Flickr, and Wikis, and Blogs.......Oh My!

Spent a terrific day at the Mid-Hudson NYSCATE Conference
Some great people there. Good organization. And resting on top of all this was Will Richardson as the keynote!
Will's understanding of the sweeping changes that these new tools offer is something that should be available first-hand to all educators. Throughout his keynote he gave us ways in to this new space: "Age of Authorship"; "Push vs. Pull Education"; "Hand it In vs. Publish It"; "Teacher as DJ". All these handles of doors to new ways ended with his final question: "What are you willing to trade from your old classroom?"
It's a question that allows us room to let the familiar live as long as we need it, but doesn't allow us to ignore the possibilities that now stand before us.

A quick lunch and Will was back with a 2 hour workshop on "RSS-The New Killer App for Educators". This was a high octane sprint through the basics of rss (Real Simple Syndication) through a Bloglines aggregator; to provide updated search results; to subscribe to weblogs among some of its uses. Then it was on to Flickr, Del.icio.us, Furl and Suprglu. He was anticipating "glazed eye syndrome", but most stayed in with him to the end, though some were a bit out of breath.
It's events like these that can bring new life to teacher's development. While it's wonderful that organizations like NYSCATE provide this opportunity, you have to ask - what could our schools be like if this need was recognized and incorporated into the fabric of systems of education like public schools? What if schools were places of learning for everyone-not only the young ones? Wondrous things are about if only we open new doors. I saw a few of them today. Thanks Will!