http://www.edutopia.org/collaboration-age-technology-will-richardson
Our world is changing in ways that I am only now beginning to appreciate. In this article Will Richardson calls this the "Collaboration Age." We have at our fingertips "the most transformative connective technologies the world has ever seen." Over 1/6 of the planet is online. That is a stunning statistic. Not only do we have quick access to more data and information than ever before, we are able to collaborate with people we could never have connected with even a few years ago. I experienced this when Bill Ferriter started a conversation with me on my blog post about his article "Taking the Digital Plunge."
Richardson outlines the challenges for us as educators:
- Model for our students the skills that will help them be successful
- Show them how to build safe and effective social networks (at my school we limit access to social networks and publishing student work is challenging)
- Help students find and connect with other learners (again, we are limiting access)
- Show students how to sift through the deluge of information to find high quality information from reliable sources (we do some of this)
- Encourage students to collaborate, share, and publish (my school has not "crossed that frontier" - we are more in the mode of "showcasing a finished product at open house").
I agree with Will - if we don't do these things, there is a cost to our kids: they are not adept users of the tools, they lack skills that make them good collaborators, and too many can't balance their face-to-face lives with their virtual lives (we certainly see this phenomenon).
We have not made the shift are my high school. Many of the policies in place disconnect kids from the technology they are passionate about. Many of our students do not understand or demonstrate digital citizenship as evidenced by our ongoing issues with cyberbullying on Facebook and cell phones/PDAs. In my high school I don't think it is so much a movement to preserve the old structures as it is a desire to protect our kids from things like identity theft, Internet predators and cyberbullying.
One of my motivations for taking this class is to be adept at using Web 2.0 tools for my own learning and to share what I learn with my students. Ideas after reading this article:
Checkout the Ning "Working together 2 make a difference" (educators, parents, students involved in volunteerism and service learning - something I am passionate about!)
http://workingtogether2makeadifference.ning.com/
Checkout the Ning "Classroom 2.0" for those interested in Web 2.o tools and collaborative technology in education.
http://www.classroom20.com/
1 comment:
Interesting point about preserving the old ways, It's scary to think about identity theft and predators, but we have to discuss these things with students and help them be net savvy. They already have the tools, are we sure we want to stop them from using them?
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