This session has helped me to reframe what a connected classroom means in three powerful ways. First, it helped to see more possibilities as to how I might extend the audience aspect of projects to beyond the classroom and the immediate community. I am thinking about the current piece of writing students (personal narrative) that are ready to publish, finding an audience for the web site they have created and the book evaluative writing that they are working on around guided and shared reading books by a certain author. I have used our library for the reviews, but why not go outside the school. The idea of writing the author as an audience for choosing a reading journal entry to improve and send is compelling.

The second area was in searching especially in terms of teaching the skills but more importantly in using searching to look at different perspectives. We do a unit on sustainable futures at the end of the year which would be improved by adding this to the research they do.

Finally, thinking about reframing the kinds of questions to ask kids or to help kids see as powerful questions to be asking themselves: beyond what google can find easily.