Issues and Advances in Technology Week 7 Productivity November 17, 2009

There many articles addressing productivity and Web 2.0 in the work place.  When many people think of Web 2.0 they usually think of the social networking tools such as Facebook and Myspace.  Actually most people would say “what’s web 2.0?”

“Web 2.0 is social, it’s open (or at least it should be), it’s letting go of control over your data, it’s mixing the global with the local. Web 2.0 is about new interfaces – new ways of searching and accessing Web content. And last but not least, Web 2.0 is a platform – and not just for developers to create web applications like Gmail and Flickr. The Web is a platform to build on for educators, media, politics, community, for virtually everyone in fact!”(MacManus 2005)

Web 2.0 has an ever increasing potential for use in the classroom.  Mind mapping software, educational blogs, social networking, wikis, the list can go on.  As our students become more and more tech savvy we as teachers will have opportunities to use these new tools not just as novelties in the classroom but as legitimate learning aids.

MacManus, R. (2005, Sept. 7th)  What is Web 2.0.  Retrieved Nov. 15th 2009, from ZDNet News and Blogs website: http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=5

Issues and advances in educational technology. Week 1 Educational Technology October 7, 2009

As Jeff Thomas Cobb put it on one page of his Learning 2.0 piece it can be overwhelming.  Overwhelming to say the least.  Right now I am most concerned about being able to stand in front of the kids and just talk intelligently and maybe string a few ideas together.  With blog posts, journals, and discussion boards for the other classes and advisors I have a hard time thinking about new technologies and how they might be used in the classroom when I am just starting to learn about the existing technologies.

The Learning 2.0 http://www.missiontolearn.com/2008/02/learning-20-ebook-free/ piece was well done and very informative.  I have known about, or a least heard about, most of the technologies he discussed.  The social bookmarking was a new one to me.  I can see how something like that could be helpful for someone in need of specific information without the time to review a large amount of sources.  Having a community who shares the responsibility of reviewing and evaluating sources could be a big time saver. I could also see how tools such as blogs, video, and wikis could be used for group projects.

Something I am looking forward to learning, as a science teacher, is how these tools can be implemented into school work.  Until there is fully interactive virtual reality, computer models and simulations will not be able to replace the hands on learning of many science classes.  Also there is the overhead requirements for such learning.  Every student will need, not only a computer able to run the software, but also a high speed internet connection to be able to use some of the tools.  I am sure there is a point in the future where this may not be an issue, but for the time being there are still many less advantaged students who do not have convenient access to a computer and internet connection.

Also a general issue I am curious about with the web 2.0 tools is the socialization aspect.  Schools are a major factor in young peoples life.  Granted those factors are unfortunately negative for some children, school is still where children spend most of their socially developmental years.  If we take that socialization and make it all over a screen and an internet connection how will that affect the children’s social skills later?

Just a few thoughts.  I’m interested in hearing others thoughts about this.