Wait No More

Gone are the days when we waited to read about the latest happenings on Yahoo, Google, ZDNet, or your other favorite news & search resource. You will tell your children and grandchildren..."remember when we had to wait to read about it online minutes after it happened?" Your parents will say...'Why, I remember when we had to wait to hear it on the 5 o'clock news."


Last year I participated in the WWDC twitterverse and instantaneously heard the news of the iPhone release, app store as it was happening. It was so amazing to get the news just seconds after Apple made the announcements at the live event. It was as though we were getting it even before CNN could poston their program or other well-known broadcasts either on TV or online. And the best part, it was coming from average folks like you and me sharing their tweets to all us iPhone junkies waiting for the announcements.

Yesterday was no different, but I did seem to get a better handle on it and even got information quicker if you can believe that. Tapping into Ustream, me and so many others, were able to tap into a live video feed of the WWDC as it was happening live. Even the tweets couldn't catch up with that. Again, everyday folks, albeit tech types, were sharing their video stream, probably running off of their jailbroken iPhone, with the rest of the world. Further, sites like Engadget, and Gizmodo were sharing images as the slides were being shared live. So even if the video was grainy at best, the images on the blog sites were crystal clear. To play it out further, I used the search function on Twitter to aggregate the #WWDC twitter feeds as they came by. I was amazed that at any given time, an average of about 250 tweets every five seconds were coming across the screen. It was truly mind blowing.

What an amazing experience and a long way we have come... It was as though I was actually there in San Francisco. And, seconds, minutes later, the rest of the web was able to post all the same things I heard right to their websites. Later that day, news stations shared their remarks about the price of the iPhone and it's capabilities. By then, it was old news and best of all, I didn't have to sit through bad commercials.

What a truly extraordinary day. To not only get content anytime, anywhere, but just as it is happening in all forms... from video, to status updates, to tweets, to blog images and comments and the list goes on... truly amazing.

So here's what I used to engage in the WWDC experience:

1. http://live.gizmodo.com/ - this gave me access to the images and comments as they appeare. (A bit delayed.. about 2-5 seconds; very slow according to our standards today.)
2. http://search.twitter.com/search?q=WWDC - formally known as 'summize.com,' I used this twitter aggregator to get all the latest tweets from followers and their reactions.
3. http://www.ustream.tv/ - last but not least, i used the Ustream channel that was being broadcasted live on the show floor. Audio was great.

So if this can all be done around our education system, why can't we do it within our system, or better yet, create a new system? Today's learners and leaders all around us are doing these very skills. If we are truly to be a 21st Century learner and 'globally aware,' we need to take advantage of what is going on around us. Virtual learning, anytime access and content ready for teachers and students is the mode of operation for learners today. Textbooks and limited access is not going to drive us into the 21st century.

All this being said, I will admit, I am an rookie at this live tweet, Ustream, blog experience. However, I also want to share that this is not something I went to school for or received in-depth training on. This experience, or 'skill,' was acquired through trial and error, practice and following best practices of practitioners and others who have engaged in these experiences before. Through participation in social communities, reading blog posts, following Twitter members, reading and watching live videos and podcasts, many of the skills to acquire the information yesterday was self taught or learned through the online community. These are the experiences that our students are doing at home and outside the firewalls.

Today's learners will not wait anymore for us to catch up.

Tune into the P21 Cyber Summit to participate with thought leaders and educators who are pushing the envelope to get our students prepared for 21st Century learning.