April 2008 — News
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Crossroads in Education: Issues for Web 2.0, Social Software, and Digital Tools
Teacher Support
Lack of professional development for teachers is commonly cited in research as a contributing factor to technology's lack of impact on teaching and learning (Metiri Group, 2006; Nikolov, 2007). In the case of social software and Web 2.0 applications, teachers need more than knowing what tools are available to use and learning the technical side of how to use them. How might the tool be used to support learning?
Curriculum and instruction developers need to contribute innovative ideas to teachers. Bretag (2008) suggested a few: blogs as the foundation for writing across the curriculum, Twitter for study groups; Ustream to broadcast a class debate over immigration; a wiki for Biology lab reports; Ning as a collaborative research space; Voice Thread for the oral section of a Spanish final; and Second Life in the study of a piece of literature. Nikolov (2007) noted several Web 2.0 school-oriented portals that are providing access to Web services and content for educational purposes in different school subjects: Schoolforge, Edu 2.0, Change Agency, Shambles: Education Project Asia, and Web 2.0 for the Classroom Teacher (p. 3).
Narrowing the Options
Not all Web 2.0 applications and social software are free and open-source products. With finance a definite concern in K-12, should schools limit purchases to those geared toward mastery of subject-matter standards or also buy products enabling personalization? With only so many hours available during the school day for using any technology application, wise choices need to be made.
A potential barrier to using social software and Web 2.0 applications might have to do with investments that schools have made in commercial software products specifically developed for mastery of math, science, reading, or other subject standards. Districts would naturally want teachers to use those, particularly if a product had some research-based evidence of its effectiveness to raise achievement. Such products often come with vendor support for professional development and tech support for when problems occur.
Right now there are many, many options for social software and Web 2.0 tools. For example, visit SimpleSpark, which is currently tracking more than 8,400 Web applications, and enter "collaboration" as your search.
