Web 2.0 in the classroom

Ever wonder how the social Web might be used at school (by educators as well as students)? An article by tech educator David Warlick in TechLearning.com provides a bunch of insights. Take social studies teacher Mrs. L, for example: She "scans through [Web] sites tagged genetics in the school's social bookmark service. Her students may need quick access to them as they discuss genetic engineering current events during class…. All assignments in Ms. L's class are turned in via blogs because she finds that their conversational nature encourages students to think and write in more depth than traditional formal essays or short answer assignments…. [She] crafts the blog assignments with an eye toward training students to think critically and to post informed, well-considered opinions. A common classroom activity, for instance, is to have students read the blogged entries of others and write persuasive reactions — one in agreement, another in disagreement — and post these writings as comments to their classmates' blogs." David Jakes, another tech educator, responded with what he felt was a needed reality check. In "Is MySpace Your Space As Well?" ed-tech expert Andy Carvin is among the first to look at what might be tricky about having students and teachers in the same social space after school hours (in his blog at PBS.org), and USATODAY covers teacher blogs as an opportunity to vent job dissatisfaction ("blog tracking website Technorati.com lists 848 teacher blogs"). See also the Seattle Times, for a more elementary-school-level view, and the Houston Chronicle's "Plugged in for learning."