On Monday, our ABC Movie Collaboration went hot on the web. Kevin and I were both excited to be able to click on our title and move to our project page. Kudos to Kevin for its great html look. It’s still a cyber mystery to me as to how you can create something like that. I’m glad Kevin has the tech magic! By the end of the day I couldn’t tell how many participants we had and what anyone thought about our work. But I am just so excited to be involved in this conference in its second year of existence. I like the pioneering feel to it. Kevin did get the number of hits to our page and that was good. From my own place as a participant in this conference, it’s a bit daunting to participate. It takes time to move through a workshop and leave something or try something. Kevin is great a suggesting new experiments and I usually jump to try them out. Seedlings, located on Classroom 2.0 was an easy community to join. I love that site to begin with and am using it with some of my online communities: my student teacher, our site’s tech team and summer institute ‘07.

I am finding though, it is sometimes hard to follow video casts and podcasts when the person presenting is talking on and on just off the top of the head. I think you need to be clear about what you want to present. Someone like David Warlick has this medium down. He seems like he’s written his piece and can share it in a casual manner. I think writing is still critical. I know it takes me a long time to write a digital story. The tech falls into place faster and better when the writing is focused and shaped.

Anyway, I’m glad that we can keep clicking back to the conference even when it’s over.

I listened to the fireside chat yesterday with my mic ready to go, but I didn’t feel comfortable. I think that area needs more work. Most of the time was given to the keynotes and not much time was left for the workshop presenters. But like the whole event, it’s very exciting to participant in something on the cutting edge, something sexy.

I’m glad to see that VoiceThread is getting a lot of notice. I had a question and Ben got back to me immediately.

I’m thinking a lot about David’s keynote and chat. He totally believes that we are moving rapidly to this flat classroom. I wonder if he’s right? It seems very logical given the speed of technology and popularity of the web and computers. But the reality in the schools we serve seems to be a reactionary move backward to scripted textbooks demanding teachers teach in a rote manner to the high stakes tests.

David’s future, our reality. Seems to be poles apart! And the kids, where are they in all this? Their lives outside the classroom can’t be embraced in this traditional version of learning: teacher up high on the hill, and the mass of kids in that deep hole in the valley. How do we bring them out? How do we flatten the learning environment? Can teachers possibly get excited about teaching with a script? Can kids possibly get excited about the learning environment?

Web 2.0, how can you support learning in this world???

I can’t wait to see what happens to us in the next few years and I will keep pushing myself and the teachers around me to prepare for the revolution. Be subversive, isn’t that the mantra I embraced?

I found my way to the pre-conference keynote for the second annual K12 Online Conference.  I wonder, how many digital immigrants on signed on to this adventure with the Web 2.0?

As David Warlick takes us to the last quarter of his talk I began to see images of struggling frustrated teachers presenting their work at our SI’07 Renewal on Thursday.  They are so far away from digital anything.  They have been loaded down with scripted texts and high stakes tests bench marked.  Do they possibly have time to consider that their classrooms should/could be transformed into flat versions where students offer rich learning from the web?  I don’t see a way to get there, even if it could be.  But how will we get to it?  That’s what I wonder?

How will the students we see in front of us really resemble the natives that they are?

I love the very last section of this first talk by David Warlick.  Even if he doesn’t have the answers the issues he raises are exciting.  I am engaged!