Web 2.0 in Education

There are so many useful and interactive web sites, that I find myself spending an awful lot of time just trying to stay up to date. In fact, this blog is a web 2.0 application. How did we exist BW – before web 2.0? According to WIkipedia web 2.o is ”Web 2.0″ refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.” 

I am constantly sharing my new found sites with teachers and educators. For the most part I post these sites on my delicious account. Another one of those web 2.0 social bookmarking sites. This allows a person to bookmark their sites on the web as opposed to a single computer. This way you can find them from any computer at any time. 

There are sites like voicethread, jing and openoffice, to name a few. Voicethread allows you to record conversations around images, videos or documents. If you want to record onscreen actions then jing is the application you’re looking for. And imagine locating your documents on the web through openoffice instead of on a single computer.

It’s up to educators to find innovative and exciting ways to use these tools. Imagine recording a trip through ancient Rome with jing in Google earth, or students actively engaged in peer editing through voicethread. How about adding content in the middle of the night through openoffice. These are only a few of the possibilities.  

Professional development around instructional technology

What does it take to make technology integration an easy metamorphosis in the classroom? When teachers say technology is an additional burden, it makes the hair on the nape of neck stand up. The burden is not using technology. Recently I observed a teacher speaking to his students about whether or not attire reflects time and place in a story. At no time did he present any visuals to the students, and I felt their pain. I wanted to take over the lesson, and guide the students to the computer in the back of the room to start researching books with images. But then I realized he hasn’t been exposed to how to incorporate the technology into his lessons. The lack of professional development is his main obstacle to technology integration.  Lack of professional development for technology use is one of the most serious obstacles to fully integrating technology into the curriculum (Fatemi, 1999; Office of Technology Assessment, 1995; Panel on Educational Technology, 1997). 

When researching any topic, it has become second nature for me to reach for my computer and use the appropriate search engines whether it is technorati, archive or babelfish depending upon the search. How easy it would have been for the above teacher to do a simple google image search by simply entering “clothing timeline” in the search field. 

Technology is constantly changing and the need for professional development is greater than ever. Good teachers are constantly honing their skills and schools need to make time for their teachers to gain confidence and practice through ongoing training. Every profession requires ongoing training of some sort and teachers as professionals do as well.