My slide deck from my presentation to the Canadian Association of Independent Schools Best Practices conference in April, 2010. This Keynote was made and presented on the iPad. All images except for the screen shots of the web browser tool bars were made using Adobe Ideas for the iPad. The original presentation did not have the text slides--I've added those in place of my voice over.

1. THE WEB IS THE
PLATFORM
Brad Ovenell-Carter
Presented at the Canadian Association of Independent Schools
Best Practices Conference
April 30, 2010

2. THE FOLLOWING PRESENTATION WAS MADE ENTIRELY ON
THE IPAD USING KEYNOTE AND ADOBE IDEAS, EXCEPT FOR
THE SCREENSHOTS OF THE WEB BROWSER TOOLBARS.
THOSE WERE CLIPPED ON MY MACBOOK PRO AND EDITED
IN SKETCH.
THE TEXT PAGES DID NOT APPEAR IN THE ORIGINAL. I'VE
ADDED THEM IN HERE IN PLACE OF MY VOICE OVER.

4. THE IDEA OF "THE WEB IS THE
PLATFORM" GREW OUT OF
ANOTHER. IDEA...

6. I WAS TOLD AND READ THAT YOUNG
PEOPLE WERE JUMPING ON THE
TECHNOLOGY BANDWAGON.
IN 2008...

9. SO, THINKING THAT IF I BUILD IT THEY
WILL COME, I ROLLED OUT EVERY
TECHNOLOGY I THOUGHT MIGHT BE
USEFUL FOR ME AND MY STUDENTS.

11. BUT, WHERE I EXPECTED CHEERS I HEARD
GROANS.
THEY WERE...

13. IT WASN'T THE NUMBER OF TOOLS
THAT HAD THEM ON THEIR KNEES.
IT WAS THE FACT THAT THEY JUST
COULDN'T SEE THE POINT OF USING
THE TOOLS AT ALL.

14. AT FIRST I THOUGHT THIS MIGHT HAVE
SOMETHING TO DO WITH OUR
DEMOGRAPHIC.
BUT AFTER TWEETING AND SKYPING
COLLEAGUES AROUND THE WORLD, IT
SEEMED THIS WAS A...

16. I LOOKED FOR SOME DATA TO
SUPPORT THE STORIES I WAS HEARING:

18. BUT I FOUND A SIMPLER
EXPLANATION.

19. IN ALL HUMAN HISTORY, THERE HAS
NEVER BEEN AN IDEA THAT HAS BEEN
ADOPTED UNIVERSALLY OR WITH
EQUAL ENTHUSIASM BY EVERYONE

20. No idea in history universally adopted
Chris in Oz
Very simple bell curve with chasm

21. WHENNWE LOOK AT THE WAY PEOPLE
ADOPT TECHNOLOGY IN PARTICULAR,
WE GET THIS:

23. AND I WAS FIRMLY STUCK HERE:

25. NOW, I LIKE THAT SORT OF SIMPLE
EXPLANATION.

26. HERE'S ANOTHER SIMPLE IDEA THAT SAYS
IT ALL: WE DON'T GO TO THE HARDWARE
STORE BECAUSE WE WANT TO BUY...

28. WE GO TO THE HARDWARES STORE
BECAUSE WE NEED TO...

30. I HAD BEEN THINKING ABOUT
TECHNOLOGY AS A DRILL.

32. THOSE ARE ALL NOUNS.

34. WHEN, REALLY, WHAT WE WANTED WAS TO
DO STUFF, TO MAKE HOLES, SO TO SPEAK

35. SO I ASKED MYSELF, WHAT DO WE DO
ONLINE? I CAME UP WITH 5 ACTIVITIES.

37. WE RESEARCH

38. WE PRODUCES THINGS SUCH AS ESSAYS
BUT ALSO BLOGS, ARTWORKS,
PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEOS AND PODCASTS...

39. WE PUBLISH THOSE THINGS BY HANDING
THEM IN FOR ASSESSMENT OR UPLOADING
THEM TO YOUTUBE AND SO ON.

40. WE TALK ABOUT THEM AFTER THEY'RE
PUBLISHED. THIS COULD BE A TEACHER'S
COMMENT OR GRADE OR A THREADED
DISCUSSION IN A NING FORUM, ETC.

41. FINALLY, WE USE CALENDARS AND TO
DO LISTS TO MANAGE OUR TIME AND
TASKS (AND AS WE WORK MORE
COLLABORATIVELY, THIS BECOMES
INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT.)

42. NOW, JUST AS WE DON'T SAY TO OUR
STUDENTS, "LET'S DO SOME
PENCILLING!"...

44. I WANTED A WAY TO MAKE THE
TECHNOLOGY INVISIBLE AND FOCUS
ON THE END RESULT.

45. INSTEAD OF HAVING A BLOGGING PLATFORM, A
SEARCHING PLATFORM, A CALENDAR PLATFORM
ETC. I WANTED ONE PLATFORM TO RULE THEM ALL.

47. HERE'S HOW WE HAVE ALL OUR
STUDENTS SET UP THEIR BROWSERS:

49. YOU CAN SEE THAT THE PLATFORMS DO
NOT APPEAR. INSTEAD WE FIRST ASK
WHAT IT IS WE WANT TO DO.

50. THEN WE OPEN A FOLDER ON THE
TOOLBAR TO PICK THE RIGHT TOOL FOR
THE JOB.

57. HAS IT WORKED?

58. SO FAR, YES. MY STUDENTS SEEM TO UNDERSTAND
NOW WHEN THEY WANT TO PRODUCE AN ESSAY
OR POEM, GOOGLE DOCS IS THE WAY TO GO.

59. AND TO DISCUSS AN IDEA, A BLOG IS
IDEAL.

60. NOT SO INCIDENTALLY, COMPARE THE
FOLLOWING TWO BLOG SAMPLES. THE
SECOND TAKEN ABOUT 6 MONTHS AFTER
THE FIRST AND AFTER WE INTRODUCED THE
IDEA OF THE WEB IS THE PLATFORM.

61. I think the reason we read old
literature is to understand the past
more. Like Beowulf most old stories
were originally passed down verbally
then written down later. Also I think
people read old stories because we
learn new things from it like how
different our world is now, and how
different our literature is now a days!

62. Putting aside the fact that I do not believe that a
computer with a brain is neither needed or will be used
I believe that it will pose many questions and there will
be allot of controversy surrounding it. They are putting
so much time, effort, and money into discovering
initially, a computer with a mind, and I think that what
Professor Markham is doing what doctor Frankenstein
tried to accomplish. Professor Markham is the real
modern Prometheus. They are both trying to create
life using science and medicine but I don't think either
of them really thought of the consequences of their
actions, and only the process and the journey. This will
raise many questions concerning what makes us
human, and whether this computer will have rights.
One thing I find will come up is, if you break a
computer, would that be considered taking a life?
Would you be sent to jail? What rights will apply to
this artificial brain?

63. HERE'S WHAT I THINKING GOING ON:
PREVIOUSLY, STUDENTS COULDN'T DISTINGUISH THE
EMPTY PAGE ON A BLOG FROM THE EMPTY PAGE OF A
WORD DOCUMENT. THEY COULDN'T SEE ANY REASON
TO HAVE ALL THOSE TOOLS--ALL THOSE DRILLS.
THEY NOW SEE ONLINE DISCUSSIONS A DISTINCTLY
DIFFERENT FROM ESSAY WRITING (WE'D CALL THAT
PRODUCTION) AND SO FEEL FREER TO SPEAK OPENLY &
TAKE MORE INTELLECTUAL RISKS. (AS A RULE, I DON'T
GRADE BLOG POSTS. I ONLY GIVE COMMENTS THAT
WILL ADVANCE THE DISCUSSION.)

64. THANKS!
FOLLOWING ARE LINKS TO THE "DRILLS"

66. HTTP://FUR.LY/OYJ
links to the tools