Ben Wilkoff 's Academy of Discovery (School 2.0, Part 11)

For months, I've been listening to this guy who records himself talking in the car (and no, it's not Kevin Honeycutt!). He calls his recording series and blog "Discourses about Discourse," and most of them are discussions with himself about his attempts to implement "School 2.0:" his use of the tools of the web in his classroom, how his students are responding, what feedback he is getting from the parents, and his concerns about how his students will do next year when they don't have t

he same ability to use the web. These soliloquies are surprisingly engaging, and they belong to Ben Wilkoff, a 7th and 8th grade language arts teacher at Cresthill Middle School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

Ben is only 24, but it's a wise voice that comes to me through my mp3 player (by the way, Ben--and others--remember that many of us have to convert your mp4 files every time we download them!) I invited Ben to describe his "Academy of Discovery" in this recorded interview, and I was impressed enough that I nominated Ben for the Edutopia/Yahoo! for Teachers Totally Wired Teacher Award--largely based on his stories of how he has had to work with the parents of his students to help them understand what he is teaching. Now, I may not have been the only one to nominate Ben, but I will take some credit for the fact the HE WON and will be flying to San Francisco later this month to accept this award. Turns out Ben was also and early Ning user...

In the crush to get ready for three conferences in June, poor Ben's interview has been delayed about a month getting posted. It's not the only one--I've got some other zingers still in the hopper!

Listen to the the Interview in MP3 format Listen to the Interview in Vorbis OGG format