Teachers and administrators working together to advance Web 2.0 projects

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a presentation for an upcoming CoSN webinar (16-Jan-2008) and would like to hear from you. I’m joining Susan Brooks-Young and Connie Sitterly for a panel presentation entitled “Think Before You Ban: How Classrooms Become Communities.” Susan is going to provide an overview of how Web 2.0 apps are being used in schools today; Connie is going to speak to integrating web-based applications into school networks (they are rolling out Google Apps district-wide); and I am going to discuss best practices for teacher/administrator communication and support throughout the process. Got a second? Great! Read on!

My goal is to help our audience (mostly technology types, network administrators, CTOs, etc.) understand how they can best work with their teachers to develop and deploy innovative Web 2.0 projects while ensuring student safety, maintaining network security, and understanding district liability. I want to help them respond to requests to use these great, free Web 2.0 tools in a productive way, starting a conversation that asks the right questions and ultimately leads to a successful project - or, heads off a potentially troublesome one before things get messy.

Are you a teacher that has had good results implementing Web 2.0 projects? If so, to what do you attribute your success getting them off the ground, and what advice do you want to share?

Or, perhaps you’ve tried unsuccessfully to get a project approved. What roadblocks did you encounter?

Maybe you’re an administrator who is constantly besieged with requests for these projects. In a perfect world, what information would YOU want from your teachers when they present the idea to you?

Finally, you might be an administrator at an innovative district, with many cutting-edge Web 2.0 projects already underway. How did you get there? What does technology project planning look like in your district? What can we all learn from you?

Please take a moment and share your thoughts! If you prefer, I can be reached via email at kevin [dot] jarrett [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thanks in advance, and, Happy New Year!

-kj-