Beyond School

I’ve been quiet this week because life hasn’t been. We’re in our first week of school as a 1:1 Apple Laptop school; I’m in my first week as Tech Coordinator / AP Literature teacher; our IT Manager is in his first week managing the Apple Servers at school (poor guy); I’ve been wasting time doing “schooly” homework for that blasted UCLA online AP workshop; and tomorrow night (GMT +9 in Seoul, Thursday 16 AUG 07), we’re giving . . . .

A “Why 1:1?” Parent Presentation. You’re Invited (If….)

Here’s the plan: after the principal gives his speech, and Apple Asia’s representative gives his, I’ve got a half-hour or so to give a presentation.

I’m going to steal Patrick Higgins’ idea and employ that old English teacher’s advice to “show, don’t tell” our parents this new world. Patrick hosted Carolyn Foote, Konrad Glogowski, and me in a staff PD blogging workshop / podcast last month on Skype, and he deserves the flattery of my theft of his idea.

So I’ve made a Google Earth “fly around the world” tour of schools and educators in my network. Each of those educators has agreed to show the parents our Cool New World by joining me in a live Skype conference call for a quick, 5 minute “hello” and “expert voices” interview based on the simple (?!) question, “What can a 1:1 school offer your child that traditional schools can’t?”

Since the presentation will be in our beautiful school theater-auditorium, I’ve created a Google Earth tour of each Skype-guest’s school to project on our Big Screen on stage. Skype will share that screen with Google Earth, and so will GarageBand. The plan is to go round-robin to allow each guest to give his/her 60 seconds or less of “expert testimony,” and “fly” on Google Earth to his/her school as each speaker speaks.

I’ve already enlisted the following people from the following places:

• Kim Cofino from International School Bangkok
• Westley Field from Australia
  
• Chris Watson from Punahou High School, Honolulu
• Karl Fisch from Arapaho High School, Littleton/Denver, Colorado
• Patrick Higgins from Sparta High School, Sparta, New Jersey

I’d like to add New Zealand, Japan, Canada, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South Asia!

So if you read this in time (by 0800 GMT on Thursday, 16 August - just add or subtract the +/- digit of your time zone’s GMT) to leave a reply with your Skype username (or add me to your contacts: I’m cburell) and school name and address (or, better, co-ordinates), come on in. It’s easy enough for me to add your school to the Google Earth World Tour. (And yes, that’s the clumsiest sentence I’ve ever written. Okay, I’m lying: it’s typical. Sorry.)

The entire presentation will be filmed and video-podcasted. I’d love to have all interested parties - especially long-time “lurkers” on this blog (yes, Doug Belshaw, I’m talking about you join in. It’s “getting to know you” with a purpose. (If you prefer, you can email me at clayburell [at] gmail [dot] com.)

Video or only audio chat - no problem. Just drop in and help us have some fun.