Web 2.0: The bigger picture in schools

As I focus my thoughts in preparation for my conference, I have constructed an opening address to those interested in Web 2.0 and education:

Web 2.0 encompasses a vast array of tools, including weblogs (blogs), wikis, social networks, and podcasts, that empower its users to move beyond the title of receivers of information and acquire the label of producers. Students of younger generations will inevitably be better equipped than their teachers and parents to maneuver and manipulate these emerging technologies to their benefit. Educators that grapple with these technologies and devote time and energy into understanding them, however, can meet students on a virtual middle ground where they can craft lesson plans that incorporate these technologies in hopes of building content comprehension and sharpening literacy skills. The percentage of American students between the ages of 12 and 17 reportedly using the Internet has steadily risen from 73% in 2000 to 93% in 2006 (Lenhart, Madden, Macgill, & Smith, 2007). As these students begin to explore various Web 2.0 tools in their homes and at their libraries, they will certainly experiment with producing and publicly posting text, images, audio, and video online. Blogging in the classroom presents educators with a unique opportunity to enable students to engage with course content, individually or cooperatively, in seemingly limitless ways.

When I get back from spring break, I am going to begin a two-week lesson on technology in the classroom by exposing my students to multiple forms of Web 2.0 and educational technology tools. More details to come.

If you were planning a unit on technology in a 10th grade 21st-century English classroom, what issues and tools would you discuss for their benefit?

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Image Citation:

What's All That Networking Stuff Called? Retrieved on March 11, 2008, from http://support.morehouse.edu/whatis-network/patch-cord-ethernet-copper.jpg

Blogging in the classroom matters

Later this week, I will be presenting a conference paper at the Harvard Graduate School of Education on exploring Web 2.0 in classroom, specifically blogging. Over the past couple of months, I have read numerous books and blog posts, discussed blogging issues with friends and colleagues, and decided to take a hiatus from my own blog to think about the social and educational impact of blogging.

I have included below my proposal summary, and over the next few days, I'll probably share more of my proposal with my blog readership. Currently, I am thinking about possible ideas pertaining to blogging that I should make sure to address on my panel. Instead of thinking on my own, I thought I might pass on my concern to the blogosphere to see what type of feedback I can receive.

Here's the question: If you were going to present to a young group of professional educators on the issue of blogging in the classroom, what are some bulleted points you would make sure to mention?

Proposal Summary:

The age of the “Read” Web, where web pages were created by those who hoped to present information solely to be read by Internet surfers, has been over for a decade. Although teachers and students, alike, often maneuver the Internet as answer seekers, many remain unaccustomed to the burgeoning educational potential of the “Read/Write” Web. While teachers and parents are well aware that social networking applications and websites, including Facebook and MySpace, attract their students and children to engage with the Internet in ways unavailable to them years ago, the responsibility of deciding how to respond to the increasing number of teenagers who are creating content on the web falls upon adults. Blogging in the classroom, under close supervision and with adequate learning objectives, can transform the Internet into a matrix capable of producing multitudinous writing and reflecting opportunities for students to simultaneously demonstrate comprehension of material and enhance literacy proficiency.

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Image Citations

Devedi. (2006 July 14). Post of the day: Web 2.0 hell. Devedi's Photostream. Retrieved on March 9, 2008, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/83496054@N00/189392262/

The Catholic Sun. (2007 April 2). Technology in the classroom - 1.jpg. The Catholic Sun's Photostream. Retrieved on March 9, 2008, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/catholicsun/443767232/