I'm in Washington, DC this week for NECC, and already the trip has been extraordinary. I want to share one story with you.

After the edubloggercon gathering on Saturday, the great folks from Wikispaces held a reception. While mingling with the guests we met a young man, Evan Morikawa, who seemed to be soacking this all in with special interest. He appeared to be about 19 (younder, actually) so we were curious of his connection. It turns out that he is one of the co-founders of Alightlearning.com. That, in istself was pretty cool, but his story is even better.

He was happily attending college in Massachusets, somewhere (Sorry, I forget where) when his friend received an invitation to the premier showing of the Google Wave. Everyone who was lucky enough to be there received an API code so that they could begin to develop apps for this amazing product. That changed their lives. They were so blown away by the possibilities of that app that they then began to view college as just being in their way. They dropped out of college to begin work on their app idea.

That alone is pretty amazing and gutsy isn't it? But, we loved his response when asked why he thought they could make it in this economy when other web services have failed. Evan replied, "Because Blackboard sucks and they charge $100,000 per school." :-)

I love their idea for their app, and I love their attitude. Can't wait to see their Google Wave app when it's released later this year. Good luck, guys.

Another reason why I love twitter. Today @dwarlick posted a link to this video of twitscoop in which we see clearly how the world was chatting about the news of Michael Jackson's death. Watch closely and you'll see his name appear in the list, but not very large. Then you can see it grow as more and more people spread the news. Suddenly the word arrest appears. Then Cardiac. Finally, at the end you can see the key words have told the story.

Very interesting. I encourage you to visit the twitscoop site and watch the live cloud for a while.
- - -

At today's workshop about an hour North of here, I asked the teachers (in a polleverywhere poll) to tell me what they thought was the purpose of school. Not original, certainly. But, the idea was to ask again at the end to see if their thoughts had changed. The session ran long so I didn't get to ask the seond time. Here, though, is the list of thoughts that they submitted during the first round:

To prepare students for the future.
help children learn- keep their minds busy
To create an educated population that is capable of supporting the needs of the nation such that all people have access to resources that are essential to life.
It depends on whose point of view we are using. The government's point of view is to create "good" citizens. The business world's point of view is to create good workers and problem solvers. The academic world's point of view is to create good thinkers.
The purpose of school is to promote life-long learning.
To educate students and make them self-reliant is the purpose of school.
the purpose of school is to help each child reach their potential
To prepare students for career and social needs.
The purpose of school is to create independent, adult learners.
to facilitate student learning and to prepare them for success in the real world
How to acquire and learn new informaton
the purpose is to input the brain as much as possible
To help students to use critical thinking, to help them to be able to gather information and to use it in our global community.
The purpose of school is the provide opportunities for every student to develop their potential so that they may be productive members of society.
To prepare students for be productive members of society.
provide core information and prepare students for the future
To educate young individuals preparing them for tomorrow.
to learn
to impart knowledge: about academics and everyday living
To educate students and prepare them for life whether it be academia or job-force.
To be competent citizen in a democracy.
The purpose of school is to educate our students so that they can have the tools necessary to enhance their knowledge and skills to contribute or acquire a 21st century career.
for a job
To facilitate and provide experiences that encourage curiosity and learnintg in a safe and caring atmosphere.
The purpose of school is to educate children so they may become a productive member of society as it is today and also as it will be in the future.
To provide educational opportunities for all students with a variety of learning styles.
To educate students in all subject areas. To build confidence in students and to build life skills.

Interesting, no?

It's only 10:00 AM, and I've been at my computer for only an hour or so. But, in that hour I've learned a TON of things from my friends on twitter. What a day it's been already.

First, let me apologize to those folks who tweeted some of these and I can't seem to find them now to give you credit.

Some of what I learned:

• From @weareteachers, this link to some GREAT videos showing some VERY powerful lesson ideas. http://www.weareteachers.com/web/cybersummit/classroom
• Then, someone (sorry!) pointed to a publication on this site: http://www.yudu.com that looks like a fun way to publish flyers and other documents. You'll need a flashy template, but still, it looks interesting.
• @webgalpat retweeted a post by @teachtec that pointed to THIS super deal for students on the Microsoft Office suite for under $60. http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx
• @gearth (you KNOW that I point to that blog often) tweeted about an article that talks about how the web reacted to the crash of the French airliner, and in there I found that a wikipedia page had been created about it and was updated hourly. This will surely be mentioned in the next "Here Comes Everybody" edition, eh?
• Someone else pointed to a mashable article that had a list of some excellent Twitter tutorial videos where I learned about a feature in tweetdeck that connects you to 12seconds.tv. There you can use the site to record a twelve second video and have it posted directly to twitter of Facebook. I turned on Camtwist and recorded a short video showing my desktop. http://tiny12.tv/CD6SC
• Another Mashable article was mentioned that talked about the top 6 features of the Google Wave that will change EVERYTHING. An excellent article.
• @AngelaMaiers retweeted @mrstg who pointed us to funnelbrain.com where you can created editable flashcards.
• @ShiftParadigm pointed us to this SEDTA article about strategies and tactics that states are using to try to get better results in student achievement.
• @rww pointed us to an article that talks about how NASA is using the Semantic web to help power its Constellation Program
• And @weareteachers again had a link with a catchy phrase for librarians: "A Library provides not just a place, but an opportunity!" I LOVE that one!
• Then, @Hertzog pointed the gamers among us to a trailer that really DOES look AWESOME. Incredible graphics sure to raise the bar.

Not sure about twittter? Really, you have to try it. Follow the educators. You'll learn more in a day than you did in an entire class that you may have taken in your life.

Yikes! It's now almost 11:00 AM. No, the article didn't take this long to write. I just got distracted by other tweets.