That’s the main theme of an email that awaited me and my first coffee of the day. I am presenting a workshop next week at a conference organized by someone in my district. While I’m happy that she is enthusiastic, this experience is underlining again, for me, in what an incredibly backwards way we do things.

For example, I virtually attended some of the Open Ed sessions this summer. Had I found out about it sooner, I would totally have gone there for my summer Pro-D, as it was held in Vancouver. Next year it will be in Barcelona, so I really don’t fancy I’ll get there. In any event….I said I attended it virtually. Most of the sessions were live-streamed (using UStream, for the most part), the blogs and Twitter feed were all pushed–anyone who wanted to could, for free, access any and all of the information presented in those 3 magical days. Peer connections and sharing were the sole aim.

But not so here, where Open Source is a dirty word and if you aren’t blocking Internet sites like Facebook and YouTube, you aren’t a good teacher. We sure talk about it, but we sure don’t get it.

Next week, those “126 folks” are coming from all over for a “technology” conference. They had to register by Fax, mind you, and the schedule is a downloadable Word doc…..and there won’t be any streaming, blogging or podcasting of course…..I thought at some point, we were supposed to starting living what we learn. I guess we haven’t learned enough yet.

I am not going to photocopy handouts. I am not going to photocopy handouts. I am not going to photocopy handouts. I am not going to photocopy handouts. I am not going to photocopy handouts. I am not going to photocopy handouts. I am not going to photocopy handouts……..