How Long is Your Lever?

I just stumbled across Vicki Davis' UStream this morning from Edubloggercon, which I was extremely jealous that I couldn't attend, at NECC. The presenter was Kevin Jarrett, a Cyber-colleague from the Google Certified Teacher's group. Kevin was presenting on Google tools and it was neat that I was then able to share the two sets of slides (Google Apps - Education Edition and Google Sites) I used during my presentation at the most recent Google Teachers Academy (GTA) this past Wednesday (June 25).

"Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough, and I will move the world."
- Clay Shirky: Here Comes Everybody p. 6

How much leverage did this interaction have? Think about it... I was in Fremont, CA in my kitchen, Vicki and Kevin were in San Antonio, TX and they were broadcasting to the world and there were at least 30 people in the back channel. I had heard reports from some of the people at GTA that there were going to be upwards of 500 people involved at Edubloggercon.

The leverage that teachers now have to share best practices, learn from each other, and connect and collaborate is truly amazing. Getting these tools into the hands of more students and teachers and getting them to engage in this new and rapidly growing space is one of my goals as a professional educator. When I arrived at GTA on Wednesday, my name tag had under the role section, "CUE Lead Learner." I took a great deal of pride in this title, since I still see myself as a learner and fully expected to learn from the participants at GTA, which I did. (Pulling the locations of participants from a spreadsheet and then plotting them on a Google Map is VERY COOL!)

So, the question is.... where are you going to stand? Because the tools available to you today definitely give you a long enough lever to move the world!