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Sunday, Oct 4th, 2009

Chris:

Really glad we re-connected today, fella. Love the response you had to my first premise/question (SLA being a case study, you writing a forward, etc). Using your Josey invite to write a book as a co-authoring experience makes a lot of sense; flattered that you see value in my joining forces with you. Creating a book (that is a book) at first that then leads to a larger 'project' (school design solutions, web site, etc)

Figured that your title for the PhillyIgnite talk was a perfect name for our 'project'/book, hence "The Schools We Need" name to this wiki.

Perhaps it'll go the distance: "The Schools We Need: Designing School 2.0 to Teach 21st Century Citizens", for instance.

Perhaps it'll just be a 'mission' statement for us behind the scenes before the final title comes to the surface..

Either way, let's get started!

In that spirit, here's my recommendation for structural next steps:

1) Drink lots of coffee.


 * 1) Google Docs -- as you suggested -- for writing/editing/reviewing specific drafts (chapters, case studies, etc).
 * 2) This wiki for on-going idea development, outlines, links, etc.
 * 3) A Twitter account -- TheSchoolsWeNeed -- that I'll start now.
 * 4) A book specific blog -- The Schools We Need -- that I'll start now which will allow us to get feedback from others in our global network along the way.
 * 5) Using "Practical Theory" and your Twitter account to gain quick public traction as we explore ideas...and seek resources/partners/case studies.

Finally, I'm going to play around with an 'alpha' outline based on your line today: "I can tell you one thing about my students: they are thoughtful, wise, passionate, and kind." This, in my opinion, would be a brilliant framing technique (divisions of the book to organize chapter topics) for our work. It clearly is real; likewise, it is clearly a substantive definition for School 2.0, too.

Let me know what you think as I begin to fall down this rabbit hole.

Cheers, Christian