Great Day in Kennesaw

So here is the not so subtle change that’s happening when teachers learn about the Read/Write Web and the tools that they can bring into their classrooms. As little as six months ago, there was a sense of “yeah, but” resignation in terms of not being able to really implement these tools in effective ways because of blocking/filtering, lack of support, lack of understanding, etc. But yesterday in Kennesaw, despite the many “challenges” that the 25 or so teachers in the room acknowledged were staring them in the face, there was anything but resignation. Instead, they were e-mailing their superintendents asking them to unblock sites that they have no access to, asking how to save locally or to usb drives or to Furl all of the sites that are being blocked so they could share them with their kids anyway, or trying to figure out the best ways to start using the tools despite the roadblocks. It was pretty cool to be a part of.

Two highlights: Anne Davis, who today gets to undo the damage I did yesterday, showed up just after lunch and we got a few minutes to catch up and compare notes. I know the group is going to be totally blown away by what Anne shows them in terms of classroom use, and I wish I could be there to sit in. It was great to see her again. Second, we had about a 15-minute Skype conversation with George Seimens who happened to be “stuck” in a café in Innsbruck, Austria nestled between two giant alps which, horrors of all horrors, was playing havoc with his connection. The call was crystal clear regardless, and really drove home the point of how our classrooms can extend all over the world. And it was just a lot of fun to boot.