School-wide Web 2.0?

Want to feel intimidated about Web 2.0? Be sure to read David Warlick’s article “A Day in the Life of Web 2.0.” Although it was written almost two years ago, it certainly presents a vision of a school-wide (and indeed system-wide) philosophy and effective use of technology that is light years away from my high school.

In the last chapter of his book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, Will Richardson illustrates one teacher using all of the tools discussed in the previous chapters. “Epilogue: The Classroom of the Read/Write Web” shows an English teacher’s use of Web 2.0 tools to enhance teaching and learning. 

Warlick’s article goes further. In this vision every teacher in the school uses various 2.0 tools to facilitate teaching and learning, including blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, and more. This technology helps infuse the school and the school system with a culture of sharing and collaboration that includes teachers, students, administrators, and parents. Even the superintendent of schools is in constant touch with what’s happening in his schools as a result of effective use of 2.0 technology.

While I do find Warlick’s vision intimidating, I am also inspired. My favorite part of the article is the description of the role of the teacher librarian, who, along with the school tech facilitator, subscribes to all the teachers’ weekly blog reports that summarize all that will be taught. The t-l and tech facilitator map all the curricula that are being taught in the school each week. They then research various resources and strategies to share with teachers and students.

I wonder if there is a school district where this vision has become a reality. I love the possibilities this vision suggests to me.
 

Blogging on Web 2.0 for schools . . .

My name is Cynthia Peterson. After 38 years of teaching (23 as a teacher librarian in junior high and high school), I’ve retired — sort of. Through the University of Alberta’s Teacher-Librarianship by Distance Learning program, I am presently working on a M. Ed. in School Librarianship, something I’ve long wanted to do, but with home and work responsibilities, never had time for.

This blog is part of my classwork for EDES 501, Exploration of Web 2.0 for Teaching and Learning, taught by Joanne de Groot. Although I’ve created very simple blogs and wikis before, I am definitely lacking expertise with Web 2.0.

In his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, Will Richardson zeroes in on what I’m lacking. He describes teachers who “have taken the work they had students do in the paper, analog world and simply digitized it” (p. 8). That probably describes about 75% of the work I’ve been collaborating on with my colleagues. Now I have the opportunity to use this blog as my tool to construct my own learning.  

I decided to use Edublogs for this blog, as it comes highly recommended by colleagues, and it is ad-free. As I hope to be using this with teachers and students, I want to be sure I am really familiar with it. I have already discovered that the instructions leave something to be desired! 

I felt quite sheepish when it took me four hours to figure out how to upload a Word document! I would have expected to be easy, given that this is designed for teachers to use with their students. I plan to create some Edublog tutorials of my own later.

I am also hoping that it will not generate the spam email I got when I used other programs.  I have found it rather “glitchy” but perhaps that is is my lack of expertise.

Here’s to new challenges!