Thursday, January 14, 2010

Web 2.0 Chapters 1 and 4

The main point I gleaned from the first chapter of web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools was that technology needs to be harnessed to help students learn thinking and analytical skills. One of the reservations I have had about technology is that it isn't accessible enough to elementary students and there always seems to be hardware/software glitches that interfere with the learning. If we are truly moving beyond the "bells and whistles" of cool tech. stuff into using the technology to collaborate and put together higher level projects rather than the cut/paste Wikopedia reports that is a good thing- I do think it is hard for teachers to embrace technology when there isn't enough time for them personally to explore these tech tools. Most of us have a hard time taking the leap of faith that's needed to embrace new technology.



In Chapter 4 (my chapter of choice) I looked at the types of things model school were doing with collaborative and project based learning. I was intrigued with the idea that blogs give the "quiet" students a better opportunity to contribute to class discussions. Most of these model schools have a professional development component which is critical to moving forward. I liked the concept discussed in this chapter that there needs to be a balance between technology and pedogogy. I think one of the most exciting applications of technology is the similations that are available to highschool science classes- my son who is in AP Physics is able to similate very complicated experiments online which his school would never have the resources to do otherwise. One thing we can't lose sight of is making sure that students have the foundation skills i.e. keyboarding and search strategies . Elementary school should provide this so that students can build on that background once they get to middle school.

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