Found this very interesting article by David Warlick in techLEARNING. David has described the possible integration of web 2.0 tools into the teaching, learning and administration of a school 2.0. What is also useful is he's aggregated a list of web 2.0 tools usage explanations and its corresponding url sources. The best way to learn about web 2.0 tools will be to play and experiment with some of the suggested tools.
Notwithstanding the pedagogically sound and innovative design of the learning approaches suggested in this article, we need to be in cognizant of two implementation factors.
- Be sure to bridge the participation gap of some students in terms of technological access and more importantly, the necessary learning, social and cultural skills required to be engaged meaningfully and appropriately in these web 2.0 environments. Some students who are more well exposed and educated due to social class factors may be at the forefront whilst the rest may be well left behind on the other side of the particpation gap.
- Be sensitive to the adoption readiness of teachers as not all teachers are vanguards of technology in schools, what's more web 2.0 (you may like to view the video below). Many teachers will feel as helpless as the medieval man in the video below when they feel new experiences. We need to provide the necessary professional development support that is contextualized to their own familiar teaching practices and make it the tone as safe as possible.
I'll like to suggest an ecological approach to web 2.0 integration in schools. Let it be a bottom up implementation from a subject department, integrating the used case success stories into the professional development of teachers from the other departments in parallel. Evolve the system to an ecological stage by having inter-department collaboration in projects such as performance assessment tasks across various subjects areas which leverage on web 2.0 tools to develop 21st century literacies. This approach can be applied similarly to collaborations in teaching and administration resources. The school model can then be cascaded up to inter-school/district level.
This is my 2 cents worth of the matter and all comments are most welcomed.
2 comments:
How I enjoyed that video! I used it in class and it bemused some... others were completely lost by it and others simply killing themselves laughing.
It is a bit like your discussion on technology itself. There are people/students/educational organisations who are unable or unwilling to understand the implications of web 2 and how education will change because of it. The changes may not come from our own use of the technologies but from the new generation who are forcing us to be much more "literate" with the new ways of learning.
I find for myself, it takes longer and longer to learn new technologies and flexibilities, while those who have grown up with it find it as easy as the old VCR used to be for us!!
Thanks Bill, glad that it is useful for you and your class.
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