A full dress rehearsal … alone

Yesterday I spent a day chatting (yes, literally) with 9 new leaders from CEP (the Country Education Project) and Lesley MacGregor  - their Project manager.  The aim of the day, was to share some of the work i have been doing with their group – I guess they wanted a chance to pick my brain about lots of things, from mobile phone policies to learning trends in millennial students to the technical details of some of what I do.  

Have you ever noticed that the best ideas come to you, when you are giving your ideas away to others?  It saddens me when teachers develop resources or ideas but are unwilling to share them.  It happens a lot.  

Next year i have $20,000.00 at my disposal to spend on extending my work and research into the pedagogy surrounding the use of emerging technologies. (I won this funding as part of my Victorian Education Excellence Award earlier this year).  A large part of this money I am using to buy teacher release so that I can work 1-on-1 with teachers to explore the use of ICT in their particular area of education.  One of the teachers I’ll be working with is a drama teacher (because that’s quite different to science).  I’ve been trying to think of ideas for things that we can do (and really hadn’t thought of anything really inspired).

Well, yesterday while we were brainstorming about podcasting, Lesley said something that made my mind race with possibilities.  What about this: We record a drama performance as a podcast, with each player recording on a different track.  Then we export several versions of the podcast… each with one of the tracks missing.  Now each player can listen to the podcast, and practise his or her lines by speaking out loud when they get to the gaps.  It’s like a full dress rehearsal… but alone!  Great huh?  Thanks for the inspiration Les!

The same possibility exists for music!  Imagine a student practicing his saxophone, but at the same time, he can hear the entire orchestra (minus the sax) through his iPod!  That’s never been possible before. (except in a full rehearsal).

But the point I want to make is this:  Had I not been willing to spend a day giving away my thoughts – I may never have stumbled upon this gem of an idea.  The more you give things away, the richer you become – at least as far as ideas are concerned.

Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teachers’ Awards

Me and Matthew (from Ghana) a friend I made in Hong Kong

Last week I had the enviable privilege of spending a week in Hong Kong at the Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teachers’ Forum. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity, really.  And not just because I won – but because it was a great experience to mix with innovative teachers from all over the world, sharing ideas and experiences.

Each country is able to send a teacher (or in a few cases more than one teacher).  In all, there were teachers from 62 countries, as well as judges, Microsoft officials and journalists. 

I was really encouraged that, even though it is a Microsoft event, they were not promoting Microsoft products but best practice in teaching and learning – irrespective of the software or hardware being used. The evidence of their sincerity in this stated focus, is that I won – even though i was unapologetic in my use of Apple products as well as Microsoft ones.

When I was first told that I would have to explain what I do, and be judged, using a poster (before going to Hanoi) I thought it was very strange indeed.  Looking back on the experience however, I think it makes a lot of sense. For one thing, having to describe my pedagogy, strategies, tools and results in poster format, really made me think about what was fundamental to my philosophy and methodology. A lot of the tools I use are cool but I couldn’t use the coolness of them to impress the judges!  Instead I had to be able to clearly explain what I am doing, and more importantly, why, without using any whiz-bang.

In Hong Kong it was similar.  Each teacher was given a small booth in which to display a poster.  But this time I was also able to use my laptop to demonstrate answers to questions by judges.

Presentation Booths

My presentation booth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the first day of judging, we presented for 2 hours (although it turned into longer than that), while other teachers, judges, journalists and others moved around listening to our presentations.  Among those visitors were the three judges that were assigned to judge my work. 

At the start of the second day, the semifinalists were announced at the start of the day (I was pleased to be among them) and then it all started again.  The semifinalists had another few hours of presenting to passers-by.  This time there were 9 judges assigned to each semifinalist (but you did not really know who they were).  

Presenting to judges and other on-lookers

At the end of the second day, we were treated to a 14 course dinner at the Jumbo Restaurant – a huge floating ball-room on the bay.  Here the winners were announced.  There are three categories.  Collaboration, Community, and Content.  I was in the Community category (as my project is about creating online learning communities).  

When they announced that I was the winner, I have to say it was such an exciting moment, and a very humbling one, actually – as every one of the teachers at the forum was doing something very impressive.  Any one of them could easily have won, and I’d not have thought it inappropriate.  Nevertheless, amid chants of “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!” from the Microsoft Australia contingent, I found myself being called up to the stage as the first place winner, which was a moment I don’t think I will ever forget.

The Awards Ceremony

But as exciting as it was, I think coming home to find, and being surprised to find my students, colleagues and family gathered on the front lawn of the school to welcome me home was even more meaningful – and actually, a highlight of my career – because an award (nice as it is) is just an award.  But the esteem of family, colleagues, and students is much more meaningful. 

 

 

arriving at school, greeted by my students, colleagues & family

 

 

 

 

Web 2.0 CLRP

On Thursday, I was invited to attend the DEECD Knowlege Bank: Next Generation’s Web 2.0 Collaborative Learning & Research Program (CLRP) “Celebration” at Hilton on the Park, in Melbourne.  The participants included representatives of 18 Victorian public schools that had been involved in round 1 of an 8 Million Dollar DEECD Innovations and Next Practice Division trial.  While all the participants had been exposed to, and discussed web 2.0 in general (from drupal to wordle), and used many of these tools, the emphasis was on the development of a blogging or podcasting trial in the school.  Nine of the schools were investigating and trialling blogging and nine were trialling podcasting.

One of the presentations was given by statistician Ian Phillips, the Director of I&J Management Service.  Ians history involves being the senior research officer at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, but now works privately as a consultant, specializing in Performance Measurement.  I&J Management Service was employed by DEECD to analyse the effectiveness of the trial in each school. 

The graph above summarizes one aspect of his findings. (expect more posts to this blog soon).  The graph shows three categories: (from left to right) Student Achievement, Student Attitude and Student Behaviour.  In each category, the yellow column is a measurement prior to the trial, the green column is a measurement taken mid way through the trial, and the blue column is a measurement taken at the end of the trial.  The numbers are not very important but are scores out of 5.  They read (from left to right): 2.5, 2.8, 3.0, 2.7, 3.4, 3.7, 2.9, 3.4, 3.7).

Ian made a number of observations that I think are worthy of reporting here:

 

• A similar trend was observed in each school. 
• It is interesting that especially in the case of student attitudes and student behaviour, the greatest gains were made early in the trial.  Gains in achievement were more steady over the duration of the trial.
• While the results showed a similar upward trend for all schools, the greatest improvements were seen in the schools that were trialling podcasting (across all three categories – achievement, attitude and behaviour).
• While results indicate that gains will plateau, that is always the case with any innovation, as an exponential increase is unsustainable.  Instead what is needed is new innovations to keep achievement, attitude etc. improving in jumps, each time reaching a new plateau at a higher level.

“Part of a Bigger Discussion” or “Not Being Ignored”

Traditionally, society has seen students as those who are “getting ready to enter the world”.  Its not uncommon for a student to ask “when am I going to need this [insert skill] in my life?” (as though their life will start once they leave school).  I think even students have been conditioned to think that school is a training ground for later when they will take their place as a valuable contributor to society.  

Web 2.0 gives us a different paradigm.  If you are like me, you feel excited and just a little overwhelmed with all the new web 2.0 tools there are available to you, and you are constantly re-thinking the way you do your job, and even what your job is!  School did not prepare me for this!  So in what sense was learning at school a ‘training ground’ for my later life?  I was a learner at school and i am a learner now. Learning is a continuum. 

But the other side of the coin is that students no longer have to wait to leave school to become contributing members of society.  Just as they will be learners later in life, they can be contributors now.  Contribution can be a continuum, too.

Recently I set my students a task of researching the evolutionary relationships (phylogeny) of a species.  The topic is mandated by the VCAA.  But instead of reporting the fruit of their research as a paper, a poster, a powerpoint presentation… to be seen only by me, and perhaps some classmates – I asked them to edit a page in Wikipedia.  

There are a few reasons why I chose to use Wikipedia, rather than (for example) creating our own class wiki for the purpose.  The most important of these is that because Wikipedia already exists and is read by thousands of people, my students contributions would be noticed, not just by educators or fellow students, but by people with a specific interest in the subject they were writing about.

The experience has been interesting.  Students were immediately and visibly excited when I told them about the task.  This excitement has continued with some of my colleagues finding out about the project because students have been talking about it (One teacher heard about it from an excited student he met on a train ride from melbourne during the holidays).  Now, If students are discussing “homework” as cool, during the holidays… that indicates that it is engaging.

What really makes this project exciting to students is that it is “real”.  That’s what the students are saying.  It’s cool because it’s real. As one student wrote in her correspondence to the person who ‘edited’ her work: “.. were all excited to be a part of a bigger discussion…”.

As students have edited their wikipedia pages, it started getting really interesting.  Some of them were finding that their work was quickly deleted (in one case it took less than 3 minutes), and in investigating the history, they were being deleted for a variety of reasons… mostly which were explained by the person who deleted it.   Sometimes this was because they had stated a fact but not substantiated it by citing a reliable reference.  Sometimes it was due to spelling errors, or a writing style that was not “encyclopedic” in tone.  All good learning experiences – raising the bar for my students in terms of scholarship.

You might think that having your work deleted would be deflating.  Initially, perhaps it was for some.  But what I then saw was my students having another go… adding the missing citations, fixing spelling or formatting – trying to make it perfect before submitting it once more.   At the very least, students on reflection were saying “at least my work wasn’t ignored”.  When students produce work we have always tried to publish their work in some way.  But really, honestly, most of the time their work IS ignored by all except their teacher, classmates and family.  But my students were excited that the research they were doing, and the report they were making was not being ignored.

In one case a student’s work was deleted, but no reason was given.  Using the “talk” feature, the student was able to ask the “person” (presumably a marine biologist) why his work was deleted.  The response… the reader thought that the formatting and some expression was clumsy.  So he had taken it down and then a short while later put it back up again,  edited and reformatted.  In any case, my student had been involved in a genuine exchange.

The New Rules of Engagement

 I’ve recently read Michael McQueen’s book “The New Rules of Engagement“.  I’ve been recommending that all teachers read it.  I read it in one day!  (Those who know me well will realize how unusual that is for me.)

In his book McQueen, a social researcher, describes the characteristics of “Generation Y” (those born from the early 1980s to the late 1990s) and compares them to “Generation X” (mid 60s – early 80s) and the “baby boomers” before them (mid 40s – mid 60s). 

As I was reading his book, there were a number of things that stood out to me and helped me to make sense of what I see happening in schools between teachers and students. 

The following is not meant to be a précis of Michael McQueen’s book.  In fact I have only touched on two of the author’s 8 “paradigm rifts” – fundamental differences between the way Gen Y kids see the world and  Gen X and Boomers do.  Instead it is a record of the thoughts that have been swimming round in my head since reading it, and looking at my classroom and my school through McQueen’s lens.

 

Point 1.  RESPECT: Gen Y kids don’t respect position, they respect people.

Members of Gen Y, contrary to popular opinion, are not lacking in respect.  In fact they may have more respect to give than Gen Xers!.  However they don’t give respect to someone because of their status or position, but rather, because they have earned respect (p. 65).  They don’t give respect because they “should” they give respect because they choose to.  The implications of that for teachers can’t be overstated. If you are a teacher, your Gen Y students won’t respect you just because they should, just because you are a teacher, just because you are older than them or just because you insist on being called “Mr…”.  They will respect you if you exhibit behaviors that make you worthy (in their eyes) of respect.

Point 2.  COMMUNICATION: Gen Y kids value unbroken communication pipelines. 

For Gen Y kids… being in communication is more important than it was for Gen X kids.  And what’s important is not WHAT is being communicated. Communication itself is the important thing.  A student will come home from school, go straight into her room and log on to MSN or MySpace to chat to the same friends she has spent the day with.  Her mother says “What could you possibly have to say to your friends? Haven’t you been with them all day?”  But her mother misses the point that what’s important is not WHAT her teenage daughter is communicating; its THAT her teenage daughter feels the need to be in communication.  It’s all about relationships and relating. In McQueen’s words instantaneous communication is “core to their existence” (p. 72). 

 

As I read McQueen’s book… I had many thoughts.  But these ones have occupied my mind a great deal. When you put point 1 together with point 2, I think you can make some interesting predictions.  

Prediction 1.  Students are likely to respect teachers who make it possible, even expected, for them to communicate with each other anywhere, anytime (even if it is about classwork).  So using communication tools such as MSN, social networking sites, discussion boards, mobile phones, elluminate etc is likely to be met with a great deal of respect.

Prediction 2. Teachers who confiscate mobile phones from students do so at the risk of losing the students’ respect as they are removing their students’ communication tools – attacking the “core of their existence”.  

Prediction 3. Many teachers will find it hard to engage students and perceive them as disrespectful, because they are insisting that their students, upon entering the classroom, cut all lines of communication both with the outside world, and those sitting next to them.

Prediction 4. Students are likely to be motivated to study if that study is being done in a way that encourages online interaction when they are at home.  (Remember its not about WHAT is being communicated – Gen Y kids want to communicate.  If you give them a work task that requires them to communicate… it will engage them).

I decided to test these predictions, gently.  So I asked a friend of mine, who is an Assistant Principal whether the teachers who routinely confiscate students’ mobile phones are also, generally, the teachers who most struggle to win student respect.  The answer (with barely a pause to think): “yes”.  Of course it’s possible to question cause and effect here.  But if McQueen is right, and I suspect he is, then respect from our students will be predicated on whether or not they perceive us as teachers who help them build meaningful (= learning) relationships.

Am I building communication channels, or dams?

Space Pens

In the early days of the space race between the United States and Russia, Russia led the race at every turn. They were first to launch a satellite (Sputnik), they were the first to send a living creature into space (Laika the dog). They were the first to send a person into space (Yuri Gagarin).  They were the first to take photos of the far side of the moon, etc.  It was this string of Russian firsts that spurred the US government to resolve to be first to “land a man on the moon”.  They had to be first at something… just to save face and win the next election.  

The interesting thing about all this is that the Russians spent less money than the Americans and yet achieved so much.  According to common lore the Americans spent $11,000,000 developing a pen that could write in zero gravity… whereas the Russians just used pencils. 

 When i look around at the way schools and education departments spend ICT money, it seems that very often they are developing “space pens”.  I read of schools that are running programs (often as a “pilot”) and to do this they have spent a lot of money buying devices, redesigning buildings and purchasing software to develop programs when all along there are free web 2.0 tools that will do basically the same thing, or devices that students already own that will suffice.  

But its about more than just saving money. The HUGE advantage of achieving a change in teaching and learning, using devices and software that students and teachers already have or can get for free, is that it is sustainable and reproducible.  Do you understand what I mean?  I heard recently of a school who is doing some really great stuff using expensive PDAs that were provided to them out of a grant.  While that is great… it’s only possible because of the funding. It can’t be easily transferred to other classes or schools, because THEY don’t have the same funding to do it.  So while the concept of what they are doing may be great, its impact on education is likely to be limited, because other classes don’t have access to it. 

There are examples of this all around.  Another example that comes immediately to mind is video conferencing. I visited a school recently that had installed a video conferencing suite including a high-def screen, camera, microphone, etc.  It’s cool stuff. But it costs about $5000 to set it up.  You can achieve practically the same result (pedagogically speaking) using Skype which is free and available to all students and teachers, in any classroom in any school.  The image quality is not as good in Skype.. and neither is the audio.  But good ideas for the educational use of Skype can be shared with colleagues and they can do it too.  Today.

Keeping Students Safe in a River of Content

How can we protect our students from certain kinds of information and content on the internet?  It used to be so easy to do. Ten years ago, most students’ only internet access was at school. Teachers really had complete control over what information students were exposed to, and importantly to this discussion, what information they were not exposed to.  If information were water, it was a trickling brook and it was not hard to build a weir, or divert water so that it missed our students, keeping them safe.

But carrying the same analogy forward, now, if information were water it would be a river.  Its impossible to divert water to avoid it reaching our students.  If we as teachers stand in the river, trying to divert the water to protect our students, it will just swirl around us as though we weren’t even there.  Instead we need to work with our students, and help them to safely negotiate the river of information that they are in.  ”Put your foot on that rock there, be careful! there’s a deep spot there, look out for that eddy!”.

Now I am not arguing that we should stop filtering content altogether.  There are some things that we must do to try to protect students from inadvertently stumbling upon unsavory material.  But (and here is the crux of my argument) if students are going to deliberately SEEK unsavory material, the fact is, we can no longer stop them even if we try to. They have internet at home, the tech-savvy ones can often get around our filters at school, they have mobile phones with internet access.  The only way to stop students finding unsavory material is to influence them so they no longer want to deliberately SEEK it out.

At the moment, our failing attempts to protect the few ill-meaning students who deliberately seek out offensive content, are successfully frustrating the educational experience of the well-meaning majority of students.

HOW we change the attitudes of those ill-meaning students, is another (and more challenging) topic.  But in an information-rich world, the role of a teacher can no longer be “information-controller”, it must increasingly be “shaper-of-attitudes”.

Schools used to be able to choose between shaping the choices of students (“difficult”) and just blocking the content (“easy”).  I don’t think we have that choice any more, as blocking content is no longer “easy” but “nearly impossible”.

iPhone 3G and the cloud. The game changed this week.

I’ve had an iPhone 3G for a week now. I have to say, I love it. I think, personally, that the iPhone changes the game as far as education and mobile devices is concerned. OK, Its not the first smartphone with web browsing, email, etc… but it is the first smart phone that I think will appeal to a teenage demographic. Why? Because its cool. Because it’s also an iPod. Because the graphic user interface is slick and sexy, and because students are currently carrying an iPod AND a phone, now they can carry the one device that is both. Because students WANT iPhones. Since I got mine…students have been drooling over it (not literally – I don’t let their saliva get anywhere near it!!). A number of my students have already decided to buy one. Now if students start carrying smart phones around, that will have a significant impact on their ability to access and share information. I think we are witnessing a pivotal moment in education.

But it’s not just it’s lovely GUI and svelte styling. What has impressed me most about the iPhone is it’s integration with Apple’s “MobileMe” service. Despite Apple’s rocky launch of MobileMe I have found it to work almost seamlessly.

MobileMe is an example of cloud computing. Rather than storing your files (emails, calendar, contacts, internet bookmarks, etc) on your computer’s hard drive, you store them on a server (or cloud) that you access with any device that has an Internet connection. For example, my calender, address book, bookmarks, email are now all in that cloud. As a result I can add an appointment to the calender on my computer and when I look at my iPhone it is there. There’s no need to plug the iPhone into the computer to sync them, they’re just always in sync. I started writing this blog post using my computer and here I am working on it using the wordpress application on my iPhone. If i delete a bookmark from my iphone, it is also removed from the bookmarks in Safari on my laptop. If I add a contact to my address book on my iPhone, it is already added to the address book on my computer/s.

It’s not perfect (yet) but it’s close enough that I can see the future. And I think that cloud computing and devices like the iPhone will have a profound effect on teaching and learning in schools. How long will it be before we see most kids with a device like this in their pockets? Not long, I don’t think. That made me start thinking about the implications of this on classrooms and schools. Here’s my list, but I’m sure it’s far from exhaustive.

1. The cost of computers will fall because a computer or device will need less and less storage space and processing power (storage and processing being done in the cloud instead of on the local computer). Also since students will buy these devices and be paying for the internet usage, the cost to schools will decrease even further.

2. Banning mobile phones and iPods in schools will be even more absurd than it is now, as these devices will now enable students to research, write blog entries, email, manage and share calendars and bookmarks. If we ban iPhones and other similar devices, schools will (at best) become increasingly irrelevant to students’ lives and (at worst) be standing in the way of our student’s learning potential. That’s a position I don’t think schools can afford to be in.

3. Schools that permit students to have and use iPods but not mobile phones will have to rethink that policy, as convergence is now a reality.

4. Student use of blogs, discussion boards, Instant messaging, social networking sites and chat will get a shot in the arm as students can blog on the bus ride home or leave a question or comment on a discussion forum while snuggled under the covers in bed at night. (The adaptive keyboard in the iPhone makes it possible to type really quite quickly compared to a conventional mobile phone).

5. Schools (whether they face the fact or not) are losing their ability to filter internet content that students are downloading while at school. So blocking sites like youtube is now as ineffectual as it is impossible since the iPhone has a youtube browser built right into the main menu! Instead we need to find other ways to promote the cybersafety of our students – and in my opinion, education is the only way to do that.

Banning Biros

As most people are no doubt aware, the New York City Department of Education has this year banned students from bringing mobile phones to any government public school.  That decision which was upheld by the Supreme Court last month.  This has got me thinking a lot about the items that we ban our students from using.  While the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) has not banned mobile phones (actually I think we are blessed to have a Department that by world standards promotes and fosters innovation), I have been to many schools lately that have bans of one sort or another on mobile phones, iPods, and even laptop computers!

I think there is mounting evidence that mobile phones, iPods, and other mobile learning devices have potential to be significant learning tools.  In my own classes I am tinkering with mobile phones (too early yet for me to start blogging about) but in my class the iPod has become a central teaching and learning tool – as important, I’d argue, as a text book or biro.

I see a wonderful irony in the fact that many (most?) schools ban phones and iPods.  Our profession revolves around the sharing of information, ideas and content.  Mobile phones and iPods have become phenomenally popular among our students because they are very efficient and effective ways of sharing information, ideas and content. So how did we get to a point where we ban the very tools that pave the path to the destination we are ultimately trying to reach?  

One reason that is often given is that students may use them inappropriately.  That is a legitimate concern.  There are lots of inappropriate things they might do with them.  They might take inappropriate video and send it to YouTube, they might use it to bully other students.  They might send text messages during valuable class time, or worse, their phone might ring during class and cause a disruption. They might get stolen.  I don’t want to downplay those issues.  They are real and important issues.  But rather than ban the TOOLS, I’d like to see us address the ISSUES (more on this in future posts).

Students use biros inappropriately too!  Some students make them into pea-shooters to fire spit balls , some students use them to write on each others arms and legs.   Some students use them to write notes which they pass during valuable class time.  They get stolen, too.  But we don’t ban biros.  Why not?  Because we know that if we did we would be compromising our students’ ability to communicate their learning.  Indeed we would be compromising our students’ learning itself.  Is it possible we are doing the same thing by banning personal mobile electronic devices? 

I don’t think the only issue is our fear of disruptions, or cyberbullying or inappropriate YouTube postings (as real as those issues are). I think it is that use of these tools does not fit with our current teaching practices.  It’s easier to just ban them and pretend things are the way they used to be, than to change our pedagogy to take advantage of these new communication conduits.

If a teacher confiscates an iPod from a student who was eagerly listening to an educational podcast, claiming that the iPod was disrupting “their” classroom – who, do you think,  is interrupting whom?  Now, I am not advocating anarchy – or suggesting that teachers should not have control of their classrooms – but I am advocating for teachers to question the reasons why they say ‘I don’t want to see iPods or mobile phones in class’ and to ask – “What if….”

Virtual Guest Speakers

 

Imagine if you could bring a guest speaker into your classroom to discuss what your students are learning about… not just someone from the local community, but a luminary, a legend, a world class expert!  Would someone like that be prepared to give up 10 minutes of their time to talk to your class?  I decided to find out.

An Idea that occurred to me when i was at the Innovative Teachers Conference in Hanoi, in April… was that it is now theoretically possible to bring anyone into the classroom using skype or other, similar, freely available ICTs.  The mind boggles.  In the past it was such a rare treat to get a guest speaker into a classroom to discuss something that the class was studying.  But that guest speaker was usually a parent, or someone from a local interest group (nothing wrong with that).  But I would never have even dreamed of asking someone like Professor Peter Doherty – the Nobel Prize Winning immunologist come to speak to my class.  But what if i could talk to him on skype, and have him talk to my class that way?  Video conferencing has been around for years, but it was costly, clunky, and unreliable.  But skype is free, simple to use, reliable and just works.  So I did it!  I called him up for an interview.  He was only too happy to share his thoughts with my students.  I asked him questions… some were mine, some were from students.  Ohh it was great – and he was pleased to be part of it.

Imagine the possibilities of this!  An English teacher could invite the very AUTHOR of the novel they are studying into the virtual classroom.  A media class could have a chat with Steven Spielberg!  A PE class could talk to Tiger Woods.  A music class could talk to … well there are so many to choose from – but not just someone from the local church choir! Paul McCartney!  Madonna!  It would take 5 minutes of these people’s time, but what an opportunity for students to engage with the world! My mind races… Would Barak Obama talk to a politics class?  

One of the things I always ask myself when i am looking at adopting a teaching tool or pursuing an idea, is “will my investment of time and effort result in me being able to do something that I can’t do as effectively, any other way?”  This can.  This lets a teacher bring bring the absolute best of the best, as guest speakers into a classroom – no matter where they live in the world.  Now come on… you have to admit your mind is welling up with possibilities too… It is, isn’t it?