Spring Break?

I hate bugs. I mean, I hate them. I had just set out to make some yummy white-chocolate-covered-strawberries last night, when I discovered that some tiny little gnat-like things had beat me to my bar of baking chocolate. And then I discovered the rest of them. Needless to say, my husband and I spent the rest of the evening and well into the night cleaning out our entire pantry. Fun.

I say this not because I never want you to eat at my house, or so that you think that I live in a pigsty, but instead to prove a point. The bugs were not there a week ago. Trust me - I would have seen them. Yet the near-infestation that occurred sometime in the past week really got me thinking - isn't the internet like that?

Take Karl Fisch for example. I have linked to Karl at least five times now, and if you have yet to check out his page, what are you waiting for? Anyway, last August, his school asked him to speak at a PD. He created this little powerpoint called "Did You Know?" Some of his coworkers wanted to show it to spouses, so he posted it on his blog. They told people, who told other people, who posted it on youtube and in email messages. Short version of the story? "Did You Know?" has gone viral, to the point that many of the presentations (including the one that I like to show) hardly resemble the original post! Estimates show that over 2 MILLION people have viewed a version of his modest powerpoint.

2 MILLION.

SINCE AUGUST 2006.

The internet is already having a more powerful impact on our world than was ever thought possible. In less than 8 months, Karl's life has forever changed. I have heard people who have said that education doesn't need to change any to reflect this "internet thing". Are you kidding? If one man and his modest powerpoint can reach over 2 million people in less than 7 months, how can we assume that education doesn't need to change? The way that our students get information right now is so totally different from how we obtain info. Think about it - how many of you still get a paper newspaper? How many of your students get papers? If they get the news, they probably get it from TV/internet.

Anyway, sorry about the mini-rant, but if we don't mull over these ideas, how are we going to answer our students' questions? Thoughts?

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Beyond Podcasting, Education of the Future, Random