While I was previously unaware that there was a name for the "new internet," I have used quite a few of the sites and resources mentioned in this weeks reading, and a few that weren't mentioned. I am currently working as a substitute teacher in a relatively small school district and I tend to bounce between classrooms pretty regularly and one thing I have noticed is that many teachers do not make use of the wealth of web resources available to them. I work mainly in the elementary school grades and, in contrast to a few teachers at my school, I feel that young students should be exposed to as much media as we can feasibly incorporate in an educational manner.
This generation of students is growing up in a world where any answer they need is, quite literally, in the palm of their hand. Instead of teaching them to memorize facts and dates we need to follow their lead and instead, instruct them in how to access reliable information--in essence, how to use all the "power" they possess to their best advantage. I have taught in high school classrooms where students want me to tell them the pages of the textbook that a given chapter is on. This concerns me for many reasons, but mainly because they need to learn to find information independently. Yes, many of them can punch a question into google and get an answer, but do not know how to evaluate a webpage to see if it is an accurate and reliable source? Do they know how to cite that source? Do they know how to find that source again if need be? Do they know how to use that information to find other sources? From my experience the answer is no. They know how to play video games, use snapchat, and google but when it comes to using the internet for educational purposes, their skills are sorely lacking.
So the question about web 2.0 becomes: if all students are using it for is social networking and gaming, what is it really good for? I think many of our teachers are frustrated by this and not sure how to take technology in their classroom out of the purely social context to which students have become accustomed and plunge it back into the world of education. This is where Library Media Specialists can help.
We begin by being models of Web 2.0 in the classroom. It might seem like a lofty goal right now, but whether I end up in a public library, or a school library I plan to be working with children. One of my biggest goals is to introduce them to new technology on a regular basis. I would like to use a new type of technology every week. I already know and use things like Prezi, Youtube, Storybird and Animoto, but there are so many others I would love to try out.
Technology has so many uses, there are games and sites for every possible discipline and many ways to incorporate each into a classroom. There are even sites like class DoJo which takes classroom management into the digital arena and allows teachers to communicate with parents about student behavior through an interactive app. Student can even interact with the app on the smart board helping to give them ownership and accountability over their "grade" for the day.
Now, to answer my own question: What is web 2.0 good for? My answer: EVERYTHING. One website may not meet every teachers needs, but with a well curated arsenal of websites, teachers can take the classroom into the new millennium and in doing so, create students who will be able to make use of the technology that surrounds them in ways that actually contribute to their education.
