I like your thoughts here. But I think it’s fundamentally important that we keep a work-in-progress mind when working in blogs, indeed, when working in much of the RWW. Sure, it’s nice to read a well-thought, well-crafted piece of writing online. But the spirit of social media is dialogue and dialogue is never finished. Schools need to ask where the locus of control rests and if the need for control is getting in the way of innovation and student learning. I have two pieces of advice for schools wrestling with social media, web 2.0, the read-write-web, or whatever you want to call it:

Administrators should create a culture that encourages and supports teachers to experiment with social media and other emerging technologies. Social media resists, even subverts, institutionalization. Think about it: the most exciting things on the internet–e.g. Facebook, Twitter–were not developed by institutions. Admin must cultivate trust, not control.

Teachers need to play in the sandbox, so to speak. The web is too new, too fluid–too fun–to wait for someone else to tell them what to do. For the first time in modern education, teachers have a direct part in the discussion around education and pedagogy and I firmly believe they have an obligation to speak up, as it were. At the same time, they have to engender trust so the administration can relax control.

I’m looking forward to talking more when we meet face to face.

Best,

Brad

I like how you unpacked those ideas. That’s a great list and you have me thinking about how I address those areas in my art room. Thanks Phil!