I just finished reading Erin Armstrong's blog, S1 Math and I LOVE her blog! She has two grade 9 classes and each class makes up a name which they use in interclass competitions. Their names are "Flamingo Souffles" and "Octopus Brownies." Erin created this story about aliens landing desperately in need of knowing all about operations on polynomials. Her kids are the experts and they save the day.

The adventure begins with The Aliens Have Landed and the students save the day with Aliens... HEAR MY WISDOM!! and Multiplying Polynomials.

Erin insists that the kids use proper spelling and grammar and they have to vet each other's work for errors.

Now that there are two of us doing this in the same building there are some real implications for the future which Erin has already alluded to on her blog. Kids who graduate from her class will arrive in their next class with a very different set of expectations about how to learn math. More than this, as blogging becomes a matter of course the opportunities for learning by linking blogs across the grade levels will grow exponentially. Kids will have access to a wealth of free information, resources and online tutoring that will not only change the definition of what it means to be a teacher but what it means to be a student.

Now stretch this idea a little further. What will the face of teaching and learning look like when we link between blogs not just within a school, but across the globe? Students from Winnipeg learning with and from their peers in Alabama, Australia, Belgium, England, Scotland, India, China and Japan. Anne would say "the possibilities are limitless!" For me, the mind boggles.