At a conference where participants discussed the sea change occurring in today's schools and explored ways of using technology to meet the needs of a new generation of learners, perhaps it was only fitting that the opening keynote speaker was Philippe Cousteau, grandson of the famed ocean explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who spoke of technology's power to reach students worldwide.

Cousteau kicked off the 2009 Florida Education Technology Conference (FETC) last week in Orlando, which organizers said drew 7,000 educators and school technologists from 49 states and 17 countries.

Before he spoke, Ronald Blocker, superintendent of Florida's Orange County Public Schools, alluded to the changing nature of education, noting that today's students crave technology.

"They've grown up with it. High school seniors were born in 1991, the same year the World Wide Web launched," Blocker said. "As teachers, it is our duty to speak in a language that students understand."

Then Cousteau took the stage, explaining how education has gotten him to where he is today.

"For three generations, education has been the driving force behind the work of my family," said Cousteau, who is the chief ocean correspondent for the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet. "I am a product of good teaching."

It was the spirit of conservation and care for the environment taught by his grandfather that inspired him to work toward raising people's awareness of the need to restore and protect the world's oceans.

"Oceans are critical to all life on this planet, and they are in peril," Cousteau said.

He said the lessons he was taught by his grandfather and others in his life led him to found EarthEcho International, a nonprofit environmental education and conservation organization, with his sister.

Over the past year, Cousteau filmed a series of seven one-hour installments of an ocean documentary program. While he enjoyed the exploration of different oceans around the world, he said he was most impressed by his ability to use technology to further his work--and to share it with students from around the world.

"I could take videos on my cell phone and upload them to [the internet]. Or I could respond to questions from students on my eMail, and they could get the answers right away," he said.

Cousteau said he is also exploring ways to use documentary filmmaking in classrooms. He produced, co-directed, and wrote a documentary on the Everglades in which five high school students were invited to help during their summer vacation. He said they all planned to finish high school, but none saw the point in going to college.

"When I saw them [later that fall at the documentary premiere], their lives were changed. I could see what the power of teaching could do," he said. "All five of them had decided to go on to university."

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