Realzing the Vision Conference Blog

RV II is finally here!  I’m sitting in the keynote with Will Richardson, and I will be live-blogging the event.  Please excuse any typos, etc.

The wiki that he is presenting from is http://willrichardson.wikispaces.com/.  Will says this is a disruptive moment – he is trying to make the case that the moment we are at is being changed by technology. 

He looks at the world through the lens of his children – and how their world will look very different than it does today.  Will also comes at this from the lens of a former teacher, and as a blogger – a veteran of over 6 years of blogging.  You can access his blog here. 

Will is giving a brief history of the web going from read only to read/write (Web 2.0).  He is talking a bit about the Did You Know video that was created by Karl Fisch, and giving statistics for how the world has changed. 

Journalism, media, and politics are now more participatory.  75% is peer-to-peer file sharing.  One sale of a record could mean that everyone in the world could have a copy of that record.  The band RadioHead only allows downloads from their website.  When you go to download the songs, you have the option to pick what you pay.  This is the new model, says Will.

The Global Marketplace is all about connectivity, too. People want to know that what they are buying is going to be worth the money and that companies are reputable. 

Our students, will says, are leading us.  71% of students with online access use social networking on a daily basis.  75% of college students have a facebook.  All of these connections – these social networking connections – are changing learning.  How do these technology shifts change teaching and learning?   Can you imagine a classroom where all students are engaged all the time? Kids can - and are learning this social networking thing on their own.

46645 – if you text “define trapezoid” to that number (or GOOGLE), you can get the answer to what a trapezoid is.  Very neat tool.  Why aren’t we having “open-phone” tests?  Will she really need to know what the capitals are when she is older? Knowledge is no longer scarce – it is everywhere. We are immersed in it.  We need to show our kids how to access the information they need when they need it.  Content is constantly changing and evolving (the example Will gave is Wikipedia).

Overall message?  The technologies – not the least of which is the read/write web – are changing the future of the world.  Are you changing, too?

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