Unplugged Yet Plugged In

I am back from an amazing six days in Mexico. I joined 24 high school students and 7 other adults from my church on a house-building trip through a group called Amor Ministries. It was a profound week in the lives of everyone - both in our group and the family who has a new home. I wish we had one of those "reality" TV crews following us so they could see the kids in our group and how they worked so hard to improve the life of a family they had never met. We built a home in four days using pretty much nothing but hand tools. That's right - kids from the OC were digging dirt and mixing cement and pounding nails and sawing wood and working long days. And why? Just because they love God and they take seriously his commands to look after the poor.

Of course, they were still teenagers so there was also a lot of cement fights and acting goofy and having a blast around the campfire each night. This group of kids were amazing and I had so much fun just hanging out with them. If you get depressed when you see the narcissistic, selfish, superficial teenagers that are constantly portrayed on television, don't worry - there are some great kids out there also. I was proud to be associated with them.

If you are reading this blog, you are probably a lot like me and are constantly connected to the Internet. One of the aspects of the trip that was so refreshing was to be completely unplugged - no Internet access, no computer, no cell phone service (we were camping so unfortunately there was also no hot water, no showers, and no electricity). I tend to be pretty compulsive about checking my email and using Bloglines to keep up on my favorite blogs. Even going a half-day without checking those services is unusual for me (weekends and vacations included), but it was amazing how quickly all of the things that seem so important suddenly became so irrelevant. Our entire group was focused on helping the family by getting that house done and everything else faded away. It was an awesome experience when we turned the keys over to the family. They went from a 6x12 foot shack with a leaky roof and dirt floor (shown above) to a 22x22 home built with pride and love (see below).

I think it struck everyone in the group how much we have. The home we built would just be a garage by our standards, but to this family it was literally their dream come true. The disparity between our standard of living and the standard just a short drive down the freeway is remarkable. We can argue all day about why it's that way, but the kids in our group wouldn't be interested in that conversation. There is a need, God tells us to meet it, and so they went. And they can hardly wait to go back. And I can hardly wait to unplug again and join them.

Higher Ed Blog Con

Looks like there is a very cool blog conference happening at Higher Ed Blog Con. It bills itself as "a fully web-based event focused on how new online communications technologies and social tools are changing Higher Education". It just started on April 3rd and runs through the end of the month. I haven't had time to check much of it out yet, but at first glance it looks like it will be a fantastic resource to those of us interested in this space.

Web 2.0

There has been a lot of discussion in the technical blogosphere about Web 2.0. Most of the discussion centers around how just about everybody hates the name (but ironically, by talking about it,they just perpetuate the name even more). No one has come out with a new release of the web, but there are some very exciting trends that make the web a far more interactive and compelling place to spend time.

This discussion has now gone mainstream - Newsweek magazine has a cover story about this topic (they call it the "Live Web" which amazingly manages to be an even lamer moniker than "Web 2.0" - was the old web "dead"?). On their web site, they have a quiz entitled How Geeky Are You? Take it and see how you do (I got a 58, which just fell short of the highest level of nerdiness - I'm devastated but determined to get geekier).

Web 2.0 basically involves two emerging trends:

1. New web sites that use technology known as AJAX to create a richer user experience in a web browser
2. New web sites that enable a collaborative community experience

Google Maps was one of the first sites to use AJAX in a very compelling way. The ability to drag a map around the screen, zoom in and out, and flag areas of the map are all examples of what AJAX technology can do for you. Microsoft is releasing technology known as ATLAS that we are starting to use in our MySite 2.0 project and I'm really excited about how it is going to make our services a richer experience for our students. Microsoft is coming out with a new version of their hotmail service that I'm beta-testing that is very cool. It basically gives you the full capabilities of Outlook (including things like drag-and-drop) in a web browser.

The second trend is even more interesting because it doesn't center around the technology (though many of the sites use AJAX), but centers around human interaction. The collaborative side of the Internet is exploding with sites like MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, Digg, and the thousands of blogs that spring up every day. When I used to teach an Introduction to the Internet course, I emphasized how the Internet has always been more about information and communication than technology. The rapid emergence of these kinds of sites just underscores that point.

The question for those of us working in education is: How do we leverage these trends to better serve students?

Update: If you want to keep an eye on new Web 2.0 sites, I highly recommend TechCrunch.
Another Update: I just ran across a site that lists the Web 2.0 awards. Should be a good place to see some examples of what Web 2.0 is supposed to be about.