I was brought up in a house full of conversationalists - prolific, engaging, worldly people who, by their very nature, are compelled to draw out from anyone in an exchange of conversation, a common interest.  Although it wasn't necessarily in my genetic make-up (because I am adopted) to possess what I consider to be such a wonderful trait, it became inherent in me by nurture and subsequently a learned behavior that is being magnified through the use of social media.

A conversation ensued between my brother, sister-in-law, and I in a pub in Indonesia regarding the difference between the education they were delivering to their students at the Jakarta International School (JIS) and what my children were receiving in the educational system on Prince Edward Island.   I was so intrigued by our conversation and what I had seen during the tour of JIS and spending time in my brother's grade 3 class, that I wrote about it on my blog, titled "A Glimpse of International Education".

On a flight home from South East Asia, I sat next to a man whose children were in junior high in Maine.  His kids had Mac laptops, as per the One-to-One Laptop program and he told me that it cost parents $50 a year to insure the laptops.  We had a really interesting conversation about technology and education (and the high rates of cancer of PEI but that's another blog post).

The next week when I arrived home and went to my son's classroom as per my regular volunteering routine, I became aware of the lack of technology in my children's school.  My son told me at this point that he spent less than 40 minutes every six days in the school's only computer lab and it occurred to me that I had more time in my elementary school computer lab 25 years ago then he does now.  I found this alarming.

This lead me to speak with the principal of the school who suggested that I have conversations with the chair of the Home and School Association, the head of technology for the department of education, and someone from the PEI Teacher's Federation regarding my concern about the lack of technology in the classrooms and curriculum.

Upon speaking with the gentleman from the PEI Teacher's Federation, we discovered it was good timing as he needed a speaker for the PEITF's annual conference - a presentation on social media. This discussion resulted in their organization booking me to speak at their annual conference to 100's of teachers on Education 2.0: Using Social Media to Enhance Learning in the Classroom.

The term "bridging the gap" came to me after learning more and more about how far behind we are, as a province, when it comes to educational technology and I blogged about what I had learned so far.

My blog then lead to a request from CBC to come into their studio during their week long program they were delivering on the state of PEI education, to discuss what I had been learning regarding the use of technology in classrooms.

I spoke with the chair of our school's Home and School Association who updated me on what their organization does, and we agreed to continue our conversations regarding educating parents on the use of technology in schools and how much the internet and social media can be beneficial for children in the education system.

My conversation with the head of technology for the department of education was interesting. He shared with me a website with the guidelines and outcomes for a whole core curriculum of technology integration.  It includes outcomes for every single grade level, as set out by the province of PEI and the department of education and is entitled "Journey On".  I asked what I should do if I didn't think my son was receiving the technology integration curriculum or said outcomes.  He told me the people to speak to: my son's teacher, the principal, the head of curriculum delivery for the department of education and lastly, if I wasn't satisfied with the answers, the superintendent of the Eastern School Board.

I had a conversation with my son, going through the outcomes for his grade level for the technology integration curriculum, and he recognized and knew less than 20%.

I blogged about the Journey On guidelines and the curriculum outcomes I had discovered and began getting comments from other parents and people who were weighing in on the conversation.

I recorded verbatim some of the most compelling comments (anonymously) regarding the situation in the PEI school system and the lack of technology, and then continued to blog about the situation -  and tweet - and talk.  No one could answer my questions, namely, if my son missed out on almost an entire year of core curriculum for technology integration, when will he ever get caught up?

More and more parents began expressing their concerns to me about their children's education and the situation regarding the lack of resources, infrastructure and support for the educators, and how it was being manifested in their children's experience in the PEI school system.

Around this time someone from the media suggested that I call into CBC to speak to the Minister and Deputy Minister of Education who were in the studio on the last day of CBC's week long program on the education system on PEI.  I asked them some questions regarding some of the things I was blogging about. The discussion was contentious enough that CBC chose not to post the clip on their website afterwards.

I then attended the Minister's Summit on Education and engaged in high level conversations about where the educational system on PEI was and where it should go.  I met the Minister and Deputy Minister in person and thanked them for the opportunity to ask them questions on the radio.  They seemed a bit surprised to see me but were gracious enough to thank me in return for my questions.

At the Summit I also met the director of curriculum delivery, with whom I had had an hour long conversation, as well as the head of technology for the department of education, with whom I had an equally long and engaging conversation.

After the Summit, I finally spoke to the superintendent of the eastern school board district and, after receiving no meaningful answers, I decided to bring the collective results of my conversations back to the head of technology for the department of education and present my findings and quandaries.

Our almost 2 hour conversation led to his request for me to make presentations to two different advisory councils to the Minister of Education on technology in classrooms and the education system on PEI.   He also agreed that my idea for a pilot project to augment the technology integration curriculum in the form of on-going extracurricular programs for students may be a feasible compromise, and could help my son to catch up to the core curriculum.  We will continue to discuss.

My bottom line to him was that I am an entrepreneur and cannot stand back and wait while the PEI government and department of education begin to slowly realize their vision which they showed in a video at the Minister's Summit on Education (a video that they "borrowed" from New Brunswick) - a video I had been blogging about and sharing for months). This vision could take a decade to realize.  In order to give the children the education that they deserve and require to be functional with 21st Century Skills, we have to move quickly and involve everyone that we can.  This will require the help of many people.  Many parents aren't aware of the situation and this will have to be addressed.  Bring on the conversations, bring on social media.

Full circle: I spoke today to both the principal of my son's school and the principal of the new elementary school being built and told them about the progress that had been made; about the presentations; about the conversations; about continuing to be involved with supporting their vision for progressive and innovative education, by utilizing technology and integrating it into their framework.

I literally jumped up and down with joy after speaking with the soon-to-be principal of my son's new school.  He understands the power of social media and having conversations and the way that things can spread so easily if there a re influencers involved who are adept at using social media.  We spoke about a technology club, using a blog for fundraising, a school website, a vision and mission statement that included the word "technology" for the school, and many other exciting things.

I ended the day by going to PEI's tweet up (#PEITweetUp) where approximately 75 people on PEI who use Twitter on a regular basis got together to discuss their "twitter"experiences.  What was really interesting were the people coming up to me and telling me that they had been following my blog and tweets on the PEI education and technology issues, and we immediately jumped into a conversation as if we had just left off from another one... but it's way more exciting and energizing in real life, I have to admit.

Full circle: Social Media = Conversations.