Notes from Millie D

Last summer I read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point“.  I would consider this book a must read, on the same level as “The World Is Flat”.  The basic premise of the book is that there is some point or influence that takes a movement or trend and turns it into a phenomenon.  Since reading the book I’ve wondered when will Web 2.0 reach the tipping point in education.  There are so many people who speak about the wonderful things that Web 2.0 tools have done for the classrooms but the concept is still very foreign to the mainstream education.  The mainstream still seems to lump Web 2.0 and MySpace together as being one in the same which is very far from the truth.

I recently read Jeff Utecht’s post at the Thinking Stick.  He talked about the fact we may be measuring the wrong generation when it comes to Web 2.0 tools.  His assertion is that we need to make sure as many children know how to use this type of technology  so they can function in a flat world.  I hadn’t thought about it in that way but it makes sense.  The tipping point is going to come from the next generation not from mine or the ones before me.

Does this mean we forget about my generation or the ones before me?  Absolutely not, we need to spend the time but we don’t need to focus the time solely here.  By changing the perspective of the problem a solution seems to be in sight.  Now it is up to us to do the best we can in becoming the mavens to make the largest impact we can on influencing the tipping point of Web 2.0 tools in education.