Because my school does not have a virtual school platform like Moodle or Blackboard, we have opted to simply asked the teachers to post pages, links, .pdfs and .doc to our school’s CSM run website. While this presentation of worksheets and online activities is limited in scope, it is still better than nothing.

The American School, where my wife works, is fairing a bit better and has even received some press for their use of Blackboard. For years they have been encouraging teachers to use Blackboard for such an emergency, and while teachers have begrudgingly posted a few assignments here and there the tool has largely been unused till now. Now that the emergency is upon them, however, teachers are scrambling to quickly learn how to become “virtual” teachers, and in doing so are finding the limitations, not only of Blackboard as a tool, but they are also realizing that teaching using online tools is more than simply posting assignments on a web storage space.

Teaching online, or being a virtual teacher, is more than a skill set; it is a mindset and a philosophy. Teachers who are well versed in a variety of tools, not just Blackboard will fair much better in times of crisis and will be better prepared for finding ways to reach their students than say teachers who rarely use technology at all. Teachers who themselves are connect and use many tools for their own learning will barely miss a step. While I understand the unease these teachers are experiencing, I think their apprehension speaks more to the limitations offered not only by blackboard, but of school philosophies when it comes to technology use and pedagogy.

This crisis has clearly illustrated that creating a valuable web-friendly ethos/community of teachers well versed with technology, is the first step in creating a sustainable system to deal with not only emergencies, but in helping to maintain strong ties between teachers and students beyond the classroom. Communicating with students outside the classroom whether through Blackboard or other free online tools must be an ongoing activity for the entire school. If students are used to checking a blog for assignments or working on a Google Doc with a peer, then not being in school will not impact their schooling as much as say a student who has no way to contact their teacher beyond email.

I am not writing this post to make teachers feel bad about their or to discredit any schools. We are all doing the best we can. I just want to point out that using technology is not something that schools can force their teachers to do only in times of emergency. Teachers who are not familiar with a variety of tools that will help them connect with their students will stumble and become anxious when forced to change the way they teach. Schools must imagine different possibilities:

We need to imagine a school where everyone blogs- teachers, students, parents, and administration. Imagine a school that has its own youtube channel and podcast space. Imagine a school that uses chatzy as a back channel even when school is in session. Imagine a school where students are constantly working together using Google Docs and wikis. Imagine a school where almost every knows how to use several tools to connect, communicate, and collaborate. Imagine a school where the school day never ends, and the work can be done anywhere any time. Imagine a school where the teacher uses class time to coach and guide and not lecture or “teach.”

This is the type of school I am trying to build. You can use Blackboard, but the beauty of the Web is that it is all free and available to us all. We simply must be able to take some risks and trust our students to learn from their mistakes.

Here are some examples of what is possible:

I had planned to use this week to get my students started on our online 2.0 journey. I already have two classrooms, one in Canada and one in Thailand, waiting to meet us. We have sketched out some rough ideas of how our three classes will interact, but I needed to start showing my students the tools and skills they will need to make the kinds of connections I want them to make throughout the year. I was going to walk them through each step in class, but due to Swine Flu we were forced to “just do it.”

I was actually a bit excited when I heard we would not be in school. Rather than fumble around with how I would deliver my traditional material, I began instead to think about how I would help my students quickly learn about and use a variety of tools that would help them connect and stay tuned with our class community. I was not interested in posting worksheets for them to complete. I wanted to recreate our classroom online, so we could have conversations. It is this sense of community that I feel is missing from Blackboard.

The first thing I did was launch our class blog. I had planned to start blogging soon anyway, so it was perfect timing. I used the blog as the central place to communicate with the kids. Unlike Blackboard where individual classes are closed and hard to access, a simple blog allows me to share information, media, and much more in an environment that inspires commenting, conversations, and community. The hope was to quickly create an area where we could meet and move onto completing a variety of tasks.

Once the blog was published, I had to find a way to direct the kids to it. Out of 50 students I had the emails of about 29; I started there. I posted a link on our school website under the page for English work, and on the first day I had 81 visits to the blog. Because my students are not yet familiar with RSS, I had to find a way to let them know when there was going to be new posts.

I decided to create a Facebook Fan Page, (I have asked that adults not become a fan of the page yet. I want my students to feel safe and really understand what we are doing, before I introduce our network to the bigger global network.) In three days already has 23 fans. I embedded a Facebook feed in the sidebar to allow students who do not have Facebook a chance to stay tuned with announcements. I can now also send the group updates straight from Facebook. I now have an easy way to share class announcements with the kids in the place where they spend their time online. Instead of hoping that they would check Blackboard, I know that they can simply get an status update telling them to take a survey on the blog as they chat with their friends.

For the first task, I asked students to create Gmail accounts. Later in the year I want to use Google Docs and Google Reader, so I felt that this was a crucial first step. With little help from me, I now have 23 students created Gmail accounts. A few students had problems so I set up a chatzy chat room to answer questions. I experimented with various video conferencing sites and dodged a major bullet and didn’t use Tiny Chat due to some inappropriate material on their site, but found TokBox to be very useful and I hope to use it in the future.

I’ve used Youtube as a way to create videos for my students who are not native English speakers and may not be able to read all of the text on the site. As the students perform each task, I give them a little more to do. They have in three days: created Gmail accounts, commented on a blog, signed up to be a Facebook Fan, responded to some quotes and images, and finally answered a survey I posted from a Google Form.

Not only have I not fallen behind this week, I have actually helped my kids learn real life skills by doing and not just talking about it. By quickly building our online community, I think the kids will better understand the power of these tools and how they can use them to help their learning.

I hope you will stay tuned to what we are doing throughout the year. I have big plans for the year and this is a great group of kids. We will create individual blogs next week, as well as set up RSS on Google Reader, begin to think about tagging bookmarks with Delicious, and we will set up a class wiki and Flickr page. Why have I chosen these tools? I see them as the most vital for my own learning. I use them often, feel comfortable using them, and I really understand their value in creating a network.

Empowering teachers to use these tools is a huge first step in creating a school that can function on or offline without missing a step. Swine Flu or no Swine Flu, I know my class will be connected and ready to learn, share, and teach others. The question now is how do we get other teachers on board and feeling comfortable using these tools?

If you are interested and want ideas on how to be a more effective virtual teacher join us on our journey. We are learning as we go, but would love the company. What do you think? How has Swine Flu affected your teaching? What has worked for you? What has been hard? Do you find Blackboard useful? Do you use any other tools to connect with your students? Let the conversation begin!

I have been plagued by a sense of bitterness and apathy since I arrived at NECC, and no matter how I try to shed my prejudices I find myself asking: What is all this hype? Surrounded by snake oil salesmen and product pushers, it all seems like it is too much, too big.

Ironically, I find it easier to make connections swimming the waters online rather than making connections than sitting face to face with someone and discussing yet again how kids learn differently today and need a new set of skills to succeed in the 21st job market. I see my role as an educator as bigger than this. How much longer do we need to discuss these ideas? I am only thinking out loud here, and I hope I do not offend, but I am ready for a new discussion. I am not sure what this conversation will look, but perhaps that is what we should be talking about.

I can quip about how it is not about the technology but the teaching, but then again that platitude is neither original nor progressing the issues. If anything this conference so far has made me less evangelical about educational technology.  I don’t need a session sponsor by Cisco telling me how to use technology in my classroom.

Connection may be the name of the game here, but I still find myself the awkward teenager in a room full of cool kids pontificating about ideas that I would rather simply do than talk about.

For me, it all boils to down to a simple axiom, and while I feel like broken record and a bit of a simpleton when I express it, but learning need not be this complicated. Yes, there may be new skills. Yes there are new tools, but ultimately we simply need to be engaging students by creating authentic learning communities built around honest open relationships. These tools, these ideas are mere ways where we can create these communities. Students could careless about any of the ideas at NECC. They just want a teacher who is willing to be honest with them, respect them, and willing practice what they preach and learn along with them. The rest is all hype.

I have only been here for a day, but as a student here at NECC, I have not seen any communities like the ones I have described. I want to collaborate with others. I want to create a product. I want to use the tools, that so many companies seem hell bent on selling my school, to lean something new. Where is this happening at NECC? If these secessions exist, please show me the way.

I spent quite a bit of time planning the talk, but the execution was not exactly what I had in mind. I was plagued by repetition, false starts, and a general sense of incoherence. I have attempted to piece together as much of the original talk as I could.

The main idea is:

How can we encourage teachers to look beyond their fear, follow their passions and begin to create open honest online identities that reflect their true selves in order to better connect with their students for a more authentic learning environment. Eventually creating a system that not only allows for teacher creativity and expression but actively promotes and encourages it, so teachers are not too busy or scared to express themselves online, and actually given time to reflect, create, and share.

Life as an Open Book from Intrepid on Vimeo.

I would appreciate any and all comments.

Don’t get me wrong; I immensely respect these men along with all of the presenters at Learning 2.008. An hour before I was listening to Ewan McIntosh talk about how tech tools are not transformative. Pedagogy is transformative. I have skimmed Ewan’s blog for months, but not until I saw him speak did I truly understand where he is coming from. Later, I would listen to Alan Levine discuss the Horizon project, and later still take notes on a back channel as Julie Lindsay extolled the virtue of mobile devices.

If Learning 2.008 taught me anything it is that digital networks are nothing more than real human beings trying to figure it all out. I am not sure I can define what “it” is exactly, but that is part of what we are trying to do. We can read each others blogs, talk on Skype, or follow Tweets, but these tools will only paint an abstract picture of who we really are. No matter how easy the new web makes it for people to communicate and build networks, we still need that authentic human interaction. We still need to watch body language, pay attention to tone of voice, and make people laugh to really connect with other human beings. Thank goodness for that.

It was refreshing to see that we are more than blog posts, avatars, and @names. The participants of this conference, by their presence alone proved that we are a group of diverse educators determined to find better ways to learn. No one truly knows the secret answer, because there is no secret answer. We, and I say we with pride because I learned that I too have ideas to offer, are simply trying to find ways to educate children as best we can. Technology is not the answer. It really doesn’t have much to do with technology at all. It has to do with community and the sharing of knowledge and ideas! Technology is simply a way for sharing ideas.  The questions that kept resurfacing at every session I attended was- how can we convince teachers to use technology? I think we need to help teachers learn how they can become members of vibrant communities, so that they can teach their students to expand their social networks as well. This can be completely outside the scope of technology. Jennifer Jones says it best,

“Before we connect globally, we need to connect locally, whether we use technology, or just step outside.  I feel this is critical to change in our systems.”

Technology is just a tool that at this time in our evolution is the most appropriate for creating wide, far-reaching, cooperative communities that foster, promote, and encourage learning. This conference taught me that communities take time to build and that they must be unique for each member. Session after session, time spent out at dinner with twitter friends, and time spent chatting over food with fellow tech enthusiasts, taught me that my network is like a garden, in that it constantly needs to be tended.

When I first started blogging I wanted nothing more than a robust interactive audience. I wanted the largest number of people to read by posts. Like my students, I wanted to watch the little red globs infect my cluster map like a cancer. I constantly examined by statistics to see how many people had read what I wrote. I wished that the “big” names would read my work, realize my genius, and catapult me into the upper echelon of the educational blogosphere. In short, I felt that the quantity of readers would directly reflect the quality of my network. To return to the garden analogy, I wanted to transplant myself into a pre-made heirloom garden of specialized thriving plants. I was reading the names I had been told to read. I was following the people I was told to follow on Twitter. I had been sold a perfect network, and I thought that all I had to do was sit back and let the learning community sweep me away.

The conference taught me that, I can read well-known bloggers, I can even sit with them in a room and discuss the echo-chamber, but to truly feel the power of the network I have to plant my own garden and tend it religiously. It is not enough to simply use twitter to get to know someone, you need to meet them, and laugh over Chinese food, take a walk in Golden Gate park, share a cab. This conference proved that I don’t need to be connected to the network, or a network, but that it is more important that I build my own functioning network of like-minded teachers and students.

“Audiences drive by while communities drop in.”

As Clarence’s quote elucidates, I learned that it is not enough to simply copy and paste the nodes of a generic network and expect it to be fruitful. We must build communities. This takes time. This takes honesty and passion. This takes effort and patience. This takes dedication and hard work.

“You write where people care! Small passionate communities matter.”

I am sure hundreds of blog posts have already been written about what Learning 2.008 meant to the various participants. What do I have to say that is any different? What do I have to say that is relevant or meaningful in anyway? These are questions I often find myself asking myself as I blog. The longer I swim around educational blogs, the more I realize that I am not as intelligent as I like to think. People articulate their thoughts more effectively than me; people write better than me, people comment more insightfully than me. In short, I often feel that the network would be fine without my little musings in this tiny corner of the Internet, which I have etched out for myself.

So why do I bother? I may not have the credentials or the talent, but after talking with teachers from around the world at this conference, I realized that I do have some things to say that others want to hear. This is the beauty of the network. Day in and day out I am threading my own narrative and trying to somehow tie it to others. I am carefully and deliberately tending my garden.  Leaving Tweets about music and politics, never afraid to stand behind my ideas, using a raw and honest voice with an infectious enthusiasm, posting videos to youtube and photos to Flickr, I will keep sowing my seeds in my corner of the Web. Sometimes in a whisper, sometimes through a roar, I will wait patiently hoping that my tribe will find their way to my doorstep and together we will move forward.

She said, “Yeah Jabiz but you seem to spend a lot of time on the computer. I want to have a life.” I am paraphrasing what she said. I know this teacher fairly well, so I didn’t take offense to her comment. I am quite certain that she wasn’t implying that I don’t have a life, and this post is not a defense of my behaviors, but it really got me thinking, do people really think that using technology is a choice to be made that opposes having a life? Do people think that tech-geeks choose the vacant lifeless draw of their screens over “real” life?

I see technology as a tool (How many times do we need to make this point?) that allows me to do the very things that make up my life. It is not my life itself. I decided to make a list of the aspects of my life that are important to me. In order to show that technology is simply a tool to enhance my “real” life I will share how I use a variety of these tools for each aspect of my life. The following is what having a life means to me, with or without technology.

First and foremost my number one priority is spending time with my 19-month-old daughter. Contrary to what many non-digital people believe, we techies value authentic “real” life experience just as much as others. I feel that people who are not comfortable with technology see those who are, as somehow lacking the ability to enjoy nature, or the non-digital experiences. Having said that the time I spend with my daughter is the single most important thing that I do. We play, we dance, we sing, we bathe, we eat, we are living in the truest sense of the word. When it comes to my daughter, we use Skype so that she can see her Grandparents on a weekly basis. She already says Grand Ma every time we bring out the laptop. I also use her blog to keep our family posted with pictures and videos. If I do not post pictures every week, I will hear it form several family members.

I have developed a strong love of gardening. I am awed by the organic nature of nature. I love spending time watering my garden, raising plants in my classroom, and simply playing in the dirt. Raising plants is probably the antithesis of technology, but I love using my blogs and video to try and share the satisfaction I get from this hobby. I spend much of my time weekend time monitoring my garden. I am currently growing tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, and basil. The pictures I take and share make the experience more authentic for me.

I love to read. I am currently reading the seventh book in a series of seven books by Gore Vidal called the Narratives of Empire. I have been reading these books since June. I have been reading one book after another since I was nineteen. Reading is a fully integrated activity in my daily life. I would survive without books. While I love reading blogs and other websites, I have a profound love and respect for the written word in the form of books. I love the smell of the pages in a fresh book. I strongly believe that literature is the path to human understanding. However, I also see the value in using technology to share my thoughts on what I read and try to instigate healthy discussions. I also use Web tools to keep track of the books I read on sites like Librarything.

I love music. I listen to music every second I can. I love to strum my guitar and record my mediocre recordings. I use technology to share my music with friends and family on Facebook or complete strangers on Youtube. I use sites like Last FM to keep track of listening charts, so I can meet people with similar interests. I use my iPod so as to be sure that my entire collection goes where I go: in my classroom, my bike, or my trip to Tunis. I  use my blogs to write on most of the subjects on this list. Music is no different.

I love photography. I enjoy my ability to capture my unique viewpoint through the lens. I use technology to enhance my photos on Photoshop to create CD covers, magazine covers, or to simply capture the beauty of places I have been and people I have seen. I use sites Flickr to store my work and JPG Magazine to share it with others.

I love traveling and delving into new cultures. I find comfort in writing about my experiences or documenting them in photographs.

I have recently discovered that I love to ride my bike, however limited around town, and I have developed an affinity for filmmaking.  I have combined these two loves by using technology to share my work with over two thousand viewers on YouTube.

The point I am trying to make is that I do not see technology as something I do other than live my life; it is something I use in order to help do the things I love. I feel I have a very rich life raising my daughter, playing music, creating art, writing, reading, and finally the one thing I have yet to mention. Learning.

I use technology to help me find answers, create discussions, compare ideas, and ultimately as a tool for reflecting on how I process information. I use my network to help me form my own views, learn new skills, and better understand the world in which I live. I haven’t mentioned how I use technology in the classroom, because that is the point of this entire blog, but I hope it is obvious that I want my students to find ways that they can use technology to do the things they love. The point is not to use gadgets because they are the new hip thing to do. I am not advocating that people ignore their lives in order to use technology in their lives. The point is to have a “life.” Live it to the fullest and see if you can find ways for technology to enhance what you already do. Live, reflect, share, communicate, connect, change, grow…

Just so I am not misunderstood, I am not promoting that every human act can be enhanced by technology. A good meal at a NYC restaurant, or a quiet walk in the woods, sitting meditation under a tree, scuba diving in the Andaman Sea, or simply sharing a cup of tea with a friend come to mind as life experiences that need no technology to make them any better, but our choices need not be black or white. To respond to the teacher I spoke with today I say, we can use technology effectively and still have a life. It is a matter of understating which tools are right for each task.

The beauty is when I look at a post like the one I just wrote, I realize how these tools have actually helped link all of my interests together. When people ask me what I have been up to, I offer the trademark response: nothing. I say click here or here or here. As a writer, a learner, a teacher, an artist, or simply as a human being I am thrilled to have the tools that allow me this connectedness.

It is time to go play guitar, watch some TV with my wife, read a few pages of my book, and get a good night sleep. I will leave my RSS reader alone for tonight. I will not check on my student blogs or their wikis. I will not respond to emails or play on Facebook. I do have a life after all….

Nowhere is this aversion to learning new skills more evident than in the field of technology and the classroom. Perhaps it is emergence of what seems to be daily innovations on the web, or the demands surrounding its use, or perhaps it is just the fear of not being the expert in our respective fields, but I have noticed a powerful mistrust and aversion by the majority of teachers to learning about technology.

Before I continue let me make clear that it is not my intention to offend or put down the teachers who are not technologically savvy. It has recently been brought to my attention that sometimes my tone can be harsh, one-sided, and non-inviting. Sometimes, it appears, my passion can alienate rather than bring people together. I need to be more sensitive to the feelings of my peers and colleagues, and while this sensitivity may not be obvious by the introduction of this post, I hope to end in a place of collegiality and a focused vision for growth. How can we help teachers use technology to help themselves learn, so they can better understand what the crazy tech-geek is constantly bleating about?

Unfortunately technology seems to often be the line drawn in the sand between the tech-oriented teachers and the “technologically challenged” as they sometimes times quaintly call themselves.  Experience has taught me that forcing people to switch sides in this technological divide can be extremely divisive and bad for a school’s morale.

Upon reflection and reading Working With The Willing, I am realizing that until teachers use the tools for themselves, they will never effectively integrate them into their daily life in the classroom. So what to do? I have decided to start a Blogging Club with my peers to help them better understand the power of Web 2.0. I hope to start small and build our own network and then introduce them to the ever-expanding world of educators that I have had the pleasure of meeting online.

Here is the email I send out inviting teachers to join:

I have a tendency to be quite long winded. I started to type this email a few hours ago, and I metamorphosed into a two-page blog post. I have decided to consolidate my points in a more easily digestible email. Here goes:

Jabiz

Do you have any advice for me or for these new pioneer teachers?

Furthermore, after several weeks of procrastination, I have finally completed my student blogging permission slips and sent them to my principal for approval; I have also spent every waking hour that I am not planning on Twitter, my Google Reader, and Skype. I have been building my network. Most importantly I have been reading blogs by, learning from, and talking to other teachers around the world. Being engrossed in this state of learning has me buzzing. I am constantly thinking about the information that is falling into my lap, by magic as it sometimes appears.

But let me get to my point; a few days ago while I was in this intellectual trance, I mentioned at a grade level meeting that I wasn’t satisfied with the level of conversation my small team was having about technology. I was so excited about the things I have been doing that it didn’t seem right that I couldn’t share them with the people I work closest with. I told them that I would love to be the go to guy, if they had any questions about using technology in their classrooms. I wasn’t any more sure what that meant than they did. I just wanted to be having the conversations I am having online with my peers.

Today, I received an email from a colleague asking me what I meant by integrating technology. I have been thinking about it all day, and now as I lay here in bed at 10 pm let me see if I can articulate my passion.

I cannot remember where I read it, so I cannot quote verbatim or link to the site, but in one of the many blogs I read someone said how they hate the term integration. The post stated that we should not be looking for ways to implement technology into our lessons for the sake of technology integration, but rather that technology should simply be the way we do business. It should be ingrained in our style of teaching.

So integrating technology does not mean using Power Point, creating videos, or even blogging. I see effectively using technology as a way to help students experiment with new tools to help them discover how to access, interpret, and use information not only from static web-based sources, but from interactive student-created networks. Will Richardson says, “One of our changing roles as teachers revolves around the idea that we are now connectors as much as content experts.”

Using student-created networks to search for knowledge seems crucial. The next step as I see it, is to empower students to synthesize their learning, create/produce  work that reflects this synthesis , and redistribute the work back onto their network. I want to create a class full of Uploaders, students who are active participants in the exchange of ideas, information, and knowledge. I think Kim does a nice job of summing up my thoughts here.

As a lifelong learner myself, I am seeing the advantages of these network tools and concepts in my own learning and processing of information. Richardson goes on to say, “We who travel around evangelizing these technologies are for the most part simply trying to start some conversations, conversations that are going to be unique for every school, every community, every district. Nothing does that better than making our own practice transparent to the people in the room.”

By offering my services to my team, I was simply trying to start these conversations.  I hope once I have my students blogging and my classroom connected, my students and my peers will start to see how I use my network as a model and become curious to see how it all works.

I think it is important to mention at this point that I am no expert. I am learning as I go along. But I feel that I have support from the people I interact with on the web. Imagine giving our stdnets that sense of support. So when we ask questions like what does technology in the classroom look like? I say, I don’t know. What should it look like? Let’s talk about it.

I agree with apophenia who says, “Stop fearing and/or fetishizing technology. Neither approach does us any good. Technology is not the devil, nor is it the panacea you’ve been waiting for. It’s a tool. Just like a pencil. Figure out what it’s good for and leverage that to your advantage. Realize that there are interface problems and figure out how to work around them to meet your goals. Tools do not define pedagogy, but pedagogy can leverage tools. The first step is understanding what the technology is about, when and where it is useful, and how it can and will be manipulated by users for their own desires.”

Without these conversations schools will not move forward. I have learned the hard way that you cannot instill a passion for new ideas if people are not open to learning them. In closing, I would like to end with a beautifully articulated paragraph from Ewan in his online debate at The Economist. He says, …technology in education is less about anonymous chips and bytes filling up our children with knowledge, less about teachers reinforcing a ‘chalk and talk’ style with an interactive whiteboard, and less about death by PowerPoint bullets. It’s more about helping learners become more world-aware, more communicative, learning from each other, understanding first hand what makes the world go.” around.

Let me repeat that:

It’s more about helping learners become more world-aware, more communicative, learning from each other, understanding first hand what makes the world go around.

I will use whatever tools are at my disposal to make that happen. What about you? Any ideas? Don’t be shy; leave a comment. Let the conversations begin.

I am of course playing devils advocate, because many teachers feel this way. Getting teachers to change their habits or styles of teaching is nearly impossible. I feel it is important to start slow and remind teachers that they simply need to start slow and take their time. I feel fairly comfortable with my tech abilities, but I still feel a bit overwhelmed after this first day.

We cannot or should not become super-connected 21st century teachers overnight. But as we make this journey together here is some information I have found to get you thinking. I want to start with this quote from Mr. W’s Great Blogging Thing:

He says, “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less…”

I think this is a good place to start. Our classrooms, our students, our world is changing, and as teachers we are here to prepare kids to face a world many of us our refusing to understand. That not only seems silly, but selfish. We owe it our students to be a step ahead of them at all times and guide them through this information superhighway.

In closing, I will leave you to read this post and think about the questions he is raising. How would you answer these questions?

1. Please rate your skill set for the following tools as a basic user, average user, or advanced user:
Basic User: Can use the program in its simplest form
Average User: Can use the program and can give examples of ways to use the program in the classroom for teaching and learning.
Advanced User: Can give an example of using the program in the classroom as part of the learning process. Has or is willing to teach others how to use it.

Word
Excel
PowerPoint
Publisher

2. What e-mail programs are you familiar with (Outlook, Thunderbird, Firstclass, Groupwise) and what do you see as the positive and negative aspects of using e-mail?
3. Being able to look up information and resources on the web is an important skill. Explain how you go about looking up information on the web. How do you verify that the information you found is trustworthy and of use to you?
4. What is your philosophy regarding the filtering of internet sites?
5. Do you read any blogs? If so, which ones?
6. Do you have an RSS reader? If so, what do you subscribe to?
7. Do you belong to any online communities?
8. Tell me a story of something you learned from your network?
9. Tell me how you think the future you are preparing children for will be different?
What is your favorite gadget and why?
10. How often do others come to you for guidance in using technology?
11. Describe the last new technology that you used and how you used it — and how you learned it?
12. Describe the last thing you learned related to your work, that you didn’t learn in a classroom or from a book, and describe how you learned it.
Just some food for thought…