Status Symbol

So I made the leap from a blogger to a podcaster this week. It's a little like the feeling of going from the nerdy table in the junior high cafeteria to accepting your nerdiness and joining the A/V club to play with all the toys. The podcast was something my friend Dan and I had been talking about doing for awhile and we finally got around to it by the tail end of 2007. We hope to have new episodes up each week, (the true test of a real viable podcaster). We manage to plan, record, edit and post it in about 5 hours (maybe that will show in the quality) but I'm shooting for less than 3 next time. I've had trouble getting the bells and whistles to work (AAC--Pictures with the podcast and getting iTunes to list us-- we're pending approval now).

If you've a got a little time to kill, check out the "Wicked Decent Learning" Podcast.

I'd appreciate any feedback people might have for us. I'd hate to slip to chess club status or hall monitor.

Technorati Tags: Maine, WickedDecentLearning, teachers, education, podcast

Voicethread

I realized that in my last post I reference an online tool without telling what it did, which is ironic because my first ideas for starting this blog were to provide useful online tools for educators to use in their classrooms.

Voicethread is a simple tool that has lots of possibilities. You start out by uploading an image file (map, picture, artwork, scanned document, etc.) Then you can draw on it, record a voice comment, or add a text comment to that picture. You can then add other pictures and make a sort of slide show with your narration if you'd like. So what makes this any better than a lecture or Power Point? Well, it's a sharable, online and collaborative. You can set up a Voicethread to allow it to be viewed publicly and even to have other people comment (text or audio) on the pictures. They can even add to the "thread" if you allow them too. You can get notified of changes to the thread through email or RSS if you'd like. You can even embed them into other sites or applications when you are done.



I don't want to sound like an advertisement here, because I stand to gain nothing financially from Voicethread (not that I wouldn't turn down an offer if there's anyone from Voicethread reading) but Voicethread is offering FREE PRO ACCOUNTS to educators. This allows you more flexibility and functionality. I just feel that any company with a good tool who is reaching out to provide to the world of education needs to be justly recognized for that contribution. I hope that people will embrace this opportunity and give Voicethread some feedback to help strengthen this relationship.

Technorati Tags: voicethread techtool onlinetool education review

Authenticity

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about what my next post ought to be and I was weighing my options between a few choices, one of which was a lengthy rant about SATs, standardized testing and No Child Left Behind but I decided not to be such a Scrooge in the holiday season. No doubt by the time some dismal day in March arrives, you'll hear an earful on those other things.

I have been trying to answer the question, "What motivates students to learn?" This is the million dollar question that often connects to other educational conversation from measuring student progress, to curriculum and assessment. I started trying to answer the question by looking in two places. One, when I was a student, what courses, teachers or projects interested me and why. Two, what do students seem to be intrinsically motivated to do in our school.

Looking back at my own educational experiences, I can outline several examples of my own intrinsic motivation (extrinsic examples like parents expecting good grades or bribes of Driver's Education aside). I was very motivated in my music classes. I was involved in band, jazz band, marching band, brass quintet and even participated in several regional and state band competitions and music summer camp (yes I was that much of a geek). What motivated me to get this involved? Several things. One, it aligned with my "social network" (I had many friends in music who shared the same interests). Two, learning was important because it had a real audience. If you thought you'd get away with not practicing in a five person music group, you quickly learn that you can't hide in a performance, even behind the tuba. There are many other experiences I can recall were I was truly intrinsically motivated to learn (a mock trial in Social Studies for example) and I realized that the common factor was a real audience, not even necessarily a social group I was with.

When looking at courses and experiences where students in our school show a true motivation to learn, I hear of things like vocational programs (nursing, carpentry, automotive) music programs, athletics, and service projects like our students going to New Orleans to help Habitat for Humanity build houses for Katrina victims. These all have a REAL purpose, a real audience.





Most often in education the audience our students work with is an audience of one-- the teacher. When you consider this, there is no wonder that the motivation is low. The teacher creates the assignment, stipulates how you will complete it, usually gives you the materials to do it, and is the only one who will be reading it, scoring it and giving feedback. I cringe when I see students filling up my trashcan with their writing papers I have just handed back, but I understand why. You do what the teacher wants you to, you say what they want to hear, and if you are close enough, then you'll get the grade and forget about it tomorrow. This is not the kind of learning model that works and we know that.

This is why it is important for teachers to try opening up student work to an audience. The more authentic the better. These can be through blogs, wikis, videos and webpages, but, as some of the examples above prove, they don't have to involve technology.

So I've resolved to try this in some of my courses. Here's how. In my video production course, we will be working with the language classes to help them create a video postcard to their sister school in Lac-Megantic, Canada. Each group will get the same video footage (scripted by the language classes) and their responsibility will be to edit the video in a way that best suits the purpose. In the end all videos will be shown in the language classes and the class will vote on which one will get sent out to represent them.

In my writing and literature classes, I'm going to try to find ways to post student work for comment by other students, have them podcast and comment on each other's work and I've even tried to have a book discussion using Voicethread.

I hope to continue sharing this implementation so that I can document this journey and gain insight from reader comments as well (HINT HINT).

Technorati Tags: studentmotivation educationtechnology voicethread audience learning students maine schools

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2126539318&size=m

Technorati + Blogger = Headaches...

So I am sending out a quick plea for help if there is anyone reading this who blogs on Blogger and uses Technorati as well. I can't seem to get Technorati to publish new posts. I have it running through FeedBurner too, and that seems to work fine. Send me a comment if you'd like to troubleshoot this with me. I'd appreciate it. I don't really have a prize to give out beside public recognition on a blog with small exposure, but hey, it's the little things right?

Take Note....or not...

I was recently catching up on some blogs that I follow and found a link to an interesting product from David Warlick's 2 Cents blog. The product is called a "SmartPen" and it allows you to take notes on special paper but simultaneously record the lecturer or whatever audio is happening at that time. You can later hear that audio simply by clicking the note you were writing at that time. Its searchable, shareable and according to this website, will be available for less than $200.00.

I'm not writing here to advertise a product, I'm only wondering what teachers and professors would think of the device. I know there is at least one group of teachers that would see this as "dumbing things down for the kids...AGAIN." Though I'm not sure that I'd agree with that. I recall college lecture courses where I was seated by a tape recorder. I thought, initially anyway, that this was simply a lazy student's way to get out of attending an 8:00 class, but then I realized that, if used correctly, it could be a powerful method for review.

This got me asking the question. What is the purpose or value of note taking? This is not a sarcastic question, but rather an analytical one. Why do people take notes? What skill(s) does it teach? Do those skills have a place with new information and technologies?

As an English teacher, I am constantly accosted by colleagues emphatically stating, "you need to teach those kids how to take notes. They don't know how to do it at all. You should see their binders for my classes. It's going to catch up with them someday!" Trying to be proactive the other freshmen English teacher and I taught a series of lessons on note-taking and even assessed the students on it using an outline format and the "trash or treasure" method of note taking, but there was not let up from my colleagues. I finally got smarter and started asking what they meant by "note taking". I got a variety of responses.

According to my informal poll, note taking is...

1. Finding the main idea in the reading.
2. Creating an outline from a text.
3. Writing down what the lecturer says (but not all of it, just what's important).
4. Answering the key questions from the reading.
5. A way of creating a review guide for the reading to refer to, in short form, later.
6. A way of checking your own understanding of the reading and posing questions.
7. Knowing a particular format for note taking. (Cornell, Two-column notes, Outlines)

So here are the DOs and DO NOTs of note taking in the digital age as I see it.

DO teach students strategies for finding important information in any form. Whether a lecture, book, podcast or web page, students will always need to locate important information, and sort to find the relevant details.

DO NOT make students take notes to "pay attention" to you... it won't work. Assuming that students are willing to pay attention to begin with, the act of writing the notes without any stated method, purpose or structure distracts from them listening to what you said so they can "get it down."

DO teach students a variety of note taking methods and when to use them. All information and research is NOT created the same. The real challenge is to be able to determine what type of note taking style best suits your purposes for taking the notes.

DO NOT expect students to know the method you'd like them to use. As is illustrated by my poll above, few people agree on what note-taking consists of, never mind what form it takes. If you have a format in mind that you'd like students to use, them teach it to them! You may think they know it but chances are they don't.

DO encourage students to actively reflect on their notes. Things like restating things in their own words, applying important ideas to different situations, posing and answering questions or even illustrating ideas are vital. These are what true learning is about.

DO NOT assume that putting pen to paper means they've learned it. This goes for any other technology for note taking too. No matter what manner the notes are recorded in (typed, hand-written, video or audio) the learning is in the organizing, reviewing, interrelating and interacting with the information. I have yet to buy the fact that because a student wrote what you said, they now "know" it. It's only one step removed from learning by osmosis.

DO show students how concepts are organized and relate to each other. It is vital in the world full of emerging forms of communication, that students understand and construct a structure for that text. They need to be able to sort it all out without us beside them, but it starts with us unmasking those structures for them to see and work with.

DO NOT assume the sole responsibility for organizing information is the student's. We want this to be the end result, but we need to show student's how to get there. What's wrong with previewing the text? Providing a full or partial outline of the material, or even sharing your notes from the reading with a class and discussing it?

DO look into technology tools that help with note taking. There are many tools available for this (NoteTaker/NoteShare, Inspirations, Podcasts, Wikis, Blogs, even online templates, to name a few). Look at what these programs have to offer. Have students try them and see what they produce.

DO NOT assume the technology will do it for them. I've seen many teachers, students and professionals that thought, well if they do a graphic organizer instead, that'll do the trick. Or that the wiki is the answer. They are looking for an easy out. This is complex stuff and although these tools have a lot to offer, the skills involved need to be taught, reviewed, retaught and reflected upon.

DO ask yourself everyday why you are making students take notes. If you don't know the purpose, why would they know or care. Why not just get them at the end of class from a friend?

DO NOT be afraid to provide students the notes. You may have planned a 30 minute Power Point for the beginning of class, but why not give them the print out of the slides and have them interact with the material in an active, reflective meaningful way? Why not print a partial presentation and have them fill in missing information? Why not give them the slides out of order and have them put them together so they can show how the concepts connect?

Just some thoughts. Please add your own thoughts, comments or resources for great note taking ideas or tools.

Click here for Flickr Photo Credit

Technorati Tags: education learning notetaking literacy technology students teachers smartpen warlick

Helping Students Define the New Borders

Defining the new borders: Part III Students and technology AUPs

My goal in creating this last portion of my three-part AUP of the futureis to avoid the extremes. We all hear about the pendulum of education but here is an attempt to harness the progress that the swinging pendulum makes. After all, the clock doesn’t move without that swinging. The extremes I’m referring to here are equally impractical for different reasons. The extreme that most schools, including my own, tend to lean toward is blocking and banning the outside world. Content filtering, long AUPs that make it clear that the goal is to keep everything “in-house” and insular. Risk-takers need not apply and, if you are here, get ready to pack your bags. The other extreme is what I would call the “let ‘em learn it on their own” side. This camp basically “gives up” on any meaningful filtering and says, “the kids are going to do it anyway”. This is not only defeatist but dangerous. Students do need a filter—their brain and moral compass. And they aren’t going to develop and employ it on their own. So here is my attempt at crafting a technology vision or AUP for students that takes what’s important to both camps and allows for time to march on.

***Student Technology Agreement***
This school district believes that technology is a tool for learning and as a tool for learning schools need to teach proper use of this tool. As with most tools, chainsaws, drills, and lawn mowers for example, safety and proper instruction are important.
Access to technology in this district is like access to a textbook or a pencil or a notebook. They are an important part of classes, but theymust be treated with care.
When you use technology in this district, you agree to follow the rules and procedures listed below:
1. Treat equipment like you would your pet, family member, or video game console. As with any other piece of school equipment, you are responsible to pay for damages to it if they are intentional or careless.
2. You need to show responsibility with your computer, online andoffline. That includes but is not limited to:
a. Understanding the rules of the road and asking teachers when you don’t understand those rules.
b.Don’t share personal information for yourself or others online unless under the direct supervision of a teacher including pictures, addresses, full names, phone numbers.
c. Don’t do things online that you wouldn’t do in person, likename-calling, threatening or harassment.
d. DO NOT try to access websites or programs that are illegal, pornographic, or are not appropriate for school. If you think it might be, ask a teacher. Just because the filter didn’t ban you from it, doesn’t always mean that it is “OK” to go to.
e. Reporting any problems or inappropriate behavior to staff members immediately.
f. DO NOT under ANY circumstances attempt to bypass the school’s security or content filters. If you need to access something with educational value, see a staff member.


To helpsstudents make better choices with technology, you must complete a school-based on-line responsibility course before you will be given a school issued laptop.

Technorati Tags: k12online07 k12online07pc education aup internetsafety technology

Defining new borders: Part II

In part two of my series on rewriting the AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) of the future, I'm addressing the issue of teacher use of technology with an emphasis on encouraging creativity, risk taking, and exploring. I call it giving teachers "A License to Thrive"


Teachers, think of all of the possibilities that opened up for people with the invention of the car. The ability to travel long distances with ease: vacations, joy riding, drive-thrus, work opportunities. And with those possibilities came some concerns as well: traffic, smog, car crashes, road construction. What if we had not overcome those challenges and abandoned the car many years ago? How well would you do today without a driver's license? How would that limit the way you live your life? In many ways we have asked students to live their academic lives without something that is just as essential to them...technology.

But, you may say, people LEARN to drive. They get tested on the rules of the road, there are penalties for breaking those rules, and there are safety features built in to minimize risk. Technology should be no different... Therefore, here is our school district's technology policy with regard to teachers and students.

Teachers
5 Simple Rules of the Road

1. Teachers must obey all (internet) traffic laws. In other words, if it's against the law (in real life, don't do it online).
   
2. Teachers will yield to larger vehicles on the road (parents). If a parent wants to restrict use of their child's information online beyond the restriction's in the school's AUP, you must yield to them and make an acceptable detour for the student.
3. Know that even though the car has airbags, you are not invincible. Though our school has a content filter, this does NOT provide foolproof protection. Teacher and parent monitoring is the most effective means of providing for a safe trip.
4. You may not always know how to get there, but always know the reason for your trip. No one is expecting you to know where the detours might be, but you should know the general direction your headed in, and be able to explain to students and parents why this is better than walking and worth the gas money.
5. In this car, there is no reverse. The likelihood of abandoning technology as a learning tool is about as likely as reverting to horse-n-buggy, slates and cave wall paintings. Every once in awhile we might have to stop for directions, but the fact is, there's still a long way to drive.

Feeling overwhelmed? Well, don't worry, we've set you up with Driver's Ed, Insurance, and a professional test track.

• Driver's Education- Each educator will receive instruction on issues in internet safety including but not limited to
• Content Filter (How it works, How to use it, How and when to remove the roadblock)
• Online ethics (How to conduct yourself online, analyze sources and navigate information).
• Alphabet soup (Teacher's guide to FERPA, CIPA, AUP, C-Copyright and the rest of the alphabet)
• Insurance Policy- This is simply an assurance from the school district that we will support educators in their exploration of technology integration in accordance with our technology vision. We will...
• Support your use of technology tools by providing the tools that you need online and offline.
• We will support your vision by informing the public of the benefits of technology in our school, and how it can be used ethically and safely to benefit students.
• We will provide needs-based, on-going professional development with technology integration and support you in your efforts to explore this area with time, and available resources.
• Test Track- This is a safe, controlled area where you can "kick the tires" and explore technology tools to see if they are beneficial to your classroom. This will be...
• A teacher run group of educators who wish to explore new technology together.
• An environment to encourage risk taking as a group and personal reflection.
• A group that will have the real power to recommend new technologies for education and shape the future technology goals and vision of the the school district.
• Act as a virtual sandbox to test your tools before using them in the classroom or in public.

As a result of these efforts, we hope to truly provide you with a "License to Thrive."

Next post "Defining New Borders: Part III... the students."

Photo Credit Flickr User Nerdy Girl

Technorati Tags: k12online07pc aup internetsafety teachers technology education

Defining the new borders, Step 1

Image Generated at: http://www.glassgiant.com/back_to_school/

In the interest of trying to answer the question posted by Dave Warlick in his keynote at the K12 Online Conference (see my previous post) and trying to be proactive in how to extend the borders of my own classroom and school, I'm going to share some thoughts. I haven't deliberated on this a great deal but I think I've got to start somewhere and I welcome comments and criticism.

Several people in the chat reaction to Warlick's keynote cited the need to give teachers some freedom: freedom to explore this new world, freedom to be creative and bold, and most of all, freedom to fail knowing that their head will not roll for doing so. So, what is one of the obstacles that many teachers have to face in order to encourage these changes... The AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) in their schools. I have yet to see an AUP that fosters true exploration and creativity while simultaneously protecting students and the school. A good AUP needs to reassure parents, satisfy the needs of CIPA and FERPA, give teachers the professional control that they need, and the technology administrator (in that order). So, let me take a crack at it.

Assurance to Parents-
Understand that the school is using their best judgement to both keep your child safe and use technologies in a way to best educate your child for a more and more digital, ever-changing world. The school will safeguard information about your child (as outlined below) and you have the right, as a parent/guardian to insist upon more stringent restrictions at any time by contacting the school.

• Student personal information (full name, grades, medical information, social security information, telephone numbers or addresses) will not be shared with anyone outside of the school without your permission.
• The school will instruct students in internet safety and appropriate online behavior.
• The school will offer you, the parent or guardian an online safety course, free of charge, once a semester or on a continual basis as the need arises and technologies change.
• The school will maintain an informational website for parents to access if they are unable to attend the school online safety course that gives students and parents tips on online safety.
• Teachers will notify you if they intend to use photos or video of your child on a website accessible to the general public in which they are identifiable and, after contacting the teacher to share your concerns, you will have the chance to restrict your child's image from being used. At that time an appropriate alternative will be implemented.
• Internet access at school will be filtered to try to block content that is profane, lewd, illegal, or pornographic. However, no content filter is 100% effective at blocking everything and we feel that the education of you and your child, as well as monitoring of a teacher are the best way to keep students from accessing these sites.
• Decisions about other web tools, sites and computer programs are left largely to the discretion of the educator, and any concerns or questions you may have about tools or materials used during class should be directed initially to the child's teacher, then to school administration.

In my next post, I will share ideas for guidelines for safe teacher technology exploration....

Just a thought... Should I be posting this on a wiki to collaborate with people and add their thought and suggestions? Let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: internetsafety, aup, k12online07pc, technology, schools, education

Reflections on ACTEM's MainED '07

I went to ACTEM's annual computer technology conference for educators yesterday and I'm always amazed at how many "experts" there are among educators. It seems that every year there are more and more presentations put on by teachers and in some cases their students as well. It seems like there were fewer "sales pitch" kinds of sessions so kudos to the organizers.

I didn't come away from the MainEducation conference with any specific set of skills that I didn't know how to do before, but I did come out, as always, refocused and feeling supported. In the rural school in which I teach I may be one of a handful of teachers who has even heard the term "Web 2.0" for example, and I often feel the need to connect with others who are starting to truly understand why education needs to change and who are legitimately interested in the question of how it needs to change.

I do, however get frustrated when I think of the obstacles in place, for me and my district, that make this kind of change harder. I don't share these obstacles to put a damper on the conversation or to shirk my responsibility, I do so to hopefully enlist help from anyone would care to give it. I am going to do my best, within my own district to try to positively cultivate the changes I think need to happen in order to better serve our students.

So here's a list of obstacles... (bear with me through the negative parts).

1. Our filter, and more importantly the philosophy behind the way it is being used. Students and staff are routinely blocked from valuable sites and tools that would greatly benefit learning. I have been blocked from wikis, podcasts, blogs, video and image sites and many more in the past. This is not to say that we need every site unblocked (that would be impractical and inappropriate). But it is, nonetheless, an obstacle for teachers to overcome.
2. The idea that all student and staff creation, publication and information remain on our own server and in our control. A few years ago, I was blocked from my own website, which, at the time was only an easy way to update class links and information because, as I was told by my then principal, "The school has a website and server and work for education has to be housed there, not on your personal space." When I asked if I could only bring in newspaper articles, videos and books that were approved specifically by the district I was told that I was just trying to be negative.
3. Restriction of technologies to limit activities not related to work. More and more often I here the argument that staff in particular would simply squander their time on their laptops on E-bay, ESPN, and other sites for personal use. I don't think anyone would agree that school is an appropriate place to run your side business or update your MySpace page, but is tightening the screws on everyone the answer? If a teacher was playing solitaire outside of the technology realm and failing to meet the needs of their students, wouldn't that be just as concerning? Why don't administrators deal with these people individually and not use technology restrictions as a means to increase productivity.
4. Isolation or lack of support of teachers who want to take risks, be creative and try new things. Most teachers will tell you that trying something new in your classroom is a risk you take alone. Teachers have to learn to band together, to build communities to support each other, and to build an effective educational argument for the lifting of these restrictions. Administrators need to embrace these staff members and work closely with them to support their work and help them think of the possible pros and cons of what they are doing. Teachers need to "sell" their underlying instructional beliefs of a project to the school, not just complain that a particular piece of technology has been restricted.

I found this particular piece of advice offered by David Warlick in his response to the K12-Online Conference chat about his keynote presentation:

"at the same time that we need to be taking down traditional boundaries and creating more boundaries for new traction, setting walls for the safety of our children remains paramount. ..and this is a much bigger problem than that. It's not just a technical problem that can be solved technically. But that said, the problem that I see is in erecting those walls so far from the classroom. I think that we should respect the classroom teacher as the instructional leader of their domain, and give teachers the ability to open those walls up in times that are appropriate. If a teacher selects a resource, that they have evaluated, and then find that the web page is blocked, they should be able to open it up for their class appropriately, not appeal through channels to someone who has no vocational interest in instruction.

Dave's point here is well made. We can't just flick a switch and fix it. It's far too complex for that. I hope in following posts to be able to start proactively surmounting these obstacles in this forum and maybe even chronicling my efforts in real life.

I hope to get some much needed advice and support, so PLEASE comment and offer suggestions.

Photo Credit: www.actem.org

Technorati Tags: ACTEM DavidWarlick MainEducation07 k12online07pc k12online07 Maine Education Technology

Dave Warlick's K12Online Preconference Keynote

I have just finished viewing Dave Warlick's pre-conference keynote (you can too by clicking the video link here).

Here are some thoughts.

When hear Dave and many other people discuss the future of education, with or without a technology focus, I'm reminded of myself as a student in high school physics trying to grasp the concept of acceleration. Acceleration is a measurement that doesn't describe speed, as some students, including myself thought. It wasn't about how fast you are going in miles per hour or meters per second. It's actually a measure of the RATE OF CHANGE. I think that is what Dave Warlick is describing when he mentions being part of the last generation of young adults who, when looking at their parents, could see that as their future as well. I think that is what he is illustrating when he reviews the all important meter stick of 20th century information model-- the encyclopedia.


I think the central question in education for today and the future then becomes not "What can you learn?" but "How quickly do you learn something else?" In order to answer that question, I think students and teachers really need to know themselves as learners, inside and out. They need to know how to compare new knowledge and experiences with one's they've had before and see where the fundamental similarities and differences are. They also need to know how to sift through the scenery on this information superhighway to look for the sign posts that really matter to their journey.

When traveling on any journey your acceleration is totally useless without VELOCITY. Velocity does involve speed, but more importantly DIRECTION. If students and teachers are to be sucessful in the future, we need to be know what direction we are traveling in, be able to adjust if there's a detour, and not be scared to end up in the breakdown lane or get lost once in a while.

Dave outlines three convergences on education's future.

1. Info Savvy Students
2. New Informational Landscape
3. Unpredictable Future

If teachers are going to cope with these factors, they MUST be encouraged to take risks, explore, reflect, and LEARN. As a high school teacher, I know that most of my fellow colleagues are more content to avoid risks, better know the current patch of grass they've been standing on, and often times blame the students for not "getting it right the first time". Sadly, when looking around to see what our schools have to offer teachers who are willing to take these risks, the list is pretty short. Our district does offer support for professional development (conferences, coursework, and the occasional one day in school department meeting for curriculum development). However, for most teachers who want to try something new in their classroom, "You are on your own." Sadly the only time most teachers get recognized for trying something new and innovative in their classrooms is when they are spoken to about covering the curriculum or disturbing the technology department with requests to unblock sites.

What can schools and communities do to encourage students and teacher to accelerate their own learning, reflect on where they've been and plot a new course?

I have some ideas, but I'd like you hear yours as well.

Flickr Photo Credit

Technorati Tags: k12online07pc

Embarking on a new voyage...

Well, it's been a long time since I have posted but I have decided to revive this blog to react to a new experience I've had called the K12 Online Conference. This conference is a free conference that allows people from around the world to participate with some events in real time and other events and presentations archived on the web to be experienced at the viewers discretion. I'm going to make an effort to view many of the sessions here and comment or reflect on them to gain an interaction with other participants. We'll see how it goes.



Flickr Photo Credit: http://flickr.com/photos/degsyw/