The New Shape of Information

Next week, on July 26 and 27, my district will host a workshop on the new shape of information and how blogs, wikis, RSS, del.icio.us et. al. will reshape the identity of teaching and learning. We'll take two days to introduce a number of outstanding teachers from our district (as well as several other nearby districts) to these tools, use these tools to drive the workshop, and in the end, hopefully, develop a vision and a pathway for the implementation of these tools within our respective situations. This workshop, at least for our district, will represent the beginnings of a collaborative dialogue to identify how these tools will be used to create dynamic learning environments for students. I'm very excited about this, as are the participants, because it we have the good fortune of having David Warlick join us for two days to facilitate the process. We are certainly looking forward to his contribution as I know he will challenge the perspectives of all.

We are deliberately preceding with caution. The experiences of others suggest this is a wise course. But we'll get there, and hopefully this upcoming week will be a springboard. I find my self being ultra-conservative about the use of blogs and wikis with kids, although I'm typically not that way. I'm from Chicago, where we make no small plans, right? But this stuff is too powerful, too cool, and potentially has a chance to change how we educate kids, and how kids view their education, that I want to do it right. So, we start Tuesday.