Star Trek and the collective

Have you ever watched StarTrek? Many of us who have a passion for ICT used to thrive on the latest gadgets and what our future might be. It was always the unknown and I guess much of it is coming true.

Many of the StarTrek ideas have become reality. The notebook computer, lasers, the universal translators is almost complete and I have to say the hollo deck is not far from the Wii.

So after a month of non posting on blogger, what made me find time to talk about StarTrek? Well it’s actually Twitter that I want to talk about as I have been following a number of educators who are having the debate, where would Twitter fit into education. I am a sceptic and have yet to be convinced, even after following someone like Steve Whitaker for some time. I now know what TV shows he watches, the food he eats and what he does when he is bored. Hardly educational. I have watched my friend Kathy Schrock grapple with the education use of Twitter as well, while Will Richardson and David Warlick are heavy users and sing it’s praises.

This week I was presenting at the ICTEV conference and in my second session on “The World of Google”, I had several delegates, who much to my amusement seemed more focused on Twitter than my talk.
On closer observation I realised that they were actually very engaged in what was happening in the room and had a very strong network of friends Australia wide who were also technology and education enthusiasts. For many of this network of friends, Melbourne was too far to travel to attend a one day conference, so they linked up, real time using Twitter.

So my workshop was full with 25 participants, however another 20 or more were all over Australia, actively connecting to each hyperlink or web site I mentioned and just as involved and engaged as those in the room. In many cases they asked questions which were redirected by their friends in the room to me. All using Twitter.

I thought to myself. This is just like the collective in StarTrek. It’s how the Borg worked. They were connected at all times, no matter where they were.

So Twitter now has my tick of approval. I have two new followers in Jo and Sheila and I will have to post more often. www.twitter.com/ausgreg

I guess this is also why kids are so drawn to new technologies. They like to be connected at all times. Why are kids so connected and the users in my session using Twitter? Because they have built networks to assist and learn from each other and they value their network members, the conversations, the communication and friendship this brings.

So why do we not have this in all our classrooms?