Web 2.0 in education

There are two methods of using the Internet in education today. Most schools are using Web 1.0. However some progressive schools are now exploring and using Web 2.0. It's fascinating to observe this evolutionary process unfold.

What is the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 technology?

Web 1.0 is defined as using the computer to RECEIVE INFORMATION. Its emphasis is on COLLECTING and READING information. The computer is used for research using the Internet, writing papers, and presentations. Web 1.0 fails to harness the full power and potential of computers as well as the Internet.

Web 2.0 is using the Internet to facilitate collaboration and sharing between computer users. It uses the Internet as a common platform and the computer for COMMUNICATING with one another. It advocates using blogs, wikis, podcasts, video streaming, social bookmarking and RSS feeds to collaborate. Schools are just beginning to understand its potential. Web 2.0 takes full advantage of the computer technology available. This is the very beginning of a new era in history. This is the next generation of the Internet.

Web 2.0 uses the computer to SEND content, generate and distribute data and PUBLISH information. It emphasizes WRITING, COMMENTING and COLLABORATING. This is all about CONVERSATIONS rather than lectures. Web 2.0 is all about SOCIAL NETWORKING and building collaborative learning communities or teams. It allows students the opportunity to add to the body of knowledge in our world by publishing content. It allows regular individuals to have a GLOBAL VOICE!

Web 2.0 encourages COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE. Collective intelligence concerns how well people work together in a group. Typically this uses the Web and the computer to support collaboration between people in distant locations. Collective intelligence increases as it creatively and constructively includes diverse viewpoints, information coming from different perspectives and differences of opinions. Collaboration with others can in fact raise the group's intelligence. Mass collaboration is one of Webs 2.0 distinguishing feature.

Students are completely immersed in the world of Web 2.0.

Our students go home and participate in the Web 2.0 world, and are for the most part, unsupervised and uncensored. Students find Web 1.0 completely irrelevant to their lives. In a Web 1.0 school, students are not able to use a computer that stimulates their curiosity. Most teachers are still living and working in a Web 1.0 environment. Most students have far greater technological ability and skill. Educators have a great deal of work to do just to catch up. Some teachers find this highly threatening. Others find that they have no time or interest in learning new technology. Much of our conversations here in this school focus on all the reasons why we can't make a change to Web 2.0. Computers are vastly underutilized in schools today. Computer technology is very expensive and this is not using public tax dollars effectively. Web 1.0 curriculum will not prepare students to enter the 21st century.


Education is stuck in a system of CONTROL. TEACHERS FEAR WHAT THEY DONT UNDERSTAND. It's paranoia running wild. Teachers fear that Web 2.0 may put student's safety at risk which is unfounded. Teachers fear students will locate websites that are inappropriate. They complain the students plagiarize assignments, use spell check, e-mail friends at inappropriate occasions; they search for inappropriate things on the Web. All of which happens in school, as well as home, but with supervision it can be reduced and controlled. Today our network is filtered at maximum levels so half of the Internet is not even accessible. I can't even read my own blog at school.


While on-line computer exploration opens a world of possibilities for our students, expanding their horizons and exposing them to different cultures and different ways of life, they can be exposed to dangers as they travel on the information highway. Students must be taught in school how to avoid dangerous and risky situations. Certainly netiquette and personal safety must be taught and re-taught. If the school fails to teach them netiquette, how will they ever learn this? Teachers need to monitor and supervise what the students are doing. Students can work safely in Web 2.0.


What do our students need to know to have a competitive edge using computer technology?


Our students must become self directed learners. Job skills change rapidly in the workplace. People will change occupations frequently as the world changes at very rapid speeds. Students must be able to teach themselves new skills. Technology doesn't stand still. Students need to become more self directed and to take charge of their own learning. Today students sit and wait for the teachers to tell them what to do. Teachers define the method, assess the outcome and control the entire learning/teaching process. Students do not take the initiative to educate themselves. We don't emphasize this aspect of education today. No wonder students sit and wait for someone to teach them, instead of taking the initiative themselves. We are all products of our educational system. Web 2.0 encourages people to become self directed learners.


Our students must become self-organizers. They must learn to manage a slew of information coming at them by developing their own systems and strategies for organizing and comprehending it all. Students need to develop blogs, wikis, electronic portfolios, and aggregate readers. Self organization skills must be taught in school. This skill is completely embedded in Web 2.0.

Our students must become self-editors. They must learn to look at a piece of information and access it on a variety of levels, not simply believe it because someone else does. Students need to be able to evaluate the validity and reliability of information. The question becomes; is the new information correct and accurate, and how does it change your thinking and opinion? This is a Web 2.0 process.

Our students must become self-selectors. They must learn to evaluate and finally select their own mentors, teachers, and collaborative learning communities as they build their own social networks. Students must select a number of collaborative learning communities for which they are actively engaged.

Our students must become self publishers. They must learn to understand the power and importance of sharing and connecting information and knowledge and can publish it quickly and efficiently. Students that can develop a global voice will have tremendous power and an advantage. This is what Web 2.0 is all about.

All of these skills and characteristics listed above are all part of a Web 2.0 curriculum. I believe that the “skill set” (listed above) will be critical to our students future.

Our student body completely agrees with me. It's time to rethink our technology curriculum. The students are excited about the possibilities of a new direction. Mr. McHugo and Mrs. Countryman do an excellent job teaching our Web 1.0 curriculum. We now must develop a new progressive technology curriculum we can all be proud of. We want our students to graduate from this school with a major technological advantage.

What must we do?

We can't jump into a Web 2.0 curriculum over night. It takes time to develop this curriculum correctly. This is “a process” which must be encouraged from the school board and administration. Pressure must be applied from the top down. Web 2.0 staff training needs to take place. Our staff is not up to speed with technology at this time. We need to move this discussion forward. We have no choice. We must change or fall hopelessly behind the rest of the world.