Blog #1 - Web 2.0

Years ago when I was in grade school I loved to go to art classes and use all the tools I didn't have at home. My learning environment expanded beyond the walls of my house and introduced me to new and ever more interesting discoveries. And when the computers entered the classroom? Well it seemed that school was full of endless possibilities.

Today, Web 2.0 makes those tools seem so pitiful by comparison and one would believe that current classrooms would have the technologies to capture the imaginations of the most disinterested student. Some schools are taking that leap into Web 2.0 technologies with faith in their students and their futures. The Flat Classroom Project is just one instance where several schools are using such tools to expand their learning virtually and physically across international borders. In these programs the students use the powerful tools available under guidance from their instructors.

Yet many more schools block the usage of most Web 2.0 tools in order to protect our children. Most commendable. However, this not only implies a significant distrust of our students and communities, but it also renders the classroom a backward-thinking, antiquated institute that no longer fosters a child's love of learning. In addition, restricting access to the very tools that will most likely be as ubiquitous in their future workplaces as a telephone is today will seriously undermine the skills and educational background they will need as adults.

That children need to be protected is beyond question. In an editorial on such protection, Christopher Harris, a librarian and school administrator with a background in instructional technology, notes that schools should continue such Internet restrictions as it is not possible for the "radical trust" of the community. Nevertheless, many of our children have the capabilities and enough knowledge to access these tools under our guidance or not. To blatantly obstruct the use of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom seriously undermines the opportunity to train the students in the correct and best ways to utilize them.

Indeed, most students with access to the Internet are already using them – and without constructive guidance. In a study titled Adolescents in MySpace: Identity Formation, Friendship and Sexual Predators, by Larry Rosen, 34 percent of parents were unsure whether their child had given out their school name through MySpace. Disconcertingly, 74 percent of the teens in the study reported they had.

By bringing the tools into the classroom, it becomes possible to address issues of vulnerability and to educate our children about not only the amazing tools at their fingers tips but also those very dangers that blocking access is supposed to contain.