- At the recent Governor's Wisconsin Educational Technology Conference
(GWETC), the keynote speaker Bernajean Porter, created a memorable activity. Each
member of the audience was given a short, green strip of paper and asked to fold it four
times into a small square. Then the audience was asked to begin to unfold the paper,
once for every few years of a child's learning life. As the child continued to grow and
learn beyond 12 years, and there was no more paper to unfold, it was necessary to
connect to other people to add to the length of the paper. As the child grew into
adulthood, more green paper was needed, more people needed to network and
connect, until there were networks of people connected across the entire auditorium.
Through this simple activity we were all able to see the necessity and significance of
working with, networking with, and connecting with others - a critical process in the
world of learning, and an equally critical process in the world of learning and technology.
The impact of this activity was memorable. People are still talking about it. Growing
and learning is all about networking with others face-to-face and via technology. It's
about connecting people. (Rosemary Lehman)