Today I’m going to talk about Web 2.0 and its opportunities for the classroom. However, I feel that before I talk about web 2.0 I should get you up to speed. Web 1.0 is the read only web, this made all users of the web consumers of information. Whereas the Web 2.0 which was first used in 2004 is known as the read/write web, where we as the users can not only gain information but provide information by writing the web, sounds full on I know but we’ve already been doing it for the last six years so we should be experts…right?
Web 2.0 involves the sites in users, such as yourself, can contribute something; for example Blogs such as this one, Wiki’s, Podcasts, Social Media and many more so how can these be useful and successful in the classroom, well, after reading an interesting article by Richardson “The Educator’s Guide To The Read Write Web” I have discovered the opportunities that using Web 2.0 in the classroom provides. For many years’ students have created work to hand into the teacher, it is often put up on display or even taken home and showed to the parents. Web 2.0 allows all students to publish their work, as Richardson states, “the awareness of even a small audience can significantly change the way a student approaches writing and other school assignments. It’s the difference between handing a piece in to a teacher and publishing it.” This idea of the audience providing motivation that was not there before was also noted in one of my previous blogs. It is important I think to mention that this not the only advantage using Web 2.0 has in the classroom, it opens the door to a new community for students. A community full of experts in their given fields, it provides the opportunity for students to engage themselves in online conversations with such people, and work collaboratively not only with these experts but with other students in their class and in the world.
Richardson goes on to suggest that by using Web 2.0 students can create online, interactive portfolios that can reflect their long-term learning, this is a fantastic tool for teachers to easily assess the learning and understanding that has occurred and for the students themselves to be aware of their learning.
It appears to me that ideas for Web 2.0 in the classroom are endless, however, I do believe they will have their challenges such as the issue of privacy and even challenging traditional teaching methods yet, the advantages seem to outweigh the negatives.
But watch out everyone I’ve only just got my head around Web 2.0 and apparently Web 3.0 is already upon us.
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