I just read the article, A Day In The Life Of Web 2.0, by David Warlick. As I sit here with my jaw dropped open to my belly button, I'm thinking "where have I been?". What great tools we have at our fingertips (pun intended), but we're not using them to our full advantage. As a math consultant, there are a myriad of ways I could be communicating with math teachers! I could create videos of exemplary math teachers facilitating activities with their students so that other teachers will feel competent in facilitating activities in their own classrooms. We could share ideas about practices that are best for our students' learning of math. We could develop our own activities collaboratively without ever meeting! If we are going to make great strides in math achievement, we must search and collaborate! What a fantastic way to all get on the "same page". And I thought e-mail was great!
I am so thankful that I stumbled upon this class and was allowed to join, even though I am no longer in the classroom. Who knows? I may return!
Photo from Flickr: Pipe
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I agree. It is always a surprise to find things that are already there. These tools will be of great use.
ReplyDeleteMost of our educators aren't aware of these tools much less the potential they present for us in education either, which is why I continue to offer this class. Don't believe me? Try talking to someone about Web 2.0 and see if they know what it is. I still get blank looks!! However, if you take this class and then use the tools with other teachers, that helps get the word out, and then hopefully they'll adopt them as well.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to draw out a few key words from your blog post such as communicating and collaborate. Those are key elements of Web 2.0 tools. They enable us to easily do both and in the end "create" a product that is beneficial to everyone.
Oh, and your idea about the exemplary videos is wonderful!! Wait until we get into the wikis in Thing 7 and Google Docs. I can see both of those working into some of the ideas that you've mentioned.