The first thing that comes to mind in thinking about web 2.0 and learning in the 21st century is what a shift from the traditional way of learning. I feel somewhat illiterate in terms of web 2.0 in all that it involves. I feel a bit behind the eight ball and that I need to really start to take a closer look at it (hence why I am taking this 23 things course) because a lot of students are into it. The old saying is "You have to reach tem to teach them" and the traditional styles of teaching are reaching the students less and less and its time for an upgrade.
My understanding of the articles and videos allowed me to realize that web 2.0 is an active, involved service that allows people to get, create, share, and build information that can be published for the world to see. Students can reach out to people in different schools, communities, states, countries, etc... Do students really understand the power of web 2.0 and can they harness it? I think that is where educators have to step in and help guide the students through the various aspects such as blogging, wikis, etc... As educators we need to think outside the box a bit (even though change can be scary especially if you have done the same thing every year the same way for the past x amount of years). Don't be afraid to dive in and try, remember we ask our students to do this on a daily basis.
I like Steve Hargadon's quote "The wisdom of the group replaces the expert." In school I find that we need to shift the focus from individual projects and learning to more team approach. We need to integrate the web 2.0 aspects into our classrooms instead of banning them from the school because we feel to uncomfortable or don't know enough about it so we shun it. I would like to introduce students to blogging or wiki but what would be the proper age if any? I could easily see myself using it when I taught the middle school age kids but what about 1st grade. The safety issue always concerns me when students are on-line. Are there "things" (pardon the pun) in place to help protect students? I always in the back of my mind think of liability issues when it comes to my students being on-line at school and how safe is it for them to blog, wiki, etc...
Overall I believe Steve Hargadon hit the nail on the head when he said that "The factory model is dying and the new wave is the ability to customize, collaborate, and be creative. " That's how we have to structure the way we present and teach our materials to students. We have to let the students be actively engaged in the process. The world will continue to evolve and the education system can't stand pat, it must grow and change like everything else.
1 comment:
I completely agree. I'm taking a leadership class at the ISD and one of the topics of our last meeting was the fact that the successful people in the future will be those who are creative. I sometimes feel that we, as teachers, stifle students creativity. I don't believe that any of us do it on purpose, but it happens. These days, students come to us with such limited imagination as it is, that we definitely have a huge responsiblity in teaching them how to problem solve and work cooperatively. I think that if American education focused more on those aspects instead of the almighty test scores we would soon see our students growing by leaps and bounds. Do we really want our country to be led by a bunch of people who can simply perform a task correctly or do we want our country led by innovators?
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