For those who don't know me personally may not know of my personal mission in education. My life goal is to constantly build and rebuild the global classroom - an interconnected digital classroom made of students from around the world who constructively work on projects facilitated by high-quality teachers. Thinking of stealing my idea? Awesome, go for it. The mission is so important, I believe, that the goal is to get it done. I'd love your help though, so please feel free to email me if you are interested: markwguay@gmail.com.
I love the idea of telepresence and in light of what was discussed at this years World Economic Forum, world leaders also believe in the incredible benefit of such an amazing technology. Haven't seen it yet? Watch it here.
Three potential telepresence scenarios:
Imagine an adolescent in front of a laptop linked with once-strangers from a distant land collaborating on a Prezi to create a class presentation on World War II. The classmates then go on to each present to their home-based classes.
Imagine a NYC youngster staring into an iPad to chat with a lad from Ireland, both sharing their childhood stories. Then, collaborating to write a new one through cloud-based word processing (i.e. Google Documents) to share with siblings or younger children.
Imagine a first-world student brushing his teeth in a faucet, showering, then driving to his first period class link with a third-world student who ran six miles to school. Both linked with a smart-mobile device and large screen.
Or imagine a world of glass:
In this video, Corning Glass in Corning, New York showcases how the digital interface of glass can transform our lives from waking up to a bright sunrise, to fixated learning in school, to even transforming nature hikes through the famous Redwood Forest to a prehistoric tramp with a near T-rex disaster.
I've been to Corning as a child and stared transfixed on the molting, shifting colors of glass, always afraid I would step wrong and break something. Now, glass is stronger than ever with the ability to have a finger control it, even one of a toddler.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you think these new discoveries in Corning could enhance the design of school. Could this technology be so cheap one day to become a one-for-one type of program to link first to third world countries?