Web 2.0 tools that allow people to access and author information unleashes a new brand of thought and investigation at Arapahoe High School.  The Langauage Arts department and the school's technology director, Karl Fisch, have been developing live blogging as an adaptation to the fishbowl writing technique.  What fascinated me when I first saw this in action last year was how so many simultaneous conversations erupt when every student has a laptop and the teacher makes use of a blog.

On Friday, I revisited the same classrooom teachers Anne Smith and Maura Moritz to participate in live blogging about Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind.  I was joined by several members of our Board of Education (thanks to Lucie Stanish and Renee Howell for joining in) as well as several other bloggers and educators from around the country.  Indeed, Anne and Maura will bring people from around the world including Will Richardson and Dan Pink.  Karl was furiously setting up audio and video feeds using Mebeam to enable the remote participants to see and hear the verbal conversation that happens in class.  The extra effort Karl put in to bring in these remote bloggers was a special treat for the students.  So while the effort for the video/audio did not seem sustainable, the live blogging was so easy that the teachers reported feeling almost guilty.

Truly, these students and their teachers are embracing the power of web 2.0 and are setting a model for learners everywhere.  I wonder what the long term implications of this will have for these students?  Will this effort demonstrate to students that their horizons are unlimited today?  Will they master the art of publishing to the world?  Will they come to expect a higher level of personal interactivty with media than any prior generation?  Or is this just a passing fancy...  I doubt it.