My interest in these topics has heightened since January 1. As part of a newly formed school division, there is quite a buzz and excitement around the possibility of real change. I've been utilizing many of your postings and ideas and others to advance the concepts of Web 2.0 et. al to the decision makers of our school district. I think many are listening. I'm trying very hard to present the right mix of innovation and ideas that will realistically be considered as vehicles of change.

Listening to the podcast, I'm almost audibly shouting "AMEN!" to much of the discussion. For me it's going to be a very important 6 months of work as we begin to lay out the principles and values that will shape our new school division. Your contributions to my learning is appreciated.

Likewise Dean.

This is an exciting time to be restructuring a school division. I'm honoured to hear my work and writing has been helpful. Keep us up-to-date on your blog, I always look forward to reading your blog postings; I'm one of your most avid readers. ;-)

I just finished listening to the podcast, and I continue to be amazed and impressed that educators from around the world, in different disciplines, and with different interests are all saying very similar things about what needs to happen for students to be successful. I am part of a group working with the Alabama Best Practices Center and 21st Century Schools, and we are grappling with the same questions and concerns. I am sharing the podcast and links to all of your blogs with the group, and I am sure we will use this as a resource as we determine how to excite teachers in Alabama about the potential of educational technology.

I especially liked the discussion about merging curriculum and technology. I agree that technology is there to enhance curriculum. It loses its meaning when it is isolated from the curriculum. I could also identify with your concern for teachers who are overwhelmed by the demands of high-stakes testing.

I appreciate the four of you taking the lead and sharing your thoughts with the rest of us. Keep up the good work!

It is quite a thrill to have stimulated some discussion across the globe with our conversation last night, Darren. I return your compliments on how professional and excellent the discussion was. I am still kind of amazed all the technology worked as well as it did! Always good to have a positive initial experience with a new technology, skypecasting a conference call is no different. I didn't chime in on this during the talk, but I think your idea about mentor teachers serving as coaches to other teachers for technology integration is THE BEST MODEL for more broadly encouraging ICT integration. I understood what Miguel was saying about campus technology teachers in Texas getting more caught up in technology rather than pedagogy, but I think it is that focus that needs to change, rather than the idea chucked out. I also agree that we need to merge curriculum and instruction with technology, rather than treating technology as a separate discipline and topic. The lesson of using campus-based teachers to mentor/coach others really came through in a video I created several years ago about Lewisville ISD, which is in the Dallas area. Of course the issue of systemic educational reform is multi-faceted, and no single approach is sufficient. The leadership / vision piece is also critical. And giving teachers EXPERIENCES with these tools and working to let students be the grassroots voices who demand more uses of these tools are also on the right track.

Looking forward to our next conversation!!!

Mrs. Simpson: Thanks for the positive feedback. I'm glad you're able to use our chat to help others move the discussion forward.

You folks in Alabama have started on some really exciting work. I think we're going to see many examples from your district of students and teachers using technology in pedagogically meaningful ways.

Wes: Your enthusiasm is contagious. Thanks for including me as a node on your network. ;-)

I think we see eye-to-eye on these issues:

(1) Historically in edtech the technology has driven the pedagogy -- it really has to be the other way around.

(2) We need to put these tools in the hands of the students!

(3) We need models to learn from. Master teachers who focus on pedagogy first, technology second. Who have the technological knowledge to leverage technological solutions for enhancing pedagogy. Who freely share the wealth of that knowledge in a global learning community.

(I feel like saying: "I have a dream!" Kind of appropos for this weekend. ;-))

Thanks Ewan! I updated the show notes.

Darren,

Can you expand a bit on the areas of disagreement?

Hi Dean,

For the most part I think the four of us didn't have any disagreements.

There was one point in the discussion, when we were discussion question #3 about repurposing edtech budgets, I had misheard Miguel, spoke up and said "But we don't have technology integration." When I went back to listen to the podcast a second time to make the shownotes I realized that we were saying the same thing. I said as much when the "mic" was turned over to me.

At the end of the conversation though, we had a genuine disagreement. Specifically about how to orchestrate teachers professional development in connection with the read/write web. (See mine and Wes' comments above.) Miguel didn't feel this would be an effective format for PD. I think it will have a powerful impact on current and future teachers. I also have some ideas about teacher training but maybe we should save that for the next podcast. ;-)