Thing No. 5

PERSPECTIVE ON WEB 2.0:

School 2.0 means incorporating technology into the classroom and school curriculum. It means giving students a jump start on important technological advances that will help them later secure a job or succeed better in college.

I believe it is important to incorporate Web 2.0 into education. I have been on job interviews where I had to create many different documents, show that I can search the web and find a specific website, etc. These tests were part of my interview. I believe in some cases, knowledge of technology can make or break landing a job. Technology has become more and more important in every aspect of live. 15 years ago, only a few people had cell phones, people still had TVs with out remotes, computers merely existed, you had to wait a week to see pictures that you took with your camera, you had to call the airline (from your home phone) to book a flight, and it took weeks to send a letter. All of those things have changed in the past 15 or so years and now we think, "How did I live like that?"

It is very important to incorporate technology into education. Using the latest technology to teach lessons and subjects is really killing two birds with one stone. For example: A 4th grade class has a reading assignment to write a short story on 'What Thanksgiving means to me'. After writing their story they can use a movie maker to create a short film, which will bring their stories to life and make them more interested in what they are doing. They can learn how to use the movie maker, how to upload music, pictures, and videos. They also will learn how to use a search engine when looking for pictures and such. They will also learn organization skills while putting this movie together. Now they are learning technology, reading, spelling, typing, and more!

While I believe that technology is important, the content of school subjects should not be ignored. Technology should simply be incorporated into the lessons.

Having your class create a common blog is a good idea too, I believe. The teacher could have the students write about a certain subject, maybe a current event in the news or a event going on in the school or community. Set rules though, although they are writing on a website, (similar to MySpace or FaceBook, which most kids have) make sure they are writing in complete sentences and use correct spelling. Do not allow them to write on the blog "I think prez Obama is gr8t he is going 2 b 1 of our awesomest prez ever!!! He sez 2 go 2 school n try hard". This is not proper Enlgish. I think once they learn how to write properly on a blog, they may turn that over to their own personal blogs and websites like MySpace.

Using the Internet is a wonderful informational resource. Although, it is important to teach students what is a reliable website and what is not. Sites like wikipedia has a huge database of topics and information on those topics, but students need to know that it is not necessarily made up of all facts. Sites like wikipedia get their information from anyone with Internet access. Someone may have inaccurate information and post it. Learning which websites are legitimate and which ones aren't is very important.

Technology is a wonderful thing and it should be incorporated into education as long as it does not over shadow the lesson at hand. Knowledge of any kind will come in handy later on in life. And when technology is becoming such a vital part of the work force, it will give students a head start at a career.