I think that you hit the mark when you said
“part of any school’s plan to develop Learning 2.0 must include a significant parent education program:”

I would suggest that the approach to this education needs to be changed. So often this “parent education” takes one of two approaches.

1. Internet Safety (Scary) evening where parents are lectured about all the bad things that can happen on the internet and what they have to do to “protect” the students.
2. A session completely focused on what the students are doing. How Web 2.0 will benefit their learning, what projects they are undertaking the whole dog and pony show.

While there is still utility in these sessions I think it’s time for a different approach. For as much as we all love our children, I think everyone needs to remember that we do have a life beyond them. How wonderful would it be to have an event that is “all about us” for a change?

My belief is that parents, like teachers, are more likely to see the utility in these tools (for students) if they understand/use them in the context of their own lives first. How many parents rejected Facebook as folly until they tried it and connected with old friends and family?

Matt Montagne hosted a session like this almost a year ago and I think it was a brilliant idea ( http://mstechnology.wikispaces.com/Parent+Ed )

So maybe the next Parent Education Session should be titled “Facebook: How to keep your embarassing old Yearbook photos at least partly hidden.” or “Facebook: Even though you don’t join the party does it mean you are not there?” A parent who knows how to manage their own online identity is vastly better equipped to help their child than one who sat through the “The internet is a scary bad place lecture”.

Same principle can be applied to wiki’s, podcasts, voicethreads, Blogs or any other tool schools may want to use with the students. If you show us how these tools can address issues we face — the leap to seeing the utility for the students isn’t quite as far.