Proliferation of Web 2.0 Apps, Chitch.at, Teach the People, others

We know about Wikis, podcasts, blogs, Google apps (which seem to be increasing nearly every day - what about Google Sky, huh?  Amazing, and so many educational possibilities), Twitter, etc.  But there are new ones coming up all the time.  Tuesday I met with Jack Phelps to see Chitch.at which is an answer to Blackboard and Moodle, but adds a lot more, such as math functionality with a teacher-friendly approach.  It's being written in Ruby on Rails.  Could be very useful to schools - and right now they're looking for schools to pilot it - for free.  I've also been speaking with the people running Teach the People which is still in beta but is another fascinating concept - taking the idea (not the content) already done by several universities that are putting their curriculum online for everyone - but adding more tracking, feedback and other features.  They're also in beta and looking for participants.

All very exciting possibilities - and both headed up by Millenials - born after 1980 - who never knew about a life without computers as completely part of their environment. I wonder what else Millenials will come up with - probably more amazing things to transform teaching, learning and communities.   Makes me think of how important our jobs as educators are - to be sure technology is used in meaningful ways - and that our students learn about discerning use of technology and how the world can be improved with technology.