Thing 5

As I perused the plethora of web 2.0 apps for teachers, I began to realize a couple of things.

1. Web 2.0 is useful in preparation of materials for the classroom, however, I've yet to find any truly good apps that I think would be good INSIDE the classroom. Doing math and physics homework on a computer is just frustrating and I've never witnessed any student doing online homework and enjoying it.

2. While I wouldn't use any web 2.0 tools inside my classroom, I do recognize the capacity for supplemental material outside the classroom. Blogs enable teachers to communicate with students outside of class, places like Khan Academy allow students to find supplemental material to help them when they are having difficulty, and tools like dropbox might allow me to distribute a file to students, such as lecture notes, that they might otherwise never be able to see.

"School 2.0" will never occur, at least no in my classroom. There is something to be said for keeping the internet away from a bunch of kids with little self control. However, I will most certainly be taking advantage of Web 2.0 tools in order to supplement my instruction.

Question Responses:

School 2.0 implies, to me, that kids in a classroom will have their faces buried in a computer while the teacher is relegated to a baby sitting job. I realize this is probably not truly the idea, but I have a feeling that is how it will end up happening in the long run.

I hope it doesn't mean much at all. I've seen the result of online credit recovery programs. Students go in with an F and no knowledge, and they come out with an A and no knowledge. The internet completely takes away any responsibility of learning because they can just look up all the answers. Even if they don't, they get infinite tries to make a good grade. Its kinda silly, to be perfectly honest.