When Google Wave finally releases later this year it is going to stir up things across almost every industry. It has tremendous implications for education and stands to be the most intuitive collaboration tool ever conceived. Check out my post on ISTEConnects and let me know what you think! How might this tool might shape the future of education? See you at NECC 2009 very soon!
Education's fear of technology drives me crazy. Schools need to adopt the world, the good the bad and the ugly. Yes there are bad things in this world they're everywhere and background checks can't remove them. We need to educate students on how to deal with these "threats", how to work in a collaborative environment with people across the world. Just as we teach them how to evaluate the information they find on the net, we must do the same with the people / sites / technology they come across.
Our company is already developing it as a teacher PD tool. It is truly a "new way to think" about online collaboration, but I do doubt the hype about the most intuitive "ever conceived." :-) Maybe the best at this moment. I would second the recommendation to investigate it when it comes out. DO watch the video as Joseph says. It sold me in the beginning.
Over the past couple of weeks I have been running a contest on my blog in which I offered to give away nine Wave invitations for creative uses of this new product. I had over 70 entries and a lot of good ideas. I have posted the best on my blog: http://electriceducator.blogspot.com/2009/10/9-ways-to-use-google-w...
If anyone else has some invitations to give out, I'd love to get one. I think it would be a great way for teachers to communicate collaboratively (especially when we don't get any time to work together during the school day). For example, we have a new textbook series this year. It would be great to be able to use Google Wave to develop new unit plans and common assessments to make the most of this new series in the very first year.
I've added you to my contacts list on Google Wave, Leesa. The first thing a newbie waver needs to do is to enter "with:public" in the search bar in the centre column. This will give you a look at the diversity of "stuff" being waved. It really is mind-boggling. Then try "with:public classroom".
Try this... http://bit.ly/1RSocv - "Wave in Class" includes about 195 people...158 "blips" on this wave so far. Also ties in the twitter ids of some of those folks so that you can follow them on Twitter.
I currently have 30 more invites to Google Wave that I was given yesterday. If you're interested in one, send me the email address you'd like to use to participate in Google wave and I'll send you an invite.
When you finally get an account, this wave -- Wave in Class - includes a 195 early adopters iteratively learning about Google Wave and sharing thoughts on how to use Google Wave.
I've also created a "twitter list" which includes the twitter ids and tweet stream of some of those 195 folks already on Google Wave.