Once Upon A School
An awesome, inspiring talk by Dave Eggers, calling for us to take action and volunteer to help in education.
Take part, and make a difference by checking out Once Upon a School. Anyone can do it.
The Collaboration Trend
Yesterday, I wrote about how power is shifting. I just wanted to carry on that theme a bit.
I think in general, there’s a huge trend starting, a shift from one authority figure to a collaboration model. It’s happened with journalism and blogs, hollywood and youtube, etc. Now it’s happened in conferences. And scientists are saying that science is headed in that direction too.
Is it a good thing? Personally, I think it is. I like the trend toward collaboration. I like how the playing field is being leveled, and how a 17 year old like me can interact with the likes of Mitch Joel and Chris Brogan.
I think this trend empowers the average individual. We’re seeing a power shift towards the average user. The average person can now interact and contribute in ways that were never before possible. And it undoubtedly empowers groups to do more.
But as we all know, “with great power comes great responsibility”. I think it’s a great trend, but we have to be careful not to misuse the technology.
On a side note, do you think this power shift will happen in education? I, for one, would love to see that happen – a power shift towards students.
What do you think?
Educators are Entrepreneurs
Debbie Cavalier has a good post about why Music Educators are Entrepreneurs.
Simply stated, an entrepreneur is someone who identifies a “need” or a problem, and then figures out a solution. Of course, comprehensive goals, strategies, and execution plans must be developed and implemented in order to achieve success with any entrepreneurial endeavor, but it all begins with a “need.”
It’s a great post, but just as I commented there, I think that holds true for all educators, not just music ones.
So, to all you educators out there. What needs are you addressing? What possibilities can you explore?
Web 2.0 in Education
After watching the webcast of the TEDPrize talks this morning, I checked out Once Upon a School, and saw this idea: Help a school develop a useful website presence.
That got me thinking. I’m not sure about America, but over here in Singapore, most schools don’t have much of a web presence. And most schools aren’t making the most of web tools. And reading that basically got me thinking about how schools could make better use of web (or Web 2.0) tools.
The first idea that came to mind is Twitter. Those of you who are on Twitter (and if you’re not, you really should be) would have seen how it has been used during the Superbowl, the Oscars, and even during Podcamps and various events. It provides a way to have live discussions – live ‘commentary’, if you will – about the ongoing event. Couldn’t we transfer the way Twitter is used in Podcamps to the education system – for use during lectures, for example?
That’s just the first, most instinctive idea that came to mind. What do you think? And what other ways do you think schools can make use of Web 2.0 tools?