Next steps

Today I've discovered some more tools that I look forward to exploring further. It's mind blowing how much is available on Web 2.0 that I never knew about. The one thing I keep reminding myself is to start small. I may begin by creating a blog for my students to respond to long-term assignments and activities to gather feedback. It could serve as an informal assessment of their progress and comprehension. I am considering developing a wiki for scheduling, curriculum, and assessment for our 7th grade team. All of our core teachers on the team could have publishing rights to the wiki.
I am extremely excited at the prospect of doing some digital storytelling, even if we don't post the students' work on the web. I plan to explore the program Photo Story. This week was a real eye-opener and I look forward to sharing what I've learned with my colleagues.

Apple orchard

Here is a slideshow I created in One True Media

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

reflections on new knowledge

I've learned a lot this week, but the main thing I've found is that there is so much more to discover! The three things that I now feel comfortable with are social bookmarking (del.icio.us), RSS feeds and aggregators (PageFlakes and Bloglines). I have established a PageFlakes account and a Bloglines account. I've subscribed to 21 feeds in Bloglines and created 20 bookmarks in del.icio.us. It may not sound like progress, but for me, this is huge. I walked in on Monday with no knowledge of how to use any of these tools.
Today we've skimmed the surface on wikis, but I'm looking forward to learning more about management related issues, such as; enabling others to edit and securing our wiki pages to reduce risks of hacking, spamming or unwelcome editing.

Blogs as an instructional tool

As an English teacher, I feel blogs could be used by students in various writing activities. This would be a great strategy to use for on demand writing. I would use blogs to post a prompt and to provide students with the writing requirements for their assignment. Then students would submit their writing as a response or a comment to my original post.
Once they've submitted their writing, I would pair students up with one another, and they would be required to respond or comment on their partner's writing. I feel this activity would inspire creative writing and provide students with an audience beyond their English teacher. The students would have opportunities to collaborate with one another. They would be able to connect to their peers in a personal way, to offer comments on one another's writing, to ask questions, and to suggest possibilities for improvement in a positive and constructive manner. The next step would be for students to take a look at the comments made by their partners, and to make revisions to their first drafts. This would discourage students from skipping steps in the writing process and jumping straight to a "final draft" without bothering to make any revisions.

Reaction to "Learning 2.0"

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach wrote an article "21st Century Collaborative: Learning 2.0" which addresses the evolution of technology and its impact on education and learning. I was struck by a statement made by a high school freshman who stated in a national poll that she had to "power down" for school. As an educator, our school's policy is to confiscate any technological devices that are not placed promptly in a locker upon arrival at school. I have mixed feelings regarding the policy, however, I can identify with the idea that students are shifting gears as they enter the traditional classroom. In order to embrace "Learning 2.0" there are a variety of issues that the average school faces. One issue is connectivity: in an ideal world, our buildings would be wireless with each student having access to his/her own personal labtop. Teachers would have power workstations to demonstrate and facilitate students' navigation to some of the web's most valuable tools. Our buildings would have enough bandwidth to accomodate the demands of our teachers and students accessing these tools simultaneously.
These issues aside, many schools would require extensive staff development and a leadership that views technology as a high priority. As I reflect on the core components, I think we need to consider "pedagogy" our first step toward Learning 2.0. We need to look at our roles as educators and recognize that these tools change the way we "teach". We are not necessarily "experts" in our content areas, despite our breadth of knowledge. Even if we knew everything within our content areas, it certainly would be beneficial to our students to introduce them to other resources beyond our classroom walls. Knowledge is not something to be dispersed by teachers and eagerly gobbled up by students. Show them the way to build and construct their own knowledge with resources available on Web 2.0. Teach them to use these tools productively, to share their ideas, and to gain new knowledge and experience. They may begin to develop skills and communicate with others. Who knows, they may even put their cell phones away more willingly if they were given opportunities to connect with others in new ways.