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writes, “the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.”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.
6 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.