School 2.0



I don’t know where I’ve been, but reading this article was the first time I had ever heard the term “Web 2.0”, and honestly, the Web 2.0 video overwhelmed me a little at first.  The video’s focus on “the machine is learning” and “we are the machine” gave me flashbacks of The Matrix.  I felt a small panic attack coming on.  However, the more I read and the more I watched, the more comfortable I became with the idea of wikis and the concept of Web 2.0.

The idea of the internet becoming a living and breathing thing that grows with each interaction with the user is fascinating and exciting.  To think that every time it’s used, it becomes more effective in giving us what we want/need.  I immediately started thinking of ways that I could use this concept in my classroom.  Not only do I want to use wikis as a part of a lesson, but I plan on incorporating the philosophy of “’we, the media’ decide what is important” into my approach. I've been describing it to myself as "School 2.0". The idea of the users deciding what works and what doesn't to decide what processes become standard sounds to me like the best way to build a classroom. Listen to the students to see what ideas work and what ones don't. What strategies are working? What ones aren't? Use their input to adjust lessons to create something that will be truly effective in reaching your audience.  The key points listed in the article sound exactly like something that could create a very effective learning environment;

• Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
• Trusting users as co-developers
• Harnessing collective intelligence
• Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service

Also, he made a statement in the article that could be applied directly to education;

“Companies that succeed will create applications that learn from their users, using an architecture of participation to build a commanding advantage not just in the software interface, but in the richness of the shared data.”

As for wikis being incorporated into an assignment, I would love to set up something that allows students to create a classroom wiki; something where each student can contribute to a product, adding their input and opinions.  One idea that came to mind was creating a character profile wiki that relates to a book or story that the class would be reading.  I would set up a page for each character, and the students would be responsible for defining them as a character.  I think that one of the coolest parts would be that there would be some differing opinions about each character as not everyone gets the same message from every story.  This would lead to classroom discussions that would allow us to dive deeper into each individual character.  We could discuss why certain students feel the way they do and see how those interpretations could be incorporated into the definition.  I can see already that I’m going to have fun finding ways to incorporate this new technology.

What?! My own Wiki?!

David Alan Scalf's Wiki

(I hope...)

The Teacher’s Tackle Box

This week we added to the experience of a blog by incorporating RSS Readers.  First, the blog still strikes me as something that I don’t see myself using outside of a classroom.  I see it as a great tool for communication amongst educators as well as students, but wouldn’t use it to display my own personal opinions or experiences. 

With the RSS Reader I was extremely confused at first, but after poking around I found it to be extremely useful.  I, like many others, get information from many different sites throughout the web by visiting them independently.  After learning that I could streamline this information into one easy to use page I was very pleased.  .

As for blogs and where they fit in the Cone, I believe there are aspects that tie them to several areas.  The act of creating a blog is clearly direct purposeful experience, as we all learned by doing.  Reading the blogs of fellow students can be seen as a demonstration as I learned how to subscribe to blogs thanks to a post.  Also, verbal symbols are incorporated into the language of blogs all over the internet. 

When it comes to RSS I am a little surprised at where I would categorize it, and that is somewhere with the recordings, radio and still pictures.  The reason I would place it in this category is because the information that is streamlined to the feed has been altered in one way or another.  It might lack a visual while incorporating audio or visa versa.  The information could be playing out in real-time, or the time and space might have been altered for effect.  At any rate, the information being presented to the feed has been picked out amongst the rest of the irrelevant information.

Blogs would be best utilized to give students a voice in addition to classroom discussion.  Students could “learn by doing” by setting up a blog as we did.  By viewing the opinions of other students and responding with their own input, they are able to challenge each other thus taking the learning experience further. 

RSS in a classroom setting would be extremely useful.  I can see myself utilizing this in a classroom by creating a page for each subject area.  I would set up feeds that gathered important related material from around the internet and put it into one place for my students to access.  This could be used for anything from research papers to further discovery on a topic that might have left a student with questions that weren’t covered in class. 

My take-away from the two articles is basically one big analogy.  I feel that Dale presented the cone as a tackle box of teaching bait that as educators we need to sift through.  It is our job to match the right medium with the right message in order for learning to take place.  As for Siegel, he is telling us that it isn’t just finding the perfect lure that matters, but making sure that we use it to its fullest potential instead of just throwing it in the water and waiting for a bite.

The Technology Spectrum

I feel that I should start by saying that I feel both articles are a bit extreme in their attempt to answer the question of, “What role does technology have in the classroom?”  One author left me frustrated with their views, while the other left me frustrated with the entire educational system that is currently in place.

Throughout my teaching career I was constantly asked how I was addressing the multiple learning styles and abilities of my students.  It was often difficult to challenge my advanced students as well as facilitate the learning of my struggling students inside the same classroom.  Luckily, I was aware that I could customize my lessons to provide my students with choices that would create ownership, accountability and buy-in.  This form of education wasn’t always made available for students.  The Reigeluth & Joseph article reminds us that the educational process was once one of conformity, compliance and standardization.  I feel as though the Postman article is against the type of progressive thinking that makes it possible for teachers to adjust their approaches to accommodate a changing world. 

Postman claims that technology is merely a form of getting information to students. I feel that this is incorrect.  Technology gives educators a choice in how this information is presented to students.  By now, everyone should understand that no two students are the same.  The multiple learning styles that exist in today’s classrooms are being addressed more effectively than before thanks to modern technology.  I’m sure Postman believes that a teacher telling a student how a ribosome plays a part in protein synthesis would be sufficient; however, I guarantee that presenting a lesson that includes CGI to 6^th graders would help the information stick a lot better.  He claims that he doesn’t use a computer for his pieces, but rather prefers to use a pen and yellow pad.  If people shared his views on technology 100 years ago, his pen would be a lot different (and I Googled that).

As for the Reigeluth & Joseph article, I feel as though they are placing too much responsibility on technology alone.  Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the educational model where a student learns at their own pace using methods that have been proven to work with their learning styles, but I do not agree that the educator should be reduced to a “coach.”  The use of technology in the classroom makes it possible for students to learn the same lessons in different ways; however an educator is needed to help tie those lessons together.  I feel that out of the two articles this one is on the right track.  We are living in a changing world that is driven by technology and the sooner we embrace it, the better off we will be.  Tools such as tablets, smart boards, computers, and the internet do have a place in the classroom, but we shouldn’t allow it to become the classroom.

My take-away from these two articles is that there has to be a middle ground somewhere that works.  The current “American” educational model that is in place is failing our students.  Both authors make an attempt at coming up with a solution, but I feel as though they missed.

Hey all!  This is my first ever attempt at creating a blog.  I really hope it works out, because a few of my previous students had them and they were in the 6th grade.  So yeah...