Sometimes an idea bursts forth with such relevance and urgency that it takes only a mention or two in a blog for the idea to become quickly widespread (viral). Many of us are familiar with this phenomenon with regard to videos. The Mentos and Diet Coke experiment on YouTube is a good example of a viral video.
Now we have to think about Viral Powerpoints! The MI-LIFE team discovered in one of its RSS-fed blogs a PowerPoint presentation created by Karl Fisch, the Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial CO which he had posted in his blog, The Fischbowl. Created as a staff development piece for his school's fall faculty meeting last August, this thought-provoking 7-minute presentation on the changing nature of education, students' use of technology, careers, employment, and the flattening world was intended for his high school staff. However, he generously posted the presentation on his blog to share with everyone who wished to use it.
Impressed with the profundity of Fisch's ideas, the power of his simple black-and-white slides, and the implications behind the data which Fisch had collected, the MI-LIFE team altered some of the slides a bit, added a few others, and began showing the presentation during workshops late last summer and last fall throughout Michigan.
The MI-LIFE PPT adaptation's popularity within Michigan grew--virally--and in early January, it was viewed by Mike Flanagan, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who is now using the PPT in his presentations around the state to raise the level of awareness of the need to change the way we are providing educational opportunities for students.
More importantly, Mr. Flanagan has taken his own advice and is modeling the use of technology in numerous ways besides showing a PPT! On February 9, 2007, he published a podcast/videocast on educational technology using some of the data in the Viral PowerPoint, the first in what he has promised to be a monthly series.
With the top educational leadership in Michigan modeling the use of technology as is Mike Flanagan, we expect that the viral effect will "contaminate" all state administrators so they, too, become technology leaders in their districts and schools.
Thanks, Mr. Fisch!
--Jane Perzyk