Comments on: Web 2.0 – Why Should I Care?

By: richardbenz

richardbenz — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:42:44 +0000

You are right. I think the students tend to use what they use a lot, but they do not tend to experiment with tools and applications as much as I do or you do. I am fascinated with the possibilities and the power of the web 2.0 tools. They simply want to stay connected to one another. I think we do need to have these “getting started” sessions. We still need to teach, Or as you said, have them teach other. I also like the idea of “setting them up.” In fact I think we need to do that with our colleagues too. In this blog as well as in wikis we set up, or what have you. That is a great impact that we can all have on the process of integrating the web 2.0 tools into the teaching of biology. Lets try to make it a point to ask each other for help. Great comments. RB

By: rheyden

rheyden — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:05:54 +0000

Hi Rich. Thanks for the thoughtful comment…Yeah, I hear you. And you know, I think part of it is that our students aren’t as well versed in these new technologies as we thought they were. I was completely sold on Prensky’s “digital native/digital immigrant” dichotomy at first, but I’m starting to come around to the idea that we’re ALL digital immigrants. As I work with high school students I quite regularly encounter teenagers who don’t know how to edit a wiki, comment thoughtfully on a blog, set up an RSS feed, or leverage all the great tagging tools on Diigo. They know what these things ARE, but they haven’t necessarily driven them in a productive way. This stuff is changing so fast – there are new technologies out there for us to figure out every day – I think we have to lead, teach, and urge a bit more than we originally thought we might. What do you think of the idea of “getting started” sessions with students where you show them how to do a few web2-things and you might also ask a student or two to lead sessions – show off new tools/capabilities, explain meta tagging, demonstrate a network effect with blogging – that sort of thing. And one other thought, I think they need to see that network effect in order to get excited. They need to see something they created (a blog post, a Youtube video, a Prezi presentation, getting hits/comments, being linked to – or with any luck, going viral. How about stacking the deck (just a bit) by asking others (the educators on this blog? research scientists you know?) to comment on the course blog or on their posted media projects. Maybe once they see they have a readership, they’ll get a bit more enthused for the process?

By: richardbenz

richardbenz — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:38:19 +0000

I agree with you Robin. At least half our job has always been to connect with our audience. (The other half is to help them to learn something of course.) I say at least half because if you don’t connect, the changes we call learning cannot take place. But I have some questions. I know that our students are “digital natives.” I know that they are walking around “powered-up.” But how can we get them to use this “Power” for the good of learning what we want them to learn. I have been working to integrate Web 2.0 and other technology tools–podcasts, word clouds, etc. into the classes I teach (to kids and teachers alike. The kids especially know what I am talking about. They know blogs, they know wikis, they know social networking. But here’s the rub–when I include these communications tools into my teaching, the kids are much more passive than what I expected. They view, but they don’t tend to post. If I include posting in my assignments, they post, but the posts tend to be brief and often disappointing. How can we get the same enthusiasm in our classroom use of Web 2.0 as the students have in their own personal use of these tools? Don’t get me wrong, I am one of the advocates, but I want to see more exciting responses from the kids (and the teachers I teach.) Rich Benz