WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
Recently a group of teachers, including myself and organized by Chris Craft, started getting together to discuss how we can best collaborate and help teachers get their feet wet with 21st century technology in their classrooms. After much discussion via email and Skype the site is up and you can sign up to our Google Group by visiting this page on the website.
Any posts I make on this website within the category ‘nextgenteachers’ (like this one) will appear at the nextgenteachers blog, along with those of other members of the group. The idea is that there’s then one place for teachers new to the whole Web 2.0 idea to go, rather than having to discover good blogs for themselves. Obviously the plan is for them to then go and discover those blogs, use RSS readers, etc., but in the beginning having somewhere to serve as a hub is a good idea, we think.
Another thing that NextGen Teachers are going to do is to have a series of podcasts which will help teachers to access ideas from around the world from teachers ‘on the front line’ as it were - those in the vanguard of educational change through the use of new technologies and the associated pedagogies. These will be hosted by a variety of people given the huge time differences involved with those involved in the group. This approach will hopefully reap rewards through the diversity it promotes.
Finally, it is hoped that the group will grow and expand so that it encourages teachers to join the wider network of edubloggers around the world. As far as I see it, this group is a conduit through which teachers who are willing to experiment, but who want to have a bit of guidance, can come and get started. Wouldn’t it be great if the edublogosphere could double or even triple in size as a result of projects such as NextGen Teachers, Women of Web 2.0, etc.? 
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Doug, this sounds like a fantastic project. Let me know if I can be of any help? Ollie
Bravo! Good luck with the group.
An interesting idea - from a nextgen at heart ( lol)
Paul Harrington
Good work. I will be dropping by to see how things are going and see what's happening. Good luck!
Kelly
Thanks for the messages of support, people - much appreciated. The NextGen Teachers planning group is currently working hard to get out our first batch of stuff for general consumption. Watch this space!
On paper, this is exactly what I'm looking for. A one-stop shop to outline the tools and techniques of the teacher/technologist. I'm excited. I may be alone in this but I don't listen to podcasts. Like, ever. I can read a lot faster than you talk so I inevitably become antsy. I'd encourage you to create a transcript of the podcast or just keep it all in writing. Again, though, I may be alone in this.
Dan, how do you get to work? I listen to podcasts during my 20-minute each-way commute. And when I'm ironing my shirts for the week. Plenty of time!
I'm a five-minute drive from my mountainside high school, so not much help there. I'll oblige, though. I mean, I take at least one or two long-ish drives every week. So, what, do you aggregate a week's worth of podcasts from around the 'net, burn a couple CD-R's, and have at it?
While I'm here commenting, is there a concise answer to the podcasting v. writing question? I mean, in what circumstances do you choose one or the other?
They're complementary, Dan, not mutually exclusive! A lot of people podcast what they deem to be their most important/interesting posts. In terms of students, it's just another way of engaging them and helping them learn how to communicate in the 21st century.
Practicalities? Yes, you could burn them onto CD, but I just sync my iPod and use the Griffin iTrip to broadcast an FM signal which plays the podcasts through my car stereo. Very easy and hassle-free.
Doug, so what do you use to automatically cross-post to next gen?
Alec, anything within a category 'nextgenteachers' gets automatically syndicated by the FeedWordpress plugin on the NextGen Teachers blog…