Web 2.0
Ewan McIntosh from the UK has a presentation at his blog, edublogs, that every teacher and administrator should listen to. Titled, Web 2.0 in the Classroom, Ewan’s presentation can provoke questions about how we presently educate and where we should be heading based on the kind of world we live in.
He gives a striking example in the opening few minutes related to digital natives and digital immigrants. Being a digital native is about being able to multitask, especially using web 2.0 tools such as blogs, podcasts, wikis, chats and other social software. These technologies allow for content publishing for all as well as increased conversation. He also points out that schools are mostly using the web in a web 1.0 fashion - one way. Students consume information, but rarely contribute to the body of knowledge or rarely have extended conversations about this knowledge. It’s not about the technology, it’s about the teach, as Ewan says. So what do we want our students to do? What is our paradigm, our mind set? Is it a web 1.0 or a web 2.0 (or maybe it’s 19th century jone)?
My big question is this: How do we move our “teach” mind set to where it needs to be in our schools - web 2.0? I would like to see it start at both the bottom and the top. Since it’s about instructtion - teaching and learning - the classroom and teachers have to be involved. Every schools has someone or even a group of teachers with the right mind set and the willingness to attempt innovation and risk taking. It should then be the role of the school and district leadership to encourage this innovation and support it - and model it as much as they can. Without both segments of the system, any implementation plan will break down. And I also think that we need to include students in the transformation. As Ewan says, they are the digital natives, and we are not. We need to learn about their ways, and engage them in the conversation. We can learn a lot about this new frontier by connecting with our constitutents - students as well as parents.
There is a lot more to Ewan’s presentation. Check it out.
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