Shared Vision and Web 2.0

I'm teaching an online course this fall at Gratz College. The course is on organizational development and Web 2.0. One of the lectures focuses on "Shared Vision," as defined by Peter Senge. Senge writes, "At its simplest level, a shared vision is the answer to the question, "what do we want to create?"" The important words here are "we" and "create". As I'm developing this lecture I'm thinking about the incredible role that Web 2.0 can play in the development of shared understanding and vision.

A Short Comment Can Mean a Lot

Unfortunately, I fight depression. Sometimes I just get down and it's hard to pick myself up. Anyone who's ever had depression knows the feeling. Well this morning I was feeling a bit down and then I received a comment from Teresa Gersham about a post that I put up in June, What is 21st Century Knowledge. Read her comment, it explains that my post resonated for her after an interaction with a 10th grade class during the first week of school. It's funny how a little comment can make me cheer up. It's empowering to hear that I can say something that means something to somebody else.

So what's the point?

Just as Ms. Gersham had the power to make me feel a bit better today, we all have the power to make people feel good. As the school year gets going, let's remember that it's important to share compliments with our students. This year I might even try to offer a specific number of compliments a day. Just a thought!!

Box.net

My girlfriend’s twelve year old son, Michael, is a wonderful kid. He’s incredibly funny and sensitive. But, he could be the most disorganized kid in the city. This past summer at camp he lost his shoes. He came home wearing two left shoes. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he has a hard time keeping track of his homework. Sometimes he leaves it in school. Other times he completes it at home but forgets to bring it back. You’ll probably agree that Michael isn’t the only kid who’s got these kinds of issues.

This morning I learned that there’s a new Web 2.0 company that can help resolve these issues for Michael, Box.net. Box.net is an online storage system. The system allows you to upload files, share files with others, and collaborate online. The Wall Street Journal recently listed the company as one of the top ten things that an IT department won’t tell you about.

Karen Appleton, Box.Net’s Vice President for Business Development told me that the program currently has more than one million users. She added that every Fortune 1000 company is represented by at least one person. The company offers a free account with 1 GB. A 5 GB system costs $80 for the year and a 15 GB system costs $199.05 for the year. These prices seem pretty reasonable. Appleton stressed that paid accounts have increased functionality and benefits.

Appleton explained that the company’s mission is to become a data platform where files are accessible and sharable allowing for collaboration anytime, anywhere. She emphasized that she believes that technology users are increasingly recognizing the importance of online storage.

Towards the end of our conversation I told Appleton that I’m glad I’ll no longer have to buy Michael thumb drives. I can’t even remember how many he went through last year. It’ll be nice to know where Michael’s work is, on Box.net. Even if he doesn’t remember it, I’m pretty confident that his teachers and mother will remember the site.

Common Goals Systems, Inc.

Mike Xakellis, founder of Common Goal Systems, Inc., couldn't figure out why his coaching colleagues suddenly stopped preparing for wrestling practice and returning messages. These coaches were typically well prepared and on the ball but every six weeks something changed. Finally, Xakellis, a veteran of the late '90s Internet bubble, asked his colleagues what was going on. As teachers, his coaching colleagues were preoccupied with the paperwork that comes periodically during the school year, calculating grades, filling out report cards and more.

Xakellis recalls being amazed that teachers had to occupy themselves with paper work when so much of it could be computerized. In 2001, a year after he began coaching, Xakellis founded Common Goal Systems, Inc. He explains that the purpose of this company is to make the lives of teachers easier. Rather than focusing on things that can be completed with technology, he wants teachers to be able to spend their time interacting with and teaching students. The company provides services such as gradebook automation, curriculum mapping, standards alignment, and lesson plan hosting. When teachers use these services they can easily communicate with students, parents, and even colleagues.

As I was interviewing Xakellis I wondered why a separate company had to exist to provide these services that could certainly be provided by multiple other Web 2.0 tools. But then I recognized, most teachers don't use Web 2.0. Most have no idea how to use wikis or collaborative databases. Common Goals Systems makes this easy. They have to. For, business continuity depends upon subscription renewal. More importantly, their success promotes quality instruction. I predict that the company will have a bright future.

Take a closer look at this company, here.

Symbolics.com

How many of you have ever visited Symbolics.com? How many have ever heard of it?

According to a post on the blog, Life and Times, Symbolic .com was the first web domain to ever be registered. Actually this post lists the first 100 domains to be registered.

I thought it was pretty cool.

NBC and HotChalk Team Up

Edward Fields, the CEO of HotChalk, just sent me this video clip about a joint venture that HotChalk has with NBC News. See the next blog entry for more information.

NBC and HotChalk Team Up to Provide Resource

This morning I had the opportunity to participate in a conference call with NBC's vice president of educational services, Nicola Soares, and HotChalk CEO, Edward Fields.

Wow, is all I have to say. NBC has teamed up with Hotchalk, an educational resource provider, to open its vast archives to the educational community. This is truly Web 2.0 at it's best. The archive is carefully tagged and contains an efficient search tool. Teachers can develop their own lessons to accompany these short video segments. Obviously, they can be posted. But, HotChalk has already provided numerous learning resources. Teachers can also list assignments and due dates on a user friendly interface accessible to both teachers and students.

This service is free until the beginning of 2008. NBC will then charge a nominal fee to schools that choose to access the archive.

It's simple. Register for a free account at HotChalk and then start exploring. Oh, I sure hope you have self-discipline. If you don't it might be hard to leave your computer. For a news junkie like myself playing on this site was like a kid playing in a candy store.

Reuters Embedded in my Living Textbook

I'm really excited. I just got permission from Reuters to embed their news video feed in my living textbook. Many teachers like showing their students video clips. They can now do so from my living textbook. I'm very interested in hearing ideas as to how I can continue to improve this living textbook.

Take a look at it.

OnlyBusiness.com

Do you remember when lemonade stands used to be the popular children's business? I'll never forget standing outside of my childhood home and selling small paper cups of lemonade as people slowly drove by. It was the beginning of an entrepreneurial career.

Well, I'm not sure if kids still run lemonade stands. But, they don't have to. The new Internet portal OnlyBusiness.com allows them to set up real online businesses. Of course the portal is not only for children. It really caters to adult businesses that want to have an online presence. Business owners can develop their website including point of sale, manage contacts, develop their calendar and much more online. I recently had the opportunity to speak with OnlyBusiness.com CEO Daniel Meyerov. He explained that amongst other things participation in this portal will entitle business people to take advantage of bulk discounts that the company will negotiate on their behalf.

Meyerov explained that the business community may be outgrowing EBay. Unlike OnlyBusiness.com, EBay does not allow it's clients to develop their own websites. Rather EBay stores are embedded within the larger website.

After I developed a test website, I knew one thing for sure. It's incredibly easy to use the OnlyBusiness.com platform.

Take a look at it and let me know what you think. Better yet,ask your students what they think about this website.

Virtual School Symposium 2007

Has anybody ever attended the Virtual School Symposium? It's sponsored by the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL). The conference is being chaired by the director of the Indiana Virtual Academy, Dr. Fred Sagester. I don't know a whole lot about the conference, but I do know that NACOL is a very high quality organization. It's director, Susan Patrick, is the former director of educational technology at the USDOE. Let me know if you are planning on attending and maybe we can met up. It's being held November 4-6 in Louisville.

The Web No Beginning No End

So today, I was thinking about the difference between reading a magazine in hard copy and reading it online, from a student's perspective. Obviously magazine editors place articles in specific orders which have specific meaning. But does order lose relevance on the Internet? What would an Internet with order look like?

A New Question

Last night I came up with what I hope is a really neat idea. I'm going to ask individuals making the news to pose one question for students across the world to think about. Given the ease at posting these questions, made available with Web 2.0 tools, the questions should be relevant and timely. I've already contacted new CEO of Chrysler, Bob Nardelli, and Rich Stanek, the sheriff of Hennepin County, MN the location of the horrible bridge collapse. Hopefully they'll provide questions. These questions will be posted on the front page of my living textbook. Today I posted a question that Executive Vice President of MyLifeBrand.com, Daniel Scalili asked.

Comments on a Static Web Page

All weekend long I've been looking for a way to post comments on my living-textbook. Since I'm not very good with coding this was a challenge. But, I've learned that when I look hard enough I can typically find that somebody else has already made what I want. Thanks to JS-Kit for the coding. Take a look at the front page of my living textbook that has the comment form.

Cell Phone Lesson Plans

I have now spent nearly two hours trying to find high quality lessons in which students use cell phones to complete learning objectives. I have not found very many. I guess I'm going to have to develop some of my own. I'll put them on my Living-Textbook.

News for the Classroom

YouTube and the rest of the web has made it easy for individuals to produce their own newscasts. Techcrunch reports that Morgan Webb has started a new news videocast in which she'll report on the current events of the day, using blogs as a main source of information and commentary.

As somebody who is particularly interested in current events, I often wonder if there's anything that I could do with videocasting that would support teaching and learning in the classroom. As my readers know I regularly write questions designed to promote discussion of current events. But it's a lot easier to write questions that teachers could ask than it is to actually ask the questions on a videocast myself. After all, in order to properly use these questions in a classroom teachers must be able to facilitate high quality discussions, which often means saying nothing but allowing students to contemplate quietly and engage one another. I'm not sure if this could be done in a videocast.