I’ve virtually known Eric for several years. He was one of the very first k12 educators to have a podcast. Eric is a phenomenal social studies teacher, here in Missouri. He’s made several mentions of Web 2.0 and has given several examples of how he has used the Internet to connect his class with real experts. He convinced, via e-mail, one of the archeologists at the Jamestown excavation to interact with his class. His students became concerned, when a hurricane swept through the area. Their contact wrote back to them just after the storm explaining how they covered the dig. She wrote it from the floor of here kitchen, before the power was reconnected to her neighborhood.
Another connection was with two authorities on the Donner Party. His students held a debate about the guilt of the party leaders. He recorded their debate and e-mailed it to the authorities. They each sent back four pages of critique on each point that the students made. It’s about conversation!
Now this is interesting. Eric podcasted a phone interview with the author of a book that his classes were reading. He also had his student blog their conversations about the book. Interestingly, some of the parents and grand parents of his students read the book along with his students, and engaged in the blog discussions. Look back to my previous blog about School 2.0 and bouncing conversations out of the classroom and into communities.
Alas, I have to leave the session early for a conference call!
Before I shut down, Meg Ormiston did an amazing presentation about how we need to stop preparing students to be students, and prepare them, instead, for their future. Some great examples of students produced multimedia.
Dave
Thanks so much for sitting in on my presentation and posting about it on your blog. It was an honor to have you sit in on my session.
Eric