Time Magazine calls the use of Web 2.0 tools “a massive social experiment with no road map”. I think this is true of our use of technology today. The world is getting even more fast-paced and smaller with the creation of each new blog and wiki. The world is at our fingertips and we have no idea how far we can go, but we’re moving in every direction. Just twenty-five to thirty years ago, we would have to wait for a document to reach us via snail mail. We would have to wait for a response from someone in writing. Heck, we even wrote letters to our friends and family on paper! We actually called people many times over before being able to communicate anything. Maybe the phone line was busy; maybe the person we were trying to reach wasn’t home. Then the answering machine and “double line” helped getting in touch. Then, the brick mobile phone became available. Communication was becoming easier. So much has changed since then. We, as a global society, became accustomed to the exhilaration of instant gratification. We wanted it now – we got it NOW. I see the boom just snowballing from then on. From fax machines, scanners, and cell phones to twitters, wikis, and blogs. We are growing exponentially through sharing information!
In the “We Think” video by Charles Leadbeater posted on the assignment page, he writes, “everyone is talking at the same time”. This is so true. Years ago, you would have to surf the net for hours to find information, partly because the information was not so readily available and partly because the Internet connection was sooo s...l…o…w (or you got dropped - remember that?) Now, everyone is talking at the same time! Information is EVERYWHERE! Even the Ad Sense is getting better at pinpointing what you want to find.
What is such a shame is that there is just an abounding amount of potential in this phenomenal tool – the Internet – and we as teachers are limited with what we are allowed to access in our classrooms. Web 2.0 tools are growing by leaps and bounds and so many of our schools, especially at the elementary level, are so slow to follow the collaborative learning available that by the time they do adapt to this technology, students will confuse the time period with the Neolithic Age. Ok, well not quite so dramatic.
WE must make the change! We, who are in the classrooms, must make the change and allow administrators and school board officials to see the true benefits of using Web 2.0 in our classrooms, like Julia Sporin’s class of third graders who uses blogs to write collaborative lessons (“Collaborative Literacy”). Maybe we can conduct studies where growth in learning is reflected on standardized scores. I am ready to galvanize my classroom, my school, maybe even my community at large with Web 2.0 tools.
Boling, E., Castek, J., Zawilinski, L., Barton, K., & Nierlich, T. (2008, March). Collaborative
literacy: Blogs and Internet projects. Reading Teacher, 61(6), 504-506. Retrieved
September 10, 2009, from Education Research Complete database.
CharlesLeadbeater (2008, February 26), We Think [Video File]. Video posted to http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiP79vYsfbo
Howe, J. (2006–2007). Your web, your way. Time Magazine, 168(26), 60-63. Retrieved
September 10, 2009, from Ebsco Host.
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