Thing #5

I really like the article by Richard MacManus entitled "Web 2.0 is not about version numbers or betas." I think he captured the essence of Web 2.0 beautifully when he described it as "everyday, non-technical people using Web technologies to enhance their own lives and businesses." What does this mean for education? If the world is embracing Web 2.0, and if the purpose of education is still to give students the skills they need to succeed in the world, then educators must adapt. To put it another way, if the world is moving onto the web, then schools and teachers must also move onto the web.

This is where the term "School 2.0" comes into play. School 2.0 is a handy nickname to describe the methods and techniques that the teachers of today must employ to prepare their students for tomorrow. The article on techlearning.com highlights how teachers can use web tools like blogs, podcasts, Del.icio.us, Flickr, even youtube (which now has a valuable resource for teachers called teachertube) to transmit content in new, interactive ways. All of this makes the classroom part of a larger community, thereby transforming school in the same way that the web was transformed (hence the term "School 2.0"). A perfect example of a tranformed classroom, the Decameron Web at Brown University, is highlighted in the "Minds on Fire" article. The Decameron Web unites content and instruction in a single place which students can easily accesss.

For myself, however, I worry about two things; credibility of information and the loss of a personal learning experience. How can we be sure that the wrong people are not posting the wrong content on the internet, which we are teaching (even urging) our students to use? What if students come across biased, inaccurate, or just plain misleading information? (I suppose it would then be our responsibilty to teach students how to evaluate information - but how can they do that without some context within which to evaluate it?) At least published textbooks have some accountability - they cannot just print things. On the web there are no such restrictions - it is wide-open.

The other thing I worry about is the loss of a personal learning experience. There is something magical about the face-to-face interaction between a teacher and a pupil that will never be replicated on a website or a podcast (to me, at least). I hope that a movement towards School 2.0 doesn't forget this...

The world is changing at an ever more rapid pace. Jobs are being created that didn't exist last year, and jobs that have existed for hundreds of years are disappearing. Now education must be about teaching students to teach themselves. Thus, education must reinvent itself to remain relevant. One way of doing this is by pursuing a so-called "School 2.0," which integrates the classroom into the wider world. So what does "School 2.0" look like to you? Are you as concerned as I am about finding credible information on the web? What about the relative merits of an impersonal/personal learning experience? Am I just old-fashioned?