Classroom 2.0 - You Live Where?

"Geography is irrelevant, learning is not." 

Clarence Fisher, presented "Classroom 2.0 or You Live Where?" made this remark during the 2008 K12 online conference, and truer words in relation to the web and it's impact upon education could not be spoken!

While education (and even the classroom itself!) used to be about preparing kids to work where they live, things changed dramatically when the classroom shook hands with the Internet and the world wide web.

Recently, I was discussing the impact that Web 2.0 has had on education - and how many teachers, while recognizing it's "cool factor," can rarely successfully integrate that factor into their classrooms. Fisher presents not only how to do this, but why it is truly relevant to today's world. (And, being a man of his word, the entire presentation is available online - in a handy dandy iPod format! )

To me, the most relevant thing Fisher said during this lecture - and the most simple, really - was that we, as educators,  have to stop telling students to regurgitate information, and instead encourage them to be creative and think. We need to examine our pedagogy.

He's not saying to not teach the curriculum, but our relationship to that curriculum needs to be constantly examined and it's true value determined. And moreso, understand that our world went from being just what we can see in the classroom to being world-wide. Our students have many open doors - using Classroom 2.0 to help show them those doors is the educator's newest challenge.