Apr 19 2008
Teaching with Web 2.0 should be Taught
According to Marc Prensky, who wrote “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” kids growing up today have always been immersed in digital technology, while their parents have had to immigrate into this new world because they did not grow up with it. It is really similar to families who immigrate to the USA from another country, but their kids are born and raised here. With immigrant families, there are two distinct world views, those of an immigrant and those of a native.
Prensky writes, “the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.” I agree with this assessment and am concerned with teacher education programs that do not direct enough attention to this problem. Are we simply going to wait for the digital natives to become old enough to be teachers before we have a majority of technology fluent teachers?
Several years ago, I was a fan of Clifford Stoll’s book, “High Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don’t Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian“. In it, he extols the virtue of the profession of teaching, and urges teachers not to defer to technology as a primary teaching platform. I believe many of the issues and concerns he raises about computers in the classroom back in 1999 have been resolved with improvements in technology and it’s associated costs. However, one issue where he hits the nail on the head, and it is still on target in my opinion is that by and large, teachers do not know how to effectively use the technology that they have available to them. Lack of training, lack of interest, and lack of time are all reasons for remaining ignorant in the ways of technological pedagogy. (Obviously if you are reading this, you should not be counted among the aforementioned ignorant!)
When we permit new teachers to enter the profession with little or no grounding in the principles of good technology-based education, we are only prolonging the problem. Web 2.0 is upon us, and there are many innovators, thrill seekers, experimenters and otherwise fool-hardy teachers out there who are doing a marvelous job of using the very latest in modern communications technology for teaching. Schools that are preparing would-be teachers should take notice of these new developments in technology; the rest of the world certainly is.
19 responses so far
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I agree, WEB 2.0 is a great tool that can improve our learning. Hope it will be available in my country soon =)
I’m the CPO of an e-learning project in Madagascar (the country, not the movie), so it’s really really interesting to discover the Edublogs blogs.
We are going to translate our site web and online tools for education in our own language, by building a web 2.0 translating tool.
Crazy idea number 2:
Can we have the so-called students educate the teachers on Web 2 stuff? That would be interesting as well giving a lot of insight on the troubles of teaching and learning both to teachers and the students.
Just curious, why the anti-spam word is always check89?
Prabu,
I think what you propose has long been happening in our classrooms. It takes a special teacher to have the humility to allow it to happen this way. But yes, students have a lot to offer their teachers in the way of technology education! Trouble is, many times this approach is hindered by fear of the unknown.
The concept of Web 2.0 is very new to me. I am very excited about all of its implications and all that it has to offer to our students. However, even in my excitement, I am overwhelmed by my ignorance.
I am currently pursuing a masters degree and decided to specialize in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. The reason for my decision is not because I am so technology savvy, but quite the opposite. I have attempted to use what I know so far in my classroom, but I fear I am still in the Web 1.0 mindset. In fact, I was not even aware of the term Web 2.0 until I began these courses.
I now realize that so many of our schools are recieving grants for technology, but never bother to educate the teachers on how to educate the students.
I am afraid that the “bottom line” is getting in the way. Of course, I am referring to testing requirements. My administrators seem to be even more out of touch with the concept of Web 2.0 than I am and yet they are convinced that such things have no place in our curriculum which is geared to testing. We are bombareded with dated and boring curriculum and pressured to hang cut and paste work in our schools, but are constantly told we are not promoting higher level thinking.
How do we begin to convince the administators to change their ideas if we are just beginners? Times of change are always frustrating. Unfortunately, while we are squabbling over what is the correct pedogogy, our students are the ones who suffer.
ahocutt, I hear you and I’m still learning too. I’m afraid that teachers who “get it” might just have to take some risks and try doing some things without administrative support. Unfortunately, this is very difficult for teachers to do, especially new teachers.
thanks for the encouragement. I am certainly doing my best. I know that I have a younger brother whose brilliant mind would have benefitted so much from this new style of education and I hope to help students like him find a more comfortable place in the education system. I also hope to help other students expand their outlook on the world.
[...] have written before about how I think Web2.0 should be taught in teacher education programs. Last night’s experience only bolsters my [...]
This is one of the better blogs I have read. I am also getting a masters degree in Technology in the Classroom, and until this course, I had never done any blogging. After doing some research, I now realize that this could be an amazing tool for teachers to use in the classroom. I just graduated from college a few years back, and I wish we would have talked about some of this when I was there. Being a fairly new teacher, I have found some different techniques that have been successful with my students. But I feel I could be a better teacher if I could get myself more informed with the technology out there that I could use to improve my instruction in the classroom. Teachers today must stay current and use a more current form of teaching, and colleges should take this into account and begin teaching some of these new strategies to their students.
Maple11,
Start building a Personal Learning Network (PLN) for yourself. I use Twitter. If you do a search on http://search.twitter.com for keywords that interest you, you can find others who share your interests. Then you can connect & communicate with them by signing up for Twitter & following them.
I know it’s overwhelming. There is so much going on with technology in the classroom. Just take it a little bit at a time and do what you can. At least you are now reading blogs; that’s more than a lot of teachers do.
Keep it up & feel free to follow me on Twitter if you like so we can share ideas there as well.
ahocutt and Bill,
I was reading through your comments. Administrative support or even hostility to change can be overcome! Bill is right. Taking a risk and just doing the technology thing can change their minds. It isn’t necessarily easy, but it is worth all the work. You might find it easier though, if you share your ideas with others that are in the classroom doing the same job that you are doing. There is strength in numbers.
Fifteen years ago I was a fairly new teacher. There was no technology to speak of at my school site. There wasn’t really hostility to technology, but nobody was embracing it either. I bought a laptop, projector, and a white board. I started using it in my class. Other teachers caught wind of what I was doing and started asking questions. I shared. They started asking for technology. Today, we are a wired/networked site with interactive whiteboards and other such technology. Attitudes will change if others see the benefits.
Bill, thanks for your help, I will look into it.
[...] of my own first blog posts was entitled: “Web 2.0 should be taught”. It was about how teacher education programs ought to include Web 2.0 technologies as a regular [...]
I totally agree with you. I think the main problem is, that most of the teachers are older then Fourty. They are using the new technologies, e.g the internet very little. They did not grow up with it and so they are not used to it. Most of them are not even interested. But I think they should be informed about the advantages. From my point of view many teachers avoid using new technologies, because it means for them, that they have to start learning. These teachers have to be informed about the advantages, the new technologies bring with. Beside this, many schools do not even offer the technologies for the teachers, no matter if they would use it or not.
[...] The blog that I most connected with was called Teaching with Web 2.0 should be Taught and can be found at http://billgx.edublogs.org/2008/04/19/teaching-with-web-20-should-be-taught/ [...]
Teaching with Web 2.0 is good way to help students learn more information. I think all schools should think about this. I believe it can benefit all students.
Bill,
I could not agree with you more that educators do need to stay current in their teaching practices regarding technology. Teaching is very demanding and time consuming; however, I think that teachers, administrators and school district need to rank educating about technology and through the use of technology as a high priority and provide educators with the necessary training in order to effectively utilize the resources that we have as a result of technology. We need to think about the skills that our students are going to need to be a successful and responsible member of our society. Now in addition to reading, writing, math, and science skills, children need to know how to appropriately use the technology that we currently have in order to effectively utilize the new technology of the future.
I ask just one question. Can we have the so-called students educate the teachers on Web 2 stuff? That would be interesting as well giving a lot of insight on the troubles of teaching and learning both to teachers and the students.
Teresa,
Good point, and I think this has been happening to some degree for a while now. Students often know things their teachers don’t, however we have to be humble enough to admit that we might be able to learn from them.