The One Room Schoolhouse...

I finally completed my online version of The One Room Schoolhouse-Creating Community in the Digital Age. This presentation was given at the Illinois Technology Conference as a spotlight session and was very well received. Its about all the new tools out there to build community and the power of community as a learning environment. The presentation talks about the strength of weak ties, Blackboard (yes, even Blackboard), Malcolm Gladwell, school districts in Alaska and Michigan, and ditto machines. The stars of the story of course are blogs, wikis, RSS, del.icio.us and furl, not to mention Flickr thrown in for good measure. It's about a half an hour-give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Here is the conference description:

In the one room schoolhouses of the past, community was narrowly defined, composed of students from families over a limited geographical area. However, in today’s digital world, community is not necessarily defined by geography but by shared, common interest. Today’s typical student has the power to connect globally to their own personally-defined network and to interact with people and ideas in a way that was unimaginable ten years ago. With this in mind, this session will explore the power of community as a learning environment, why community is critically important for today’s student, and how learning can be extended by leveraging the natural affinity of students for digital environments. Learn about the tools and instructional techniques that are available to you to increase the connections between students that result in higher levels of engagement, creativity and productivity, and that empower you to literally create a globally-connected one room schoolhouse.