chapter 1-- not a one way street

Web 2.0- New Tools, New Schools by Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum.

Chapter one generally is a great recap of the new world as presented in The World is Flat and other writings about our connected world and how it is changing work and society.

As the authors say, the Internet is no longer a one way street where information just goes out. Today the web is participatory. It is easier than ever for anyone to produce content, collaborate with others, create mulitmedia - and from all over the world.

The big question that is posed is how are schools in America ever going to catch up! Other leading tech countries such as India, Korea, Japan are all using Linux operating system (which is opensource... cheap). Korea leads the world in broadband connections and the US was in 20th place in 2006.

With the rise of Web 2.0 we need new ways to approach teaching and learning. The authors talk about using collaboration, communication and project based learning (18.) I hope just how we do that with teachers across the country remains to be seen. I do think there is a ripple of new teaching practices that are embracing the web 2.0 philosophy and really changing teaching. Hopefully that ripple will grow and infect others with its success.

"We used to talk about reading, writing, and arithmetic as the essential skills for literacy. To be literate today involves acquiring new skills, including those of using technology, understanding science, having global awareness, and most important, having the ability to keep learning, which involves gathering processing, analyzing, synthesizing, and presenting information as well as communicating and collaborating. Free online tools can play a large role in helping students acquire these skills." (20)

I see American schools spending tons of money and not taking advantage of the free stuff... while the rest of the world is rocking on a computer with a browser... hmmm