Teaching 2.0

I have been using the Internet in some capacity for the past twenty years.  However, I have learned more in the last year than the previous nineteen put together, or at least that’s the way it seems.  With the advent of Web 2.0, the Internet has become more dynamic, interactive, and fluid.  It’s not like the old web where you went to a website, read the information provided, and then moved on to another site to read more information.  I’m not saying it was necessarily a bad thing, it was just lower on Bloom’s Taxonomy.  I still learned a great deal, but not to the extent I could have.

To me, it sounds a lot like education.  The old way of educating (not to date myself too much) included a lot of lectures, note taking, and written tests, with the occasional reel-to-reel movie thrown in for good measure.  I don’t know how much of this still goes on today, but I know of at least one teacher who recently retired that had been using the same binder, notes, and podium for the last 25 years.  I am hoping he was the exception and not the rule, but I’m not naive enough to think he was the last of his kind.

Thinking of the adjectives that are used to describe Web 2.0; dynamic, interactive, fluid, engaging.  Aren’t these the same adjectives that we would like to use to describe education?  I know there are those who would use these words to describe their teaching, but why aren’t we all.  This is an exciting time for education.  All the tools we have at our disposal should make it easier to interact, engage, and differentiate for each and every student.  With Twitter, students and teachers can share links and ideas whether at school, at home, or any where they have a cell phone and a signal.  With Google Docs, students can collaborate with classmates or others around the world day or night.  With Screenr and Youtube, teachers and students alike can post tutorials to enhance what has been learned, or to remediate those in need.

We need to give our students more freedom and access to the tools available, and teach them how to use those tools properly and respectfully.  We, and by that I mean I, need to not be afraid that our students are going to out learn us.  Instead, we should jump in and learn right beside them, blurring the line between teaching and learning.  Our students are growing up in an instant access world and we have the tools to provide instant access education.  As we continue to explore the resources available to us, we can better tap into the resources that walk into our classrooms every day.

Just Try It!

I was extremely nervous to start a blog.  Will people want to read what I have to say?  How many times do I need to post in a week, month, year?  What if I am a complete failure as a blogger?  All these things have been going through my head and maybe, in the not so distant past, I would have waited until the perfect time to start writing a blog… and maybe you would have been reading my first blog post in the year 2040!

I teach technology at a Jr. High School in Arizona and, as my title suggests, I feel many times throughout the year like I am just barely keeping my head above water.  Trying to balance learning new technology, preparing for my classes each day, and spending time with my family is a full time job and then some.  I had the opportunity to go to the CUE conference in Palm Springs last year.  While I enjoyed it immensely, my head was spinning with all the new programs and possibilities.   I felt a little inadequate.   As a technology teacher, I thought I should have already known about all the new programs and ideas that were being circulated.  How to integrate with Google Docs?   What is this Edmodo thing?   My students already know how to use PowerPoint, do they really need how to use Prezi too?  How am I going to use Animoto in the classroom?  And, most importantly, how am I going to learn everything I need to know before I introduce it to the students?!

It was exciting and overwhelming at the same time.  Soon after we returned to school, I found myself talking with my assistant principal. We were discussing Edmodo and how I wanted to use it with my classes, but I hadn’t had a chance to really looked at it completely and find out all the things it could do.  He looked at me and said, “Just try it.”   “If we wait around for the perfect time to try something new in education, nothing will ever get done.”   That was my epiphany!  It was like someone had given me the keys to a sports car I didn’t know how to drive and said, ‘Here, take her a spin and see what happens!”  Since that moment, all my classes have  participated in Edmodo, I have a twitter account, I use Google Docs instead of a word processor, I created a Prezi and QR code for my curriculum night, and have written my first Blog.  There is a lot more to get to, and it’s still overwhelming.  It might not go exactly the way I had planned, in fact, I might turn out to be a total disaster, but if I don’t “Just try it,”  I will never know.