Chapter 1 outlines for us a rapidly changing world which is easily observable in the last few years. The challenges which lie aheas afe met by people who are tech savvy and working collaboratively to develop new businesses & means of communication.
Our role as educators is to guide our students to use this new technology in ever more creative and innovative ways. By combining their intelligences new energies will emerge.
Chapter 7 Online safety & security is always a concern when students are involved. They are trying their best to find the places they shouldn't be. Their vulnerabilities can cause them to be targets for other students bullying as well as for cyber predators. Their immaturity and lack of sound judgment require that they be taught a n online code of ethics and guided through the confusing morass of copyright.
Administrative issues in using internet tools with students are numerous. Then there is the involvement of parents who may or may not know about the internet. The parents need to learn about potential problems with the internet and how they can exert control over their child's use. I can see adding a wiki page on Internet Safety to the Steller website because we have no formal training at our school.
Schools often block sites with potentially harmful material, substituting others deshgned especially for schools, such as Nettrekker. Schools can also place tools on an internal net, behind a firewall and not accessible to the outside web. this "walled Garden approach provides safety & security desired by many.
Chapter 9 New Schools.
Mike Prensky says our students are no longer the students our schools were designed to teach. How should new schools look? Ideally each student would approach learning in the way he/she liked best, information would be accessible 24/7 and be interactive & able to suggest new avenues of exploration and new resources to use, much as Amazon suggests new books to read.
All of this will come together on free open-source software.
This sounds great, but it may require these digital natives to become teachers themselves bafore the reality matches the vision.
MORE TO COME later, out of time at the Naples public library. OK, here we go again..
Chapter 4 - New Tools in Schools. - Stories from real schools using Web 2.0 tools.
Science Technology Engineering , Math, (STEM) people are 40 % of graduates from the new Tech High School in Napa. The cost of running this new school is very high, Servers and support plus software, Costs will go down with open-source software.
Students are motivated to learn to write well because of the Audience of the Web. They know that others will see their work. They are empowered at an early age to write in Blogs.
Pocasting is used to get student feedback on lessons. Digital storytelling gives students insights into their own experiences as they work our their stories. They come to value the story and strive to do their best., knowing it will be viewed by many people, not just their teacher. In effect, simply publishing to the web validates the importance of the students' work.
Blogs on Dickinson & Frost, Imovies on family histories, personal stories to illustrate history, (Where were you during the 1964 Earthquake?) , current events through communicating with soldiers in Iraq, The possibilities are limited only by our imagination.
Math Students are blogging about their strategies in solving problems, geography students have Google Earth to give them a bird's eye view of the world,, and more.
ESL learners are using language lessons on an IPOD, their own portable language lab.
Perhaps MOST IMPORTANT is that the use of technology engages the students in their studies and learning in increasing. Students who would never say a word in class can make meaningful contributions online. They can approach the subject at their own level...often surprisingly well above that demonstrated so far in class.
Chapter 10 Tutorials
Here is hands on a literal contiunation of the Web 2.0 Class. Many we have done in class, and I've enjoyed trying out a few more...things I've HEARD about, but haven't taken tht time to explore..Such as Google Earth, My Husband and I carefully traced the route of our upcoming vacation, able to even see the undersea floor, which gives an explanation to the great snorkeling and deep sea fishing in the Western Caribbean. I also intend to use Photostory 3 for my pictures when we return. The Bubbleshare photo site i used before has shut down, and it was really fun to makd a captioned slide show for my relatives who live far away. Hopefully I can add audio with Photostory, and have a nifty presentation to show them.
I also intend to guide, (push, shove, compel) my daughter into Web 2.0. She has just announced her intension to become a Math teacher, and I very much want her to be as technologically savvy as possible. She will be a good teacher without it, because of her ability with the kids, but a mastery of the web will allow her to reach so many more. We need teachers like that.
