Beyond School

They listened to me–the school’s owner, superintendent, admissions director, elementary and high school principal–they listened to me. For three hours, they listened.

They stepped out of their comfort zones with words like “RSS,” “aggregator,” “feed,” “blogs,” “wikis,” “web 2.0,” “21st century literacy,” “the read-write web,” “podcasting,” “digital storytelling,” “vlogs,” on and on.

They processed these things, reflectively and collaboratively, in discussions throughout those hours. It was exciting to listen to them finding the time and space to focus on what schools could (should?) be in the post-Gutenberg Age.

In the end, they agreed to support an experiment: the formation of a cadre of teachers, volunteering to learn and integrate basic read-write web competencies in their classroom instruction–with the aim of turning students into digitally-literate producers and managers of information.

We’re launching a small version of the cohort this second semester, and expanding it next school year.

So here’s the helpful commentary I’d love to see. Two questions:

1. What tools and practices would be top priorities for introduction to students (we have wireless laptop carts, and I already plan on installing such basics as Firefox, Audacity, Diigo, Bloglines).
2. What “model class websites” would you share with teachers from elementary, middle school, and high school classrooms around the world to show what’s possible?

PS. Coolest immediate after-effect: The admissions director has already asked how he can set up a blog to communicate to the school community, and bought a book on blogging at the local bookstore. Too cool.

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