WEB 2.0 ... What is it?

Well... We hear this term, WEB 2.0, used allot these days but what is it really? Is it a thing, something tangible? mmm... Not really but guess what? Your experiencing it right now.

Wikipedia's short and skinny version reads:

"It is a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users."

10 years ago, the world wide web was a static holding tank of information. The content was updated only by webmasters who controlled those sites. Today's web has evolved into something much more dynamic.

A comment from someone on YouTube in response to a video explaining Web 2.0 wrote:

"Web 2.0 is a buzzword that no one has the same definition for, even experts. It's is more of an abstract than concrete. It's about the way the web is evolving and changing toward providing more interaction with users, making users the content generators - but then, it's also about design. So web 2.0 encompasses not only the interactive content but also that sleek, minimalist shiny design you all see."

Here is a video that helped me learn more about Web 2.0. It's a bit fast, and slightly hard to follow, but it's the best one I could dig up (today).



Now imagine what the web will be like for our children and students 10 years from now. It begs questions to me like: "Are we doing everything we can to prepare our children for the web of tomorrow, or the web we know today?" and "How do we prepare our children for something that doesn't exist yet?" or "How can we teach or help create content generators?"

I don't know or have the answers for either of these questions but it does make me think of the last seven words of any dying organization: "We have always done it that way."

Just a thought! I would love to hear your comments and I hope you found this informative, and thought provoking as well.

Google Earth: A Joystick for Learning

OK.... Just a quick post about a website I learned about today from TechLearning. The folks over at Apple Learning Interchange (Yes... Apple)have a great site to show you how to integrate Google Earth (the incredible free resource) seamlessly into daily lessons.

Click the link and enjoy!

Google Earth: Small World, Your World, Our World -
A Teacher's Guide to Google Earth for the 21st Century Classroom

Great Stuff! I hope you find this as useful as I have.

SoftChalk Lessons are now ALIVE!

A few years back, we created an intranet (not internet) of sorts for Beauvoir and called it BVRWEB. It was supposed to be used as a place to get and share information with other teachers and or staff. There was some professional development and references for Global Studies as well as quotes of the day and standard operating procedures for Technology. Well... it never really took off, and was kind of swept under the rug.

Soooo, it is being introduced once again. This time as a portal to the Tech Blog, (hey that's this site :) HelpDesk, and best of all, (drumroll please)... all of those SoftChalk lessons that everyone has been working so hard on.

Please remember that because this is an intranet, it cannot be accessed while away from Beauvoir, (just like the helpDesk) unless you are connected through the VPN.

If you can think of any other creative ways that we may be able to use BVRWEB, please don't hesitate to send us your suggestions, and we will see what we can do to help make them happen.

Coming Soon To A Surface Near YOU!

OK , so I have been following the progress of this project for over a year now, and it seems like it's finally turning into a reality. Not exactly how I would have hoped, but for now, it's a start.

Later this month, 12 AT&T Wireless stores in 4 US cities will be the starting point for a new computing platform called Surface Computing, developed by Microsoft.

If you are unfamiliar with it, take a few minutes to watch this video. You might be amazed. :) (please ignore the wierd "mushroom music" in the beginning and end of the video. It is about 5 min long in total but worth it!)


After watching the video, you can see that the possibilities of this platform are endless. I am sad to see it make it's debut as a marketing tool however, I can only assume that it will begin to surface (pun intended) in homes and schools in the near future.

Can you imagine having a few friends over the house and sharing photos from your recent trip to [insert your favorite vacation spot here], literally on the coffee table? All of you sifting through and manipulating the media simultaneously, without a mouse or keyboard or stylus for that matter.

Even better, imagine this in a classroom... of any kind. I could not even speculate what the imagination of a child, native born in the age of technology, could do with this.

So... I will let you speculate, go to The Beauvoir Tech Blog and leave a comment to this post, how you think this could be used in a classroom. C'mon and get those creative juices flowing, I wanna hear some off the wall ideas! please don't reply to the email that this post automatically generates. Visit the Blog and Comment... Please.

Thanks!

Are you looking for Technology Professional Development? Look no further!

Do you know the way to San Jose... um... I mean... San Antonio?

I just wanted to take a minute to share this opportunity with those of you who are seeking Technology Professional Development for this summer. The 29th annual National Educational Computing Conference put on by ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) is the largest "EdTech" conference in the USA. It is attended by over 18,000 educators from all over the US and some international visitors too.

Last year, the conference was held in Atlanta. Roya, Andrea, Atanas, and I all attended, and it was amazing. They have some of the best Keynote speakers and the best sessions and workshops of any conferences that I have been to. You may just run into some folks like Alan November, or Daniel Pink, or Kathy Schrock, or David Warlick, or David Thornburg, or my favorite Mitch Resnick just to name a few.

I hope that some of you can have a chance to attend this conference, It is as much fun as it is inspiring! You can click on the logo above to find out more information.

Thanks, and keep those comments coming!

11 Year Old Student in Charge of IT at Arkansas School

You have got to love a story like this!

The Victory Baptist School in Sherwood, Arkansas has made 11 year old Jon Penn, the Network Administrator of the schools 60 computer network. Jon has been at it for nearly a year, since the previous IT person just up and quit one day, leaving the network and all of it's hardware a complete mess for someone else to clean up.

Not only has this kid stepped up to the challenge and cleaned up their network and it's hardware but he has also implemented a firewall for security and SPAM and Virus protection. This may just be the geek in me talking but this kid ROCKS, however, does make me feel slightly insecure :) Move over Billy G... Jon Penn is moving on up!

I would definitely love to hear your comments about this, so remember... Visit http://beauvoirtech.blogspot.com/ and click on the comments at the end of the post!

I hope you enjoyed this little post :)

You can click on his picture to get to the original post from Engadget.