Web 2.0

Web 2.0 tools are online based tools that are free to access and have the potential to enhance education. There are a variety of tools for different platforms and different learning. The majority of these tools allow the user to be the "producer, creator, and collaborator," (Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner | MacArthur Foundation, Retrieved from www,Youtube.com, 2013). The use of any Web 2.0 tool will provide a different perspective for the students to learn the content. The typical "chalk and talk" type of teaching and learning is fading away. Students seem to enjoy learning the content better, when they can apply their creativity using a tool to present their knowledge in unique ways, that differ from that traditional research paper or lab report. A time line project, or news story type of project can come to life with a web 2.0 tool like Meograph. It is much easier for students to  capture video, sound, images and edit that data to fit into a variety of formats. 

Remember these tools? It wasn't that long ago that these where hard to come by, and were one of the only ways you could capture video at home. You needed to have a VHS tape, a VHS player and editor to run the film back and capture the decent moments. It was a much lengthier process to stitch a video together to make a 5-10 minute film for a class project. Now students and most individuals can capture video on their cell phones, upload the video to youtube, edit the film, add music, still images, or animations to enhance the video and make a more attractive 10 minute video. 


Web 2.0 tools have the potential to engage students on a different level, where they have more ownership over the assignment, and have the freedom to express their knowledge creatively  Schools need to embrace this technology and provide appropriate training to educators to learn how to include tools like this into the typical classroom. The use of a word processing program is a step towards technology integration, but word processing isn't the only thing technology can do. Instead of typing a research paper, the student could record a podcast lecture of the topic, and enhance the podcast with images and animation. It is still a valid skill to stand in front of a group of people and speak, but delivering a more discussion based presentation after the audience has heard the podcast, or watched the video makes for a much more engaged audience. These tools have the ability to bring learning to a different level and engage students. The difficulty is providing the training and education to the teachers, so they are confident in using these tools to replace the lecture, the worksheet, the textbook reading assignment  and the typical multiple choice test. 

Sources
Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner | MacArthur Foundation, Retrieved from www,Youtube.com, 2013