Will Teaches Web 2.0

I spent all day Friday at a workshop at the Science Leadership Academy listening to Will Richardson, author of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms talk about just that - blogs, wikis, RSS and podcasting.

The two day workshop was called Will Teaches Web 2.0. In addition to meeting Richardson, I met several other leaders in the School Meets Web Movement like Steve Hargadon of EdTech Live, George Mayo, a very hip and innovative writing teacher from Montgomery County, Maryland, Patrick Higgins and David Gorecki from Sparta Middle School in New Jersey (see Writing The City) and Christian Long, President & CEO of DesignShare.
All of the workshop attendees got to meet the principal of the Science Leadership Academy, Chris Lehman and his bright staff of teachers, who joined the workshop later that afternoon.

The workshop was eight hours well spent. Richardson shared a ton of information with us including his thoughts on the powerful conversations taking place with students and professionals through the use of blogs, wikis and podcasting. He also spoke in astonishing terms about the enormity of Google - in particular Google Reader and Google Docs.

I took a lot of notes, asked questions and listened closely to Richardson, principal Lehman and the others in attendance. I think everyone took away a few new ideas to share with their students and colleagues on Monday morning. I learned a little more about Google Reader such as how to set up an advanced news search and how to browse and discover feeds using the Google feed bundles.

I'm sorry none of my colleagues from New Media Tech attended the workshop. In fact, there were no teachers at all from the Philly School District in attendance. I found that really odd for such an important workshop. The attendees came from as far away as Los Angeles, Wisconsin, Texas, New Jersey and Maryland.

The workshop absolutely lit a spark in me. I have a clearer understanding now of the importance of transparent classrooms, web based applications and global connections. I discovered that my colleague base can be local, national or international, concurrently, from my desktop, my cell phone, or my iPod.

Thanks again to Will Richardson, Chris Lehman, Steve Hargadon and all the bright and inspiring individuals I met on Friday. I can't wait to do it again.

H. Songhai
2/4/07