I mean come one, the guy is young, funny, and intelligent. He’s got dashing good looks, a cool South African accent, and he is one heck of a presenter, all of which is evidenced in the video below. But more than all of this, here’s an undergraduate student at UBC articulating a vision for the future that I so thoroughly agree with that it is fills me with a sense of unbounded hope and encouragement. He moves from the increasing realities of the impact of social networks on learning to the power of openness to the importance of real school so beautifully that I was envious. His discussion of the ways in which project-based learning, featuring examples like Jon Beasley-Murray’s Murder, Madness, Mayhem, is so tightly argued and passionately presented that I’m kinda dumbstruck. I think why his extrapolation of the future of teaching and learning over the next ten years is so damn powerful for me is rooted in the very fact that he is delivering this talk. He, for 30 minutes, becomes the incarnation of everything I dream of when I sit down at this box and muster up the energy, courage, and pride to think that things will actually change, and we can actually change them. Thanks Andre, for everything, your a beacon of light, an allegorical city upon a hill, and one heck of a Terry Talker. Might the Reverend have to hand over his collar to the up and coming preachers? In this case, I gladly would 
Read his post on the talk here, and do yourself a favor and watch this presentation.
Additionally, huge kudos to UBC’s OLT for fostering such passion, vision, and intellectual curiosity in a thinker like Andre. organizations are made up of people, and this group is obviously making a phenomenal impact on the social and intellectual landscape of UBC.
A couple of examples: UD computer science students create teaching aids (OLPC computer program) http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2009/feb/computers021209.html
Biomedical Engineering Graduate Innovative Design Team http://openedpractices.org/course/biomedical-engineering-graduate-innovative-design-team
No, you rock, and you know it. And that’s what I like about you.
I’d love to sit down with you sometime and talk at length about Sakai, I saw that is the engine you are using in the second example. And while I have seen it a few times, I really don’t know enough about it. Any chance you’d be willing to give me a tour?
Let me know, and thanks for the examples, they are, indeed, compelling.
I’m glad I am not alone
I’d be more than happy to do so. I could create a guest account and let you fiddle around a test site or something. We could Skype, Connect, Elluminate, even phone, if that’s what you’re into (I doubt it). I’ll email you my contact info.
In the meantime, if you want to catch a glimpe of what Sakai is going to become, have a look at this:
http://www.sakaiproject.org/portal/site/sakai-home/page/89473b2c-31dd-4261-9823-c31a79e55532