Karen Greenwood Henke is a professional writer and speaker on emerging technologies and their role in education. She is also the founder of Grant Wrangler, a free grants and awards listing service.
When I hear educators talking about Web 2.0 in the classroom, I keep hearing about 2 particular applications: Wikispaces and VoiceThread. We’ve already shared Adam Frey’s thinking about the future of education. Next up is Ben Papell, one of the founders of VoiceThread, who I met on the exhibit floor at NECC 2008. As you might imagine, he echos earlier comments about breaking down walls and fostering collaboration.
When I moved to San Francisco in 1995, I was enthusiastic about the future. As a project director at Smart Valley, my job was to work with leading Silicon Valley companies and public sector organizations to bring the benefits of networking and digital communications to the whole community, not just business. We envisioned an information age with digital processes, seamless connectivity, and civic engagement.
Fast forward to 2008, as I clean out my office and home, planning my move to Los Angeles, I find myself emptying my shelves and file drawers.
I stopped Adam Frey on the show floor at NECC and asked him what the future of learning looks like. Adam doesn’t make a distinction between the student and the teacher in his answer. Instead he focuses on “enthusiasm”.
Adam is one of the founders of Wikispaces and we spoke on a panel about education at Office 2.0 last year. He sees that enthusiasm of online spaces and online collaboration everyday at wikispaces where teachers, students, and all kinds of regular folks create collaborative online spaces to work together. If you’re not ready to wiki’s in your classroom, why not start one for a family event or to plan your next vacation? Read more »
Today’s education system is designed to teach to the bell curve, to the middle (to the mediocre?).
Source: wikipedia bell curve definition
But the bell curve leaves students at either end of the curve out of the learning process. If we aggregate the number of students being left behind from a classroom to a school to a district, we start to see how many students we are leaving behind. A better strategy for a 21st Century School is to teach to the long tail of a power law.
Source: Wikipedia long tail definition
Millions of students are not satisfied by instruction to the middle. They drop out or stay in, unchallenged, seeking their learning else where. At the CoSN Conference on March 11, I presented these ideas as part of a panel: How Technology Helps Address the Long Tail Problem . I was joined by Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow who presented Speak Up Student Data in her presentation: Addressing Our Long Tail Learnersand Holly Sagues, CTO of Florida Virtual School, who showed us how the serve the needs of Long Tail Learners and the Florida Virtual School everyday.
If you attended our session, please comment and share your thoughts on the topic. We are eager to keep the conversation going!
Speaking of ambitious teaching and learning, I was really impressed by Kerrie Guston, an elementary school teacher from Magnolia, Texas.
During the Classroom 2.0 Birds of a Feather session, she described her “Share Your Community” project at Gustinspace. Elementary students from Magnolia, Texas, and Perth, Australia share their community through a wiki moderated and maintained by Kerrie.
