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Chris Harbeck and Darren Kuropatwa are mathematics teachers in Canada; Chris at Sargent Park School, a junior high school in Winnipeg and Darren at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate only a few blocks from Sargent Park. In April 2008 they brought a few of their students to Manitoba for the Pan-Canadian Interactive Literacy Forum to speak about their learning experiences in their respective math classes using Web 2.0 tools. Listen to Chris and Darren and their students speak. Be ready to take notes on the interactive internet tools the students refer to that have become signposts for how technology has become a transparent backdrop to the real business of school – learning. More important however, be ready to be inspired by these teachers’ comments and the students’ presentations. Remember as you are watching and listening to these SlideShares that if students do not have teachers like Darren and Chis who are willing to learn how to use Web 2.0 tools and use them to push learning off the charts for their students, the students in our schools will never have the learning experiences of which these students speak.

Here is Chris Harbeck and three of his students, Kate, Karen, and Angelo, speaking about their learning.

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Here is Darren Kuropatwa and three of his students, Chris Cadonic, Graeme Weiss, and Mark Rabena, speaking about their learning.

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Finally, don’t miss the Q and A after the presentations, which you can find on Darren’s blog in a post on the conference right here.

Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0 , a post by Will Richardson prompted this comment on a project I am beginning with my grandson.

Will, I’ve been thinking a lot about the juxtaposition of the tremendous challenges we face as we try to improve schools systemically and the individual learner’s right to learn. Is it the story of learning students experience in schools that which is preventing them from fulfilling the promise we see for web 2.0 pedagogies, is it a broader issue of cultural norms and expectations that students have internalized, or is it something else?

I keep seeing in my mind’s eye the pictures of your children sitting in your home with their laptops open ready to learn with a teacher who is with them via the internet. (Don’t remember where the picture came from. Probably Pageflakes.) Right to learn triumphs over attempts to improve schools!

Here’s a conference session proposal I just submitted to MassCUE for their November 2008 conference that describes the platform my grandson and I intend to use to learn more on the topic.

In the original Greek version of the story Pygmalion is a sculptor who creates a statue into which Aphrodite breathes life. Every day students in schools throughout our country are learning without the benefit of 21st Century Web 2.0 pedagogies. What would happen if someone tried to add those pedagogies from outside the system? Google applications, digital story telling tools, blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds and aggregators are some of the tools teachers are using to help students become self-directed learners. If a high school student is not asked by teachers to use those tools, is it possible for a student to learn how to apply those tools to complete his assignments and breathe live into his own learning? In this session John, a Massachusetts public high school student who once told me he did not mind learning, it was the homework he could not stand, will join me to report on our efforts to add Web 2.0 pedagogies into his learning environment. Which tools help John with assignments? Which carry him beyond the assignments into new learning? We will report on what happened and speculate about the implications for John’s future learning and schooling in general.

Here’s John’s first assignment.

I’d love to have my network join the conversation as this project (Pygmalion Project) moves forward. I’m flying somewhat blind here and could use everyone’s help. You can start by commenting on this post.