WHY+USE+WEB2TOOLS?

**WEB 2.0 IN EDUCATION**
toc

//**"Technology should be like oxygen: Ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible."** - Chris Lehman//

It has almost become a catch cry of progressive educational institutions that educators are engaged in the task of preparing their pupils for a radically different work place then has ever been seen before. How far wrong is the statement that educators are preparing students for jobs that would not have even existed when those same students entered high school? Case in point - the accompanying screenshot to this text comes from the online recruitment specialist SEEK.com from April 25th 2012. What is clear here is that there are a plethora of opportunities for employment that make use of technologies that did not exist five years ago. It might be considered ironic that this change in thinking on employment and employment opportunities may even lead to the downfall of SEEK.com itself. David Ramli, of the Financial Review recently commented in his article // Tweet me a job offer if you 'like' //(04/2012) on statistics that show that more and more employers are looking to social media rather than static websites for their recruitment needs.

//**What is Web 2.0?**//

It depends. The original coinage of the term Web 2.0 came about in 2004 as a term to describe those web-based companies, and their associated characteristics, that were able to weather the difficult economic times of the 1990's (Anderson, 2007, p. 5-6; Davies & Merchant, 2009, p. 2-3). This term has evolved into one that sees connectedness as the guiding characteristic that defines Web 2.0. This is itself debatable, as one of the founding fathers of the internet - Sir Tim Berners-Lee - has stated that the internet has always been about bringing people and ideas together, which makes the monicker of Web 2.0 nothing more than a marketing gimmick or another code word to be deciphered by those outside of the know (Anderson, 2007). This being said, a short and simple answer to the question of what Web 2.0 is would be best summed up as:

//"...[Web 2.0] for many people, is to make a reference to a group of technologies which have become deeply associated with the term: blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds etc., which facilitate a more socially connected Web where everyone is able to add to and edit the information space."// (Anderson, 2007)

//**So, where does this leave education and educators?**//

Blogs, wikis, Twitter, Facebook, Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, ICTs, DER. Into this mix add IWBs, as well as 1:1 pedagogy models and thing get further fuzzy. The names and the acronyms can be confusing and overwhelming to the uninitiated. Even the term 'overwhelming' can be an understatement to some as the language of this worldwide movement evolves moment to moment as it seemingly takes more and more energy and effort to stay above the tide of change.

This paradigm shift comes into direct conflict with the static traditional role of education illustrated by those in educational research such as Davies and Merchant. Davies and Merchant (2009) paint a picture of education where the there is "an assumption that children and young people will attend a school or similar institution to learn and be taught there for a greater part of the day" (p. 2). This "basic concept of formal education" (p. 2) has changed little from its earliest conceptions. When one looks at the evolution of the employment market it can be surmised that this "basic concept of formal education", which may have served society adaquately till now, may not be the best educational model to go with.

If the proposed National Professional Standards for Teachers is any indication of the direction the field of teaching is heading teachers will have no choice except to sink or swim in the rising tide.These proposed standards identify a three of domains of teaching - professional knowledge, professional practice and professional engagement. Each of the domains is further divided into individual standards and focus areas related to the domain. Acting as an umbrella to these domains and standards are four categories which describe the level of competency in each said area - graduate, proficient, highly accomplished and lead. Within this maze of domains and standards, ICTs have a prominent place in describing a modern proficient teacher in Australia.

National Professional Standards for Teachers
**Professional Knowledge**
 * //Standard 2: Know the content and how to teach it//
 * Focus Area 2.6
 * Use effective teaching strategies to integrate ICT into learning and teaching programs to make selected content relevant and meaningful.


 * Professional Knowledge**
 * //Standard 3: Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning//
 * Focus Area 3.4
 * Select and/or create and use a range of resources, including ICT, to engage students in their learning


 * //Create and Maintain supportive and safe learning environments//
 * Focus Area 4.5
 * Incorporate stategies to promote the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT in learning and teaching

What is clear in these National Standards is that teachers need to seize the opportunity to move from pedagogy that is of a "just in case" nature of the standard curriculum to the "just for me" model that is afforded through an innovative approach to teaching with interactive, collaborative technology in order to stay current in their profession (Wheeler, 2010). In a 2009 blog post, prior to the role out of the DER (Australian Government's Digital Education Revolution) Bruce Dixon of the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation posed the question "[w]hat if every kid had a laptop -- and nothing changed?" It is still a question that carries weight and should part of any teacher's professional reflection on the use of ICT in their classroom.

media type="custom" key="15384456"
Back to top

New Pedagogies For The Digital Age
media type="custom" key="15445650"

Back to top

ENGAGE: WEB 2.0 in The History Classroom
media type="custom" key="15442726" align="center"

Back to top

The Machine is Us
media type="custom" key="15445962" Back to top

Internet Statistics
media type="custom" key="15446088" Back to top

TEDxNYED: Henry Jenkins
media type="custom" key="15384490" Back to top