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Everything George Lakoff says here about the importance of framing in our conversations about Climate Change is just as true about the importance of framing in our conversations about Reforming the US Education System.

We’re wasting our breath unless the ways we speak about using Web 2 tools to support informal and formal education connect with people’s fundamental values. Values like truth-telling and practicality and the importance of following our pioneering spirit.

 Authenticity and freedom of choice aren’t “bleeding edge” values. They’re grounded in the very heart-and-soul of what it means to be an American. Doing what works in ways that were easiest for most people to access was at the heart of the original movement to create public education.

What Lakoff has been writing and speaking about for 30 years needs to be applied now to integrate social media into US “classrooms,” whether they’re in public buildings or private homes.  The American way of life is already a polar bear on a fast-melting iceberg in the sea of globalized economics.  Using Web 2 tools to teach and learn can slow down this meltdown…  It’s time to change our thinking about them from “new” to “necessary.”  They are the life preserver we’re throwing ourselves.  

Starting today, our radio show, “Teaching For A Living, Not Just A Paycheck” will now be hosted both here and on my profile page inside the WeAreTeachers Network.

Show #2 features an interview with Mark Cruthers, an AP History teacher living in Pinion Hills, California, where he teaches both face-to-face and online.

Monday to Friday, from 7:30am to 3:30pm, Mark teaches traditional high school students face-to-face. Then, after 4pm, Mark teaches teaches homeschool students - online.

Last year, he and his wife, Deborah, made an extra $25,000 teaching 13 homeschoolers AP History, AP English and AP Psychology using a free, virtual classroom tool called WizIQ. And every one of them passed their AP History exams with flying colors, too!

I’d call what Mark’s doing teaching for a living, not just a paycheck.

Listen to him talk about how he’s doing this here:

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I don’t know about you, but the more I talk about Web2 and the emergence of independent online teaching in places OUTSIDE online social networks, the more I feel like some kind of crazy Paul Revere (or maybe more like Lady Godiva) riding through the dark crying, “Web 2 is coming! Web 2 is coming!” And only a few people are waking up.In way too many face-to-face encounters, I keep having folks cock one eye at me, furrow their brows, and ask something like, “What IS Web 2.0, Meri?”

Well, for starters, it’s the end of business as usual for everyone. Across the globe! It’s the end of “authority” as we have known it and the start of a global rush into participation like we’ve never known before.

Despite George Bush’s best efforts to the contrary, it’s simply the end of command-and-control.

And it’s already happened. Only it’s not just the BRITISH who are coming… it’s the WHOLE GLOBE!

Web 2.0 is nothing less than a world-wide shift of power from the hands of a few to the hands of EVERYONE. And it’s already underway.

Web 2.0 is an all-encompassing revolution that is changing the very ground that business, government, teachers and learners walk on everyday.

So, if you’re someone who’s been too busy just coping with the avalanche of day-to-day and you want to better understand Web 2.0. I recommend you take 50 minutes to watch this video. It’s a conversation between a group of people at the 2007 World Economic Forum talking about the crucial issue: “What do we know about Web 2.0?” It’s a year old, but it’s still packed with great insights!

You’ll recognize the names of the participants:

Caterina Fake, Founder, Flickr, USA • William H. Gates III, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation, USA • Chad Hurley, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, YouTube, USA • Mark G. Parker, President and Chief Executive Officer, Nike, USA • Viviane Reding, Commissioner, Information Society and Media, European Commission, Brussels Challenger • Dennis Kneale, Managing Editor, Forbes Magazine, USA Moderated by • Peter Schwartz, Chairman, Global Business Network, USA .

My research process these days has me following the trails of brave explorers, digging deeper when I find something that interests me, sharing it, and getting feedback. Not so surprising for a woman who has decided to park her wagon right close to the end of the Oregon Trail, I guess.

I’ve been so busy that I haven’t posted here… and that’s got to stop today.

So, Jane Hart has been my personal Sacajawea for at least three months now…and she’s just published her Top 25 personal faves from the Top 100 solicitation she does each year.

Here’s a link to the report:
http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/articles/25tools.html

Did she leave out any of your faves? Which ones? I’m rabidly really curious about how people are using these tools - both inside conventional learning systems and outside them.

I spent an exciting morning exploring WebSlides - not on this list.

Looks to me like the next big technology for teachers of all kinds …

WebSlides

What do you think?

I’m Meri Aaron Walker and I’ve been an independent teacher, trainer, coach, and consultant my entire working life. Over 35 years.

I’ve produced media of all kinds since my first job, writing radio ads for an underground music station in 1967. I’ve been teaching and learning on the internet since before we had Windows or graphical browsers – over 20 years now. And I’ve been studying the emergence of a new, global, digital culture since before the “public” realized what we were creating together using computers.

For my whole adult life, my work has been helping other people get from Point A to Point B faster and less expensively – and more enjoyably - than they could without me.

And, until now, I’ve quite purposefully avoided making a commitment to blogging.

Why?

Bottom line: I was waiting for the rules of engagement online to morph from more and more subtle command-and-control games to fair, two-way exchanges that benefit both parties. From serial monologue to genuine dialogue.

In other words, I was waiting for social networking to start taking hold in business, education and politics.

And it has.

During the latter half of 2007, I watched Web 2.0 shoot past its adolescence into young adulthood. Early in January, 2008, I watched Facebook sponsor and debrief the most substantive political debate I’ve seen in three decades. And, in my own participation in two dozen social networks, I’ve been watching global dialogue accelerate to the point that I can see the best way for me to manage my participation is to open this blog space and host the conversations I want to be in.

So, Ta-DAAAH!

Welcome to MAW’S TOOLBOX – a place for teachers, trainers, coaches and consultants to discover the Web 2 that works for you.

Intention
I intend for MAW’S TOOLBOX to be

1) a place to engage with me and teachers of all kinds who realize the environment for “teaching” and “learning” has definitively changed - in other words, we’re just not in Kansas anymore!

2) a place for people so excited by Web2 tools and strategies that we’re transitioning our careers into online “teaching” businesses

3) a place to share what we’re learning as we connect directly with global learners – anytime and anywhere they need our help – outside conventional systems and conventional “courseware”

4) a place to start turning your expertise into a reliable new source of CA$H for your and your family.

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