The Real Scoop

Visiting MIT

My name is Daryl Bambic and I am a veteran educator of 21 years.  In 2008 I attended an educational technology conference in Boston that became the most significant event in my career.  I speak of my teaching career in terms of before and after Boston.  Three short days of intense and exciting learning, turned me around, upside down and inside out.  I almost could not believe what educators were doing with the amazing potential of web2.0 tools!  It took almost one day to understand their language.  What on earth is 'semantic web' and why would anyone want to use a cell phone in their classroom as a learning tool?  After acclimatizing, I stepped in to the fray, opened up as wide as I could and soaked in these transformational ideas.

When I returned to my school and reported to the Headmaster about what I had seen, I was still firmly in the grips of the "Boston Experience".  My excitement was barely containable.  I babbled on about wikis, web 2.0 tools and screencasting software.  I had a vision of where our school could go with these tools and I wanted that so badly that it almost felt painful.  My colleagues understood that something important had happened to me and saw that I had changed but only now, two years later, are they beginning to see and experiment with some of the possibilities that I saw two summers ago.

After two years of 'wiking-my-way' with my classes, pretty much alone, my colleagues are finally beginning to see the virtues of the online cyber classroom and the potential for leveraging learning inherent in this virtual space.  We have changed and are beginning to occupy a more important space in the digital world.  I sense that it is just the beginning.

This blog was born out of a need to share what I was learned.  My first byline was "sharing: a remedy for cognitive 'overdrive-itis'.  My twitter feeds and blog rolls filled me with so many ideas that I thought my brain would simply burst and little bits and bites would tumble out!  Now, the blog is a place where I gather my thoughts to reflect about important issues that touch the classroom, teachers and especially, our wonderful students.  It also serves as a repository for my ideas and work.

So now that you know more about me.  Maybe this page will motivate you to engage me in a conversation about things we both care about.