Will Richardson @ MICCA - read/write web

I'm at the MICCA conference today and I had the lucky pleasure to sit in on Will Richardson's Read/Write Web presentation. I saw his presentiaotn last year on RSS feeds and it literally changed the way I look at information and the possibilities for education.

His site for this presentation: http://willrichardson.wikispaces.com/

I took notes during the presentation, my comments are interwoven with quotes and ideas of Wills....

discussed limitations of physical space and how the web is erasing those problems through social networking

surfthechannel.com - service collecting links to pirated shows and movies - not advocating its use *wink*

children going from a filtered environment at school to an unfiltered env. @ home and not knowing what to do, how to act

lack of creativity in pulic schools, prescribed curriculum

showed his cluster map from his blog - I thought of Warlick's cluster
he mentioned that every visitor to his blog was potentially his teacher and how you can't do that in physical space

fanfiction.com - social site relating to literature, mentioned that these tools are not being used in schools. how could they be used when you can't control the content? teaching smart security is one thing but you can't control the content. you can tell them to look away but the first glance will still happen. parents will not accept that.

using phone as a text finder - "all" students have these devices, why not teach them how to use them as an educational tool? have to start in early grades, can't expect students who've used them inappropriately for 6 or 7 years to all of a sudden use them in an educationally appropriate way.

MIT Open Courseware - sharing knowledge, content is everywhere. teach students how to find it, vet it (this site happens to be worthy content but not all sites share that distinction), find others who are also passionate about it, and they can build their own learning using new tools.

wikipedia - "collaborative construction of truth"
Colbert's "truthiness" - truth is what we feel is true, not what is actually true
kids are going to be creating content but without us teaching them to check their facts, ideas, find and use worthy sources

google docs running with skype at the same time, just like sittign next to another person who shares their interests

teach them to find up to date info rather than memorize info - example of memorizing # of planets.

errors in text books - problem is not that there are errors, it is that we or they can't fix it. so why still have text books????

getting outside the classroom - thinwalled classrooms. skype to bring outside resources in.
scratch from MIT?
having a network of anyone, kid 13 y.o. from perth teaching will's kids using skype !!!!! anyone can be a teacher.

"if you have a computer in the room you are no longer the smartest person in the room."

physical space is not where the best learning takes place. don't get rid of teachers, physical space is still important, but we need to tap into outside resources to access the best learning.

the "friday folder" - all the paper in the world coming home but kids will never look at them again -->
willowdale elementary - willowweb - podcasting - authentic assessments and activities

spoke about the people who don't get the need to change or are unable to affect the change. so, think about it differently. connect with other people, get more dots on your map. presentation was running on weblogged-tv - proved that people are getting together to discuss interests that are common to the group.

*applause*