Why Now!

About a year ago I entered the School 2.0 arena without even knowing it. I discovered podcasting. I was so excited about this new tool that I spent many hours learning everything I could about it. It wasn't long after listening to my first podcast, School of Podcasting, that I wanted to podcast. As they say, "The rest is history".

Podcasting has led me down paths that I never dreamed I would travel. I have met several great people as well. Everyone involved with podcasting has been just wonderful.

I co-produce two podcasts for educators. One podcast involves three educators. It is called the TechPodZone. We discuss technology and the classroom. We have a lot of fun doing what we do and we hope people enjoy it.

The other podcast that I co-produce is called PSUCast. It is a podcast for PowerSchool users. PowerSchool is a popular student management system.

Both of these podcasts have taken me to several NYS conferences as a presenter and to the T&L Conference in Dallas, Texas. That was my first national conference! All of this in just one year! It all happened before I even new I had entered the Web 2.0.

As I stated before I have met so many good people. It was during a recording of the TechPodZone that I learned what Web 2.0 was really all about. Vickie Davis "Cool Cat Teacher" from Comilla, Georgia was an excellent guest. She motivated me to dig deeper into Web 2.0 or the ReadWrite Web.

Since that interview I have had my technology department at school install WordPress, Twiki, and Loudblog. I have used Classblogmeister in the one class that I teach. The tools that I have discovered and the techniques used to deliver the instruction have started to transform me from teacher 1.0 to teacher 2.0. I can't wait for version 3.0!

I want to share my classroom experiences and my discoveries with all teachers. The teachers that have not yet discovered this are the ones I would like to talk to. The challenge as I see it is, how to get these teachers on the upgrade path?

I hope to discuss how teachers can use these tools and all of the ones yet to be discovered. Join me on the path to School 2.0. Schools of the 21 century!