The first online course

Rita Dove was US Poet Laureate in the early 90’s.  The First Book captures the magic of the lightbulb that comes with reading comprehension.  This week I asked 1000 friends at iNACOL to imagine the online learning experience that for students yielded the same sensation…and the end of the world as they knew it.

The First Book

Open it.

Go ahead, it won’t bite.

Well…maybe a little.

More a nip, like.  A tingle.

It’s pleasurable, really.

You see, it keeps on opening.

You may fall in.

Sure, it’s hard to get started;

remember learning to use

knife and fork?  Dig in:

you’ll never reach bottom.

It’s not like it’s the end of the world-

just the world as you think

you know it.

Rita Dove

Tom Vander Ark

Tom Vander Ark is the CEO of Getting Smart. He has written or co-authored more than 50 books and papers including Getting Smart, Smart Cities, Smart Parents, Better Together, The Power of Place and Difference Making. He served as a public school superintendent and the first Executive Director of Education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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