Web 2.0 Beyond Google

Curwood, J. S. (n.d.). Web 2.0: beyond google. Scholastic, Retrieved from http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3753598

This article was about the uses of Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom, including blogs, social messages sites, blogs, and wikis to enhance student learning.  Web 2.0 is used to refer to websites and programs that allow users to create Internet content, rather than just consume content.  The author writes that by limiting the use of the Internet to simply research we are cutting our children off from a vast area of technological use, which could also be useful in the classroom.  A teacher in Florida uses blogs with his students, and directly tells them about privacy and proper content issues, it is implied that even students “who don’t perform well academically” still participate in the blogs because “they have an audience”.  An elementary school teacher also used online photo software with his 4^th graders, and has had to revise the curriculum because his elementary students adapted to the technology use so quick and easily.  Another high school allowed their students to have access to Facebook at school, as part of a class about teen identity in literature and culture, the second have of the class was how teens form identity today and used social network as a tool for discussion.  It is also an opportunity for students to learn to use social networking in both a social and professional matter, like many adults do.

The media environment of today is different than it was four years ago, and completely unrecognizable from media environment of ten to twenty years ago.  Now web compatible mobile phones are completely ubiquitous, and the vast majority of students correspond through social networking sites like Facebook. Today’s students also seem much more comfortable operating within this media environment than their parents, teachers and school administrators.  Educators should embrace this technology and make sure their students learn how to use it correctly and responsibly.  There seems to be natural tendency for educators to want to block or limit student’s access to the internet, most schools have filters put on their machines to keep students from playing games or viewing things they shouldn’t be viewing, and many schools don’t allow students access to social networking sites or private email accounts.  Such moves however well intended may have the unintended consequence of making social networking an even more tempting “forbidden fruit”.  If teachers can learn how to integrate this into their curriculum it may increase student involvement and teach them to operate in a media environment that will most likely become even more prominent.  However this integration should be thought out thoroughly, Web 2.0 and the computer itself, are not a cure alls for education and their integration should be thought through thoroughly before hand, many of the above teachers seem to have found the correct balance.  I am curious though as to how many students in the Florida school have continued to not “abuse” their Facebook privileges.