Thing 2: Web 2.0 and Me

Web 2.0 makes the future of education exciting, adventurous and even slightly dangerous. Web 2.0 isn’t static and controllable, It is dynamic and independent. I think that blogs, wikis, discussion boards, and even cell phones are all technologies that can be used in teaching to make it more engaging and rewarding to the students. As Marc Prensky writes in his article, Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives, today’s students are digital natives, and they aren’t going to be impressed by the PowerPoint technologies used by us digital immigrants. They don’t want to just consume content, they want to create it.

As for myself, I have been using Web2.0 technologies for a while and I didn't even realize it. I am on facebook, I have a personal blog, and I use the Google RSS reader. I haven't gotten into Twitter yet, but I think that is partly because the digital immigrant in me still doesn't get the point. However, I can see how social networking has really changed our society. I recently commented to my husband how odd it is to me to think that our daughter will grow up and never lose contact with her school friends. Sites like Facebook will always keep them connected. Fortunately, MISD has begun to give some great web 2.0 tools for us to use in our classrooms. I'm taking a Moodle class this summer so that I can easily use wikis, discussion boards, blogs and more in my classroom. I also plan to use google apps as well.