Do you remember the classroom of
your childhood? The dusty chalkboard,
the pencil sharpener, well-worn textbooks with notes written all throughout the
pages that may or may not be helpful in your studies…. Those memories of your
childhood will not be the ones your children will have, thanks to emerging Web
2.0 technologies.
From Edudemic.com
If
you’ve used the internet in the last five or so years, you’ve been using Web 2.0,
weather you knew it or not. Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, Flash, Flickr, and
Google+ are all examples of Eeb 2.0. It’s not a type of software, but a new
kind of thinking when it comes to the Internet and its community. When the
internet was first starting up, users were limited to passive viewing of
content that was created for them. These days, users interact with one another
on an equal basis.
If
you’ve been living under the proverbial rock for the last five years, you would
not understand the impact that social networking sites like Facebook and
YouTube have had on our collective cultural consciousness. According to
Facebook, they have “over 800 million active users, with more than 50% of
these users visiting the site on any given day”. YouTube is just as busy,
in fact, “More than 13 million hours of video were
uploaded during 2010 and 48 hours of video are uploaded every minute, resulting
in nearly eight years of content uploaded every day.” These are not numbers to
scoff at – this is the way the next generation will communicate. In a world
where school relationships, marriages, and even births aren’t ‘real’ until they
are ‘Facebook official,’ the world of education needs to embrace Web 2.0, or at
least make a solid attempt to understand it.
Teachers of the ‘new school’ are
attempting to better reach the youth of the era by using these technologies in
their classrooms. Instead of using a chapter in a book to explain Martin
Luther-King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement for example, teachers can capture
the imagination of their students by using YouTube to give an overview of the
topic. Students could use Skype, a video-conferencing service, to talk with
children in Spain during a Spanish language class to learn firsthand about the
culture they are studying. Yet
another example shows how Twitter can be used in a current-events class to
track the pulse of those affected by a devastating hurricane.
After class, a teacher could e-mail
students the homework assignment, which links to a ‘classroom website’ (Like
Blackboard or Moodle) with research materials and a place to submit the
assignment. No matter where the teacher might be after school, he (or she) can
view the students’ progress using an app on a laptop, tablet, or even a cell
phone. These are just simple examples. The limits are
only in the minds of the educators.
There are some ‘old school’
educators that shun the use of these Web 2.0 technologies. They say that the pixel is taking the
place of the written word on a page. It is also feared that the ‘wild west’
mentality of sites like YouTube and Facebook can only be detrimental to kids,
causing distraction and opening a door to an impossible-to-regulate dominion,
where bullying and hazing can have free reign.
Those who advocate for Web 2.0’s use in the classroom have
taken these arguments into consideration, and have found ways to have the best
of both worlds. Recently, I had the chance to sit
down with Christopher Magistrale, a social studies and writing teacher for
middle school students in the Winooski School District.
Kids from Winooski. Image courtesy of The Winooski Schol District
Chris is
with the 'new school' of teachers, having less than five years of actual solo
teaching under his belt. Chris and his crew have decided to 'join 'em' rather
than 'beat 'em' with regards to technology integration in their classrooms.
With the blessings of the administration, Chris’ students now have access to
their own laptop computer, filled with useful software that is used in
conjunction with traditional studies.
“The
computers have really been an enhancement to the classroom,” says Chris,
sitting in his classroom. “Specifically with my classes, which are mainly
reading and writing, we are doing a of of writing with the computers. We
are using a couple of different programs, like Edu 2.0 and Google Docs to
better connect with the students. With Google Docs, for example, I am able to
see the student's writing as it is happening and be able to give an immediate
response, and vice versa. These technologies allow for a closer interaction
between student and teacher.”
In
his classroom, Chris also makes use of a Smart board, which is the newer version
of the overhead projectors of old, with the capabilities of an iPad.
A Smart Board. Image courtesy of CHCEmergTech
“On the
Smart Board, I can display whatever's on my computer screen,” says Chris. “This
gives me countless possibilities of things I can show my students. For example,
in terms of student engagement, I could put of a blank map of the Unites
States, with the individual states being scattered around the country. With the
smart board, my students can grab the states and put them where they think the
state is. With the kids being more involved in their learning, instead of just
me lecturing, It’s a big win for me.”
When it
comes to opposition to using these types of technologies, Chris gets none from
his students.
“The kids
love it,” says Chris. “Every time they come into the classroom, they want to
use these technologies, it makes the learning more interactive and relevant for
them. I mean, this is their world.”
Indeed it
is their world. According to an NUA Internet Survey, in
November of 2000 almost 20 percent of all digital media users were children.
There are
some teachers that do take issue with this sort of technology invading their
classrooms. Some say that technology can sometimes hinder learning and the
educational process. Take the ‘spell-check rapture’ scenario under
consideration for a moment – imagine what would happen to the world if every
single type of spell-check suddenly disappeared. What would happen to our
ability to communicate with the written word effectively?
Schools can sometimes acquire technology
before those who will use it are adequately trained to use it effectively.
Consider that college teacher that wants to present a YouTube video, but has no
real knowledge of how to go about doing so. The class time lost during this process
can build up. Add to that an ever-present need for upkeep and upgrading, and
you can start to understand why those who have been teaching for a while are
reluctant to ‘join the revolution.’
“There is
slight opposition from some of the teachers who have been teaching for a long
time,” says Chris. “After 15-20 years, you become sort of set in the ways you
teach, and the overall ignorance of those teachers in regards to how this
technology could better the learning experience is the main opposing force
here. While the traditions of education are there for a reason, we are using
what is at our disposal as a new way to reach the kids. This is not to say that
I want to be exclusively a technology teacher. I don't want to teach all of my
lessons using the computer. But having that element involved really helps amp-up
a lot of our instruction.”
No matter
how you feel about it, Web 2.0 isn’t going away (well, at least until Web 3.0).
Especially in today’s classrooms, those in the current generation who are
responsible for raising and preparing the upcoming generation need to get the
memo: Alongside reading, writing, math and science, the use of the Internet and
its technologies needs to be set in the curriculums in order to better prepare
these kids for the future in which they are undoubtedly going to find
themselves. With technology getting cheaper and hard drives doubling in size
every two years, educators need to hurry to catch up.
