Beyond School

The short version? A net is a good idea. But it’s possible to walk away from a plunge without one now, too.

All that work on making the Google Earth tour of my live Skype presentation guests, begging those guests to kindly donate a bit of time to make it happen, and so forth. And then, ten minutes before the show begins, Skype Suffers a Major Outage.

It was wild, sitting onstage, laptop a-lap as the Apple speaker addressed the parents, quietly Skype-chatting the final details with everybody before we went live - and then seeing everyone’s Skype status go from green to gray. Rich, my principal, sat next to me and looked on. We opened the “Why 1:1?” presentation with Karl’s “Did You Know? 2.0” video, and Rich opened the night with a mention that, if all went well, its creator would drop in to say a few words.

So you can imagine the murmurs between Rich and me when Skype went down. (I’m far too grateful for, impressed by, devoted to, etc, Skype to say anything but “You rock anyway, and ‘Shift Happens’ in this world minus the ‘f’ sometimes too. Good luck with the global hiccup.” I’d be a rank ingrate to complain.)

So I closed the Google Earth, and went straight into the solo presentation that was supposed to follow it and the Skype. And in the midst of it - BAM - Patrick, Carolyn, and Doug return to life on Skype. So off we stagger into a conference call after all, minus the Google Earth Tour.

I’d set up the Skype as a “Let’s Pretend….” roleplay. “Let’s pretend I’m a student, and I’ve been given a research assignment on the pros and cons of 1:1 schools. In traditional schools, I’d go to the library and read three-year old books for the most current information. But in our school, now that we’re one-to-one, this is possible….” [Cue Google Earth and "21st c. education experts" on Skype. Record for podcast on GarageBand.] Since Skype was wonky, I hit “Start conference call” faster than you can say “wiki wiki,” and in a flash, Patrick and Doug spoke to our Korean parents in Seoul from Durham, UK, and Sparta, New Jersey, USA.

Then Carolyn’s turn came - and here’s my favorite moment of the night: I asked Carolyn what she would add to what Patrick and Doug had offered, and (I swear I’m laughing out loud as I type this), Carolyn said:

“Gee, I don’t know. I wasn’t supposed to be on this Skypecast. Your call woke me up. It’s six in the morning here. But I’ll try….”

And, sand in eyes and all, she gave a typically lucid answer. What a trooper. (By the way, Carolyn posted a “Back to School / Day One” post today that I hope you’ll read. You have the backstory now, and it’s somehow beautiful how Carolyn captures the euphoria of us edugeeks as we look forward to summer vacation’s end! And have I been out of the loop, or are librarian edubloggers suddenly surging into prominence in our universe?)

I’m zonked, so I’ll fit into this ramble an apology at this point for my horrible hosting of the Skype conference. I was rattled by the Skype flop. And I can’t thank all of you, present or knocked off-line, for your willingness to help.

Which leads me to the “unfalling with Web 2.0″ schtick in my title. I want to have a second go at the Google Earth Tour with Skype conference. All previous invitees are re-invited. We can schedule it at a more convenient time for all. I’ll film it onstage, and edit it into the video podcast as if it happened in real time: “unfalling from the tightrope.”

This is not about showbiz (okay, maybe a little, but only because it’s fun). It’s about evangelizing the pedagogy. I want parents to see the “Let’s Pretend” research paper idea - which I followed up with a Google Reader RSS folder labeled “del.icio.us tagged 1:1″ to show further 21st c. research muscle.

So….Karl, Patrick, Doug, Vivek, Westley, Konrad, Chris, (and Cindy, now that your flu is hopefully over) - expect an email soon. I hope you’ll play one more time.

Because with Web 2.0, sometimes life can be “a dress rehearsal.”