my colleague and friend in Finland, then we have a teacher in the classroom, and on the far right we have Teresa, my colleague and friend in the UK.
You can see a similar scene in this photo, with students and my laptop.

Then it was Maha's Birthday, why don't we sing 'Happy Birthday' I thought, - well why not?

In thirty seconds, their singing was on the internet winging its way to Egypt, and the USA, and Brazil, and Australia...well wherever.

Pretty quickly, Kevin had remixed their song, Terry had Zeega'ed the birthday meme in Arabic, Maha had blogged on it and sent back a sung response to my students (they are unaware of that for the moment unless the one Tweep has done his job for the masses and sent it viral in Clermont Ferrand STAPS)"

http://tachesdesens.blogspot.fr/2014/09/the-spaceman-episode.html

...they had actually written a song in English - entitled...Road Trip. I took a photo of their manuscipt:

COMPLEXITY INFORMED TEACHING
One cannot disconnect CLAVIER from a context of long-term pedagogical research which seeks to discover how to teach in a digitally connected environment.
CLAVIER, from my perspective is an integral part of this, my personal development as a teacher.
It is also why,I have sought to extend connections across my institution not only with language teachers but with those in other disciplines.
I make no distinction between distant and local digitally-enabled connections.

If an offline context/event/action might benefit other people then I document it and teach/encourage students to do so and share with appropriate people or communities.
A video of a meeting enables others to watch it at a later date.
A photo of an activity enables others to see it and experiment.
Affinity groups have popped up from student desires.
This year we have had a Facebook messenger enabled local rock-climbing group and a Facebook group enabled "run in English group". The students have expressed a desire to combine their passions with English practice and meeting new people and I have facilitated their development by acting as a bridging node between them and existing local communities online.

I have also been working with distant humanitarian associations, for example, in Nepal to enable students to engage their energies in such actions.

A quick look at my Facebook messenger account and I have numerous ongoing conversations which vary from students from Krakow and Clermont Ferrand discussing an upcoming visit to France to a multi-national group talking about Humanitarian missions.
OPEN, DIGITALLY ENHANCED, PEDAGOGY

I suppose this behaviour of connecting and sharing is at the heart of "Open education" or open practices in business like the "Working Out Loud" movement.

I look at other CLAVIER tagged posts on Touches of Sense....
Reaching out.
Out of the box.
Lines of flight.

[For myself, I am driven by wanting to know what lies on the other side, on the outside.
The thought of going through the motions in a closed box defined by others is an anathema.
Education, conceived as the following of pre-conceived, closely monitored, continuously measured and institutionally badged "learning paths" is some sort of vision of hell.
I will fight to open the door.
Maybe I have been fighting to open the door to Corporate America?
I am constantly troubled by this "digital" "freedom", this opening of our lives our education systems to corporate surveillance and profit.
I sign up to "engagemooc" via Twitter.
It is not much resistance to this dystopian "future".
I wonder to what extent I am designing my own echoing digital prison.
Out of an institutional box into a corporate box.
Deleuze and Guattari reference:
Capitalism and Schizoprenia.
I am uncomfortably aware of my own schizoprenia...]
Digital literacies: critical media literacy, video creation, collaborative writing, graphic creation, is embedded into our pedagogy in Clermont.
Active, collaborative project-based pedagogy is a major part of how we work.
Portfolio assessment developed in both Clermont and Warwick reflects a common desire to bring together formal and informal learning, online and offline communication.
One cannot disassociate easily personal/professional/academic spheres.
Academics or professionals are often at ease with formal tasks and language but insist on the importance of "small talk" and general conversation.
Our multiple identities demand that our complexity be taken into account by teachers.
This recent research presentation from a conference in Corsica seeks to map complexity informed practices and identify bridges or barriers to future development.

It was accompanied with a
Virtually Connecting hangout facilitated by Teresa to enable distant particpants to access the conference and to contribute to discussions. Unfortunately lack of reliable wifi disconnected us but didn't prevent a valuable discussion to be recorded between Teresa and Martina Emke of the Open University.

Our work with CLAVIER demands transcultural, transmedia, and transdisciplinary connection and collaboration.
Our work on open learning spaces and our documenting of our experiences has also influenced and led to Clermont language teachers being associated with the development of a transdisciplinary open learning space (later aborted).

ORGANIC, NATURAL, RHIZOMATIC, COMPLEX
In conversations with Teresa in particular, we have always associated CLAVIER with unpredictable rhizomatic development. Depending on who you speak with, it has different forms, and for some people they wouldn't associate CLAVIER with their exchange activity at all.

Le " principe de connexion et d'hétérogénéité " implique que le rhizome se forme par liaisons d'éléments hétérogènes sans qu'un ordre préalable assigne des places à chaque élément : " [...] n'importe quel point d'un rhizome peut être connecté à un autre, et doit l'être "6.

Marcin tells me he is going to be in Warwick in February with a group of students.

A student asks me if he can include his ongoing video-conferencing with a Warwick correspondent he met the year before in this year's portfolios.

A student tweets me a photo of his weekend with a Warwick student he met two years before.

I am witness to a Facebook conversation concerning a reunion between students who have met in Krakow three years before.

Le " principe de multiplicité " : la multiplicité est " [...] l'organisation propre du multiple en tant que tel, qui n'a nullement besoin de l'unité pour former un système "7, c'est-à-dire que la multiplicité ne peut être artificiellement unifiée et totalisée par une forme surplombante. la multiplicité est une forme de prolifération immanente et autonome.

CLAVIER undoubtedly demonstrates multiplicity in its organisation, it has no unity, there is no central organisation. Its development is unhierarchical and non-centralised. I can see a fair amount of its emerging features but nobody would be able to have a reliable overview of any outline.

Le " principe de rupture assignifiante " qui caractérise l'absence d'ordre, de hiérarchie entre les éléments et surtout l'absence positive d'articulations prédéfinies, contrairement aux arborescences ou systèmes organiques qui prévoient et localisent leurs faiblesses afin d'organiser les ruptures possibles : " un rhizome peut être rompu, brisé en un endroit quelconque "8.

CLAVIER as exemplified by stories of student exchanges popping up after years of dormancy can be ruptured and then reconnect in different forms.

I am contacted by Marcin to meet up with a group of Polish students for the New Year, two of them are with Marcin in Krakow a third is in Canada. They have left the university. I met up with them the last time I was in Krakow for and Erasmus trip. They have become friends.

Le " principe de cartographie et de décalcomanie ", c'est-à-dire que la carte s'oppose ici au calque, en ce que le calque est reproduction d'un état de chose bien identifié qu'il suffit de représenter. Au contraire, la carte est un tracé original qui rend un aspect du réel que nous ne connaissions pas encore (une carte peut présenter des entrées multiples et un même espace peut être symbolisé par un grand nombre de cartes différentes).

You couldn't reproduce CLAVIER it has no unified plan, it is for ever changing.

It may/must/can only be represented by multiple maps.

Maps fixed like this blog post are only ever incomplete and related to a particular moment.

I am writing to map meaning.

A search of blog post titles here on Touches of Sense and Teresa's conference presentations express the organic and rhizomatic nature of this network.
A search of images which illustrate the blog posts reinforce this insistance on complex perspectives.

CLAVIER: Flower Vases and Irises, Growing like Topsy, Sowing seeds, Little seeds little signs,

"Things are going haywire"

"As another term starts, after only one week, things are going haywire. First day in class, we had students chatting with a friend of mine working on a Ski Resort in Australia, during the week we had students reading my blog , seeing their snow hat from last winter being commented on by people all around the world and retweeted by Rihanna (a robot - I kept that quiet not to spoil the effect) on Twitter."

NATURE, NETWORK, NURTURE
I find a presentation given to a group of Marcin's students in Krakow about rhizomatic learning for an Erasmus Teaching Staff Mission.
Is this CLAVIER?
Is this Rhizo14?
It is connected learning in a digitally networked environment.

CLAVIER: Building Bridges...

We are forever building bridges...making connections.

I find another CLAVIER tagged post here:

" I'm a rat." I said to the teacher between classes. It had suddenly occurred to me that I had identified my role. It is an image that has crossed my mind over the past few days. I get into places where I shouldn't. I am a carrier of viruses. There are positive viruses, there are negative viruses. Those judgements depend on your values.

http://tachesdesens.blogspot.fr/2017/03/vectors-of-virus.html

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"I am by nature uncomfortable with definitions: I tend to prefer contextual conversations with permeable "working" definitions and shades of gray. I think openness has many shades of gray." https://elearnmag.acm.org/archive.cfm?aid=3185174 "This time of walls and travel bans demands conviction and ingenuity from critical digital educators concerned with gestures of openness and hospitality.

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The true story of how two teachers connected over a blog post and created an virtual exchange project that touches more than 1,000 students a year and is instrumental in increasing teacher digital literacies.

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Submitted by Teresa MacKinnon on

Everything

How was the project organized?

This exchange is characterised by the high degree of freedom and initiative which is allowed to the students. This is clear from the wide variety of online tools made available to students and from the open nature of the tasks which the students can carry out together online.

At the beginning of the exchange, Warwick Language Centre provides a Moodle platform for the exchange where students from both universities are asked to upload their profiles and to look for partners in the partner university. Students are not matched by their teachers with partners in the partner institution. Instead, they are encouraged to explore the student profiles on the Moodle course and then contact those with whom they wish to work. During the second term, the coordinators at both universities circulate a research consent form and ask students for their permission to investigate their activity in order to better understand the online interaction which was taking place. They also assign a new, randomly chosen partner to work together on their "language learning history". This text has to be written in the target language with the assistance of their telecollaborative partner. They then submit their story online via the Moodle platform.

Students are not obliged to use any particular tool to communicate with their partners but an instant messaging tool BBIM is provided as a free download in the Moodle platform. The exchange portal also provides an RSS feed for the exchange's French and English twitter accounts. Students can also enter into contact together using their own Facebook pages and Skype as well as the chat tool in Moodle.

Students worked together on their "language learning history".

Students were encouraged to take their connections beyond the confines of the VLE and they connected through twitter (#warcler, #clerwar), youtube, a student-created facebook page and lastfm. Some challenged each other to games of Angry Birds, finding social spaces to continue their communication.

How were the students assessed?

As regards assessment, Teresa, coordinator at Warwick University, says students do not usually receive specific academic credit for their online activities: "...it is an enrichment activity to support their language learning as they only get two hours a week contact time". However, she also points out that an e-portfolio (Mahara) has recently been introduced for student reflection on their language learning experience and those students who are working at an advanced level can include data from their virtual exchange (i.e. chat logs etc.) as evidence of learning. This e-portfolio carries 20% of the total mark in their language course.

In France too, students are not formally assessed for their participation in the exchange. However, they do have the option to add extracts from their online exchange to their language English portfolios.

Evaluation

A group of graphic design students in France took part in a competition to create a logo for the research project, Clavier. The activity was not assessed but those students who were completing a reflective e-portfolio for credit (100 post A level students) were able to use their experiences as evidence of their autonomous learning (appendix 4).

An exciting recent development also sees elements of this activity to be extended to a global audience through the aggregation of some public content. Interested partners include Polish and Indian teacher trainers. Further portal developments will increase the potential for video and photo sharing.

What challenges did you face?

Due to the relatively informal and 'class-independent' nature of this exchange, the Clavier Project team has avoided many of the problems which telecollaborative teachers often encounter. The exchange does not intend to be an integrated, assessed part of the foreign language programme and therefore does not encounter challenges related to coordinating class timetables in both institutions, academic recognition of activity etc. It does, however, rely on the motivation of the organising teachers and of the students themselves who have to use the platform and tools to find a particular partner and develop their own discussion topics and schedule outside of a class structure.

The challenge of organising and running such an exchange can obviously be difficult for the teachers involved. Teresa explains that "...as we have many part time staff, a lot of this type of work is carried out by full time contracted staff. We were fortunate with our model as it was based around facilitating student interaction and therefore mostly in their [the students'] hands."

What did the teachers think of the project?

In order for such exchanges to work, Teresa believes that each institution needs "...at least one champion or project leader on the team to get the ball rolling and share good ideas to inspire others". She suggests successful exchanges require finding partner-teachers who "...understand each other, even if they have slightly different expectations. Allowing sufficient time for staff to engage with student queries is also important". She also believes that the Clavier exchange will become more successful as time goes by as it becomes more embedded in the students' approach to language learning at both universities.

Two staff visits were made by Simon Ensor (French co-ordinator) to Warwick during the year to discuss the project and, thanks to Erasmus funding, two members of Warwick staff were able to make a return visit on a teacher exchange in June meeting with the French tutors, presenting the project and connecting with a wider teaching body. This resulted in the development of a set of tasks to be embedded in lesson planning for the academic year 2012-13.

The project was reviewed and evaluated to be a successful model to be further refined and developed through an agreement at institutional level.

What did students think of the project?

An online survey sent to both cohorts was completed by 168 students towards the end of the year. These revealed several findings worthy of note. Firstly, that the students were already using a range of technologies to connect with friends and to support their language learning and were clearly comfortable with their use. Tools of choice included instant messaging and social networking tools, with email providing a familiar and reliable tool for 65% of respondents. They felt, furthermore, that their endeavours in language acquisition were important should they spend time abroad (58%) and should be accredited (66%).

What kind of institutional support did you receive?

As regards institutional recognition and integration, Teresa reports that in Warwick "...we did get clearance for a press release and our Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning have been supportive". A recent institutional teaching and learning review also praised the initiative and proposed the project's application to other languages. The document states:

"The Review Group commends the Language Centre's development of the virtual exchange between Warwick students and students at UniversitéBlaisePascalin Clermont-Ferrand. The Review Group advises that the Language Centre should continue to develop similar virtual exchange programmesand take a more active role in seeking international placements and links with overseas institutions, including the University's core partners, noting that the Centre is in a position to share best practice and advise other departments in this regard."

In the future, the institutions involved will be looking at how projects such as this one can strengthen the links between virtual and physical mobility between institutions. Clermont Ferrand, for example, is hoping to formalise a three year link with students of French at Warwick which will mean financial support to facilitate staff visits as well as providing higher visibility for the online initiative. Furthermore, Evan Stewart, director of the Language Centre at Warwick, recognises the possible link from virtual mobility projects such as Clavier and physical mobility: "Warwick already has one of the best records in of UK universities in terms of outgoing student mobility. This [project] supports mobility with less outlay on the part of students who may be deterred from physical mobility for financial reasons."

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Submitted by Teresa MacKinnon on How was the project organized? This exchange is characterised by the high degree of freedom and initiative which is allowed to the students. This is clear from the wide variety of online tools made available to students and from the open nature of the tasks which the students can carry out together online.

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The Open Education Special Interest group runs regular webinars to share perspectives on open

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Wednesday 29th March 11am- 12 noon (UK) Recording: https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2017-03-29.0331.M.54BA77B03B2AC4AB89B04304F4EF3A.vcr&sid=7565 To celebrate Open Education week we are delighted to be joined... View Article

Webinar programme: OER17 preview. Josie Fraser Thursday 9th March, 12.30-1.30pm (UK) online. OER17 presents an opportunity for open practitioners,... View Article

26 October 2016 with Martin Poulter As Jorum repository is set to retire in September 2016 (http://www.jorum.ac.uk/retirement/). Martin Poulter considers... View Article

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Wednesday 29th March 11am- 12 noon (UK) Recording: https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2017-03-29.0331.M.54BA77B03B2AC4AB89B04304F4EF3A.vcr&sid=7565 To celebrate Open Education week we are delighted to be joined... View Article Webinar programme: OER17 preview. Josie Fraser Thursday 9th March, 12.30-1.30pm (UK) online. OER17 presents an opportunity for open practitioners,...

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It was at this moment that Amy Burvall's iconic network illustration came into my mind.

I doubled back to Steve Wheeler's blog.

Then there was a spark.

I suddenly remembered Dave Cormier's seed box photos that I had seen on Facebook.

Rhizo14 proved to be an ideal seed box for me.

How was Dave Cormier to know?

Of course, as he wrote in his post after the end of rhizo15, he couldn't have known what might happen.

He could only hope.

http://davecormier.com/edblog/2015/05/28/dear-rhizo15/

Amy and Steve couldn't have known what might happen with #blimage...

Plants do grow from scattered seeds.

How many seeds never develop?

With time one learns which type of soil, what levels of humidity and sunshine suits which seed.

Joy is nurtured via an attachment to the fate of the 'little guy'.

Regular watering, a few well-chosen words of encouragement and the 'little guy' is one among many.

As 'the little guy' grows he and his box-mates will give seed.

We need to collect seed as it is precious.

We can share seed with others.

I think my educational world changed when I started viewing myself and my fellow learners as one of these 'little guys', part of a wilder, wider learning ecology.

If one tends one's garden, with love over a life time, over generations, it can inspire others.

I am reminded of Simon Finch's #blimage post: 'A human writes.'

For me, education is not about stuff, it's about sharing curiosity, observation, faith, hope, joy, charity, love and nurturing the little guy.

Garden image: Sissinghurst

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sissinghurst_Castle_Garden#/media/File:Sissinghurst_white_garden.jpg

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It was at this moment that Amy Burvall's iconic network illustration came into my mind. I doubled back to Steve Wheeler's blog. Then there was a spark. I suddenly remembered Dave Cormier's seed box photos that I had seen on Facebook. Rhizo14 proved to be an ideal seed box for me.

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This road was the picture which appeared on my first post: 'To boldy go'.

I didn't know then if it would be the last.

A few years on now, the road keeps rolling.

The destination is no clearer but rather than bemourn uncertain outcomes, I am reveling in the adventure.

This is how I view learning, teaching, living.

I am reveling in the adventure.

When times are hard, I think of all the people that I have met who have shared a smile, a beer, a laugh, a story, a song and they are the ones that keep me going...

Every day, I drive the same route, in the same car, struggle to find a parking space, and think to myself: "I wonder what's going to happen next."

Invariably, if you are patient, if you are lucky, things do happen to keep you going...

In the classroom yesterday, there were a number of students who were sharing what they had learnt, or at least stuff which appealed to them: sailing, rugby refereeing, mental preparation, Ellen de Generes, the Walking Dead, a football match, others were actually (to my astonishment) choosing to in speak English to each other.

Others were busy preparing their work on a gap year project which was due for the following week.

In the background there was a group of students gathered around a guitar who were singing covers of Daft Punk, perhaps John Lennon...I don't remember.

There was also an ex-student, Julien Diot, who had studied with me 6 years before- who was taking a break from his globe-trotting, before going off to Costa Rica, to help the other students with their gap year projects.

There are so may stories...

There is one photo of his which resonates with me, it is a collage of photos of people who gave him a place to stay in New Zealand.

It is a testimony to the generosity of people.

People's generosity keeps you going...

At about 11:30, I wandered over to listen to what the students, Etienne with a guitar and Loic had prepared for their 'learn and share' session, I was expecting another cover version of a song.

Nope...they had actually written a song in English - entitled...Road Trip.

I took a photo of their manuscipt:

I then got another student to capture their performance to post to Youtube.

They then did an encore of Get Lucky - captured by another student on another phone.

At 12:00 I tweeted the following message:

Three hours later, a tweet arrived from Egypt:

A tweet in appreciation of Maha's singing and Etienne and Loic's lyrics arrived from Maha (another one) in Egypt:

- ℳąhą Bąℓi مها بالي (@Bali_Maha) November 4, 2015

Three hours and forty five minutes later, a tweet arrived from the USA:

There were a number of conversations going on about the song between people in at least three continents.

One problem of the original tweet was the manuscipt. It wasn't adapted to all the people who might want to contribute but were prevented from doing so by problems of legibility.

Not everybody wanted to sing or play guitar, Ronald transformed the song into a poem:

In Australia, Wendy Taleo wrote a poem inspired by the theme of the song:

In the middle of the night, the afternoon, the morning, Alan Levine, perhaps in Arizona shared a new version of Road trip:

The following day, a new grunge version arrived from Bryan Murley over in Illinois.

After a bit of faffing around I worked out how to embed it from Google Drive here:

(I recommend turning up the volume to fully appreciate the effect Bryan :-)

And then a few hours later...Kevin in Massachusetts posted a completely different version with totally remixed music.

Then Bryan came back and shared his grunge on Souncloud, Thanks to you Bryan I have learnt how to embed audio from Google drive :-)

And then Sarah up in Scotland kilted the song out completely differently....

Then a bit later on she blogged about her remix here:

I have really no idea where all of this is going.

There is some talk of a country version,

This song is going to hit a lot of diff. styles, I think. I had a country version ready, haven't recorded yet. :) https://t.co/aA9dmsbAfF

- Bryan Murley (@bmurley) November 6, 2015

- ℳąhą Bąℓi مها بالي (@Bali_Maha) November 7, 2015

Maha is talking about a lyric hack:

- ℳąhą Bąℓi مها بالي (@Bali_Maha) November 7, 2015

This Road Trip is really becoming illustrative of the complexity of Road Trips.

Travellers come together, spend time in conversation, tell stories, sing a few verses, and part going off on different routes, where they will take parts of their learnt songs and stories to new conversations in new places with new people.

I am becoming unable to follow their traces. I am now reliant on others who will be able to tell their part of the story, a part in which I am now absent. I am becoming to think that this will be a fascinating collaborative research project into creative emergence.

I finally get round to reading Bruno's Road Trip Story here in his blog where he has embedded the image of Etienne and Loic's manuscript,... I in turn am beginning to be inspired by this story of a Road Trip song to write...

- Bruno Winck (@brunowinck) November 7, 2015

@EtienneNassi makes me think that I need to write about travel as well. Sent @dogtrax a poem I wrote in 1984 from Florence. #digiwrimo

- Simon Ensor (@sensor63) November 8, 2015

I shall look forward to listening to how the other branches of the story mutate.
There are too many branches for me to collect here.
I decide to attempt to follow the different routes that this Road Trip is taking.

Bryan comes up with not one but two country versions:

And then for good measure uploads them to Soundtrap to enable people to record tracks to accompany him.

Meanwhile over in Australia Wendy has curated the story of another strand of Road Trip which arose from Maha's aforementioned image in response to Maha's aforementioned singing.

A series of six word stories inspired by two lines of Etienne and Loic's song, written by Wendy, Ronald, Maha, and others have been assembled and are going to be put to music by Laura's music students over in the UK.

- Wendy Taleo (@wentale) 9 Novembre 2015

Meanwhile, over in Canada, Maureen is contributing to a collaborative story with #digiwrimo and hears Kevin's aforementioned version of Etienne and Loic's song.

She includes the song in part 13 of the story quite unaware of the origin of Kevin's rendition of Road Trip.

Meanwhile, somewhere upstairs in a house in Glasgow Scotland, someone is doing a Road Trip song:

- Sarah Honeychurch (@NomadWarMachine) 8 Novembre 2015

The person in question, Niall is the aforementioned Sarah's husband, he comes downstairs:

@sensor63 @niall_barr never! He's just come down and given me Band in a Box so I can make more noise to torment you all :)

- Sarah Honeychurch (@NomadWarMachine) 8 Novembre 2015

He goes upstairs, a tragic crime is committed:

@NomadWarMachine @sensor63 I listened to the recording, realised the people who run when they see me near a karaoke are right, and deleted.

- Niall Barr (@niall_barr) 8 Novembre 2015

Will we ever get to hear the lost Scottish version of Road Trip?

Meanwhile, I am waiting with impatience to hear what Laura's music students will compose, I am waiting to hear if Maha's guitar-playing friend will be heard playing with Bryan in Illinois.
This morning I decided to mess around with WeVideo a Google Drive App and see what I could do with Road Trip. I used Kevin's Remix and came up with this

I don't how Etienne and Loic will respond to the Road Trip that their song has been taking.

I know that Etienne tweeted this reaction to Maha's interpretation:

This is perhaps the most important lesson I have learnt: we don't need to leave the walls of a class room to appreciate the diversity, the creativity, and the generosity of the people around us...around the world.

We don't have to travel to have a Road Trip, to have an adventure.

We do need faith.

There was another tweet I shared yesterday:

- Simon Ensor (@sensor63) November 4, 2015

I think that I would like to remix that quotation:

To write is to throw yourself into an abyss while telling yourself: I'll be caught no doubt...by people who find meaning in this.

There are days when we get lucky...

Thank you Etienne and Loic, Maha, Ronald, Wendy, Alan, Bryan, Kevin, Julien and you all for sharing with us.

It means a lot.

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This road was the picture which appeared on my first post: 'To boldy go'. I didn't know then if it would be the last. A few years on now, the road keeps rolling. The destination is no clearer but rather than bemourn uncertain outcomes, I am reveling in the adventure.