Web 2.0 - playground or classroom?

Note: This post is in response to Week 6 Module 6 Blog 3

Web 2.0 or the read/write web is firmly entrenched in the lives of our students. Many teenagers can be seen documenting their lives online and view it almost as an extension of the playground – conversations via social media continue those started in person, pictures from events are shared and commented on, and anecdotes and opinions are recorded as snippets of information on anything from what’s for breakfast to global news.

How then do we take advantage of this for the classroom? The first thing is to accept it isn’t going to go away. We must work to break down barriers in both mindset and curriculum and work to integrate these aspects of student life into the classroom (Hao & Lee, 2015). There are a myriad of tools which can be used for collaborative activities which can engage students and encourage them to share and store information. Focusing on the positives of Web 2.0 technology such as:

• the ease with which students can create and present work
• communication and collaboration with other students and their teachers
• the wealth of knowledge available
• the connections both within and outside the school

will help students to become responsible, critical users of the digital environment (Jones & Mitchell, 2015).

There are many tools we can use to implement Web 2.0 in the classroom. From general blogs (e.g. www.blogger.com) and wikis (e.g. which can be used for information storage and dissemination to more structured ideas like Webquests. Webquests are an inquiry oriented lesson where the information required is found on the internet. They have been around since before the introduction of Web 2.0 and there is research around them supporting inquiry based learning and cross-curricular integration, even in secondary school situations where each subject tends to sit in a "silo" (Virtue, Wilson, & Ingram, 2009). More recently, the concept has been expanded to include more Web 2.0 features, including blogs, wikis, the use of RSS and communications applications such as Skype (Lin & Ward, 2013). Students both search for information and create communities to collaborate as they work.

In mathematics specifically, tools such as Geogebra can also be used by students to work together and create resources which can then be used to teach fellow students concepts, deepening their own understanding of concepts.

The internet is with us – could you go back to living without it?

References

Hao, Y., & Lee, K. S. (2015). Teachers’ concern about integrating Web 2.0 technologies and its relationship with teacher characteristics. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 1-8. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.01.028

Jones, L. M., & Mitchell, K. J. (2015). Defining and measuring youth digital citizenship. New Media & Society, 18(9), 2063-2079. doi:10.1177/1461444815577797

Lin, L.-M. G., & Ward, C. L. (2013). The integration of Web2Quest technology into multicultural curriculum in teacher education: a potential for globalization Curriculum, Learning, and Teaching Advancements in Online Education (pp. 46-60): IGI Global.

Virtue, D. C., Wilson, J. L., & Ingram, N. (2009). In overcoming obstacles to curriculum integration, L.E.S.S. Can be more! Middle School Journal, 40(3), 4-11. 

Citizenship 2.0

Note: This post is in response to Week 6 Module 6 Blog 1

Citizenship technically means being a member of a particular country and having the rights which go along with that. But where does that leave the globalised "country" of the internet? How do we become a digital citizen, and more importantly, how do we teach students to have good digital citizenship?

Roblyer & Doering (2014) suggest there are several “controversies” around the internet. I would argue that these are not so much controversies (although I guess their effects may be controversial) but facts of life when on the internet. They list them as follows:

#1 Accessing sites with inappropriate materials

#2 Safety and Privacy issues for students

#3 Fraud on the internet

#4 Computer viruses and hacking

#5 Copyright and plagiarism issues

Some of the issues listed related to both digital literacy and digital citizenship. What is the difference? If you have digital literacy are you then a good digital citizen? Some research (Jones & Mitchell, 2015) recommends distinguishing between the two – defining digital literacy as the skills to be able to do things – search, protect privacy, cite online information, avoid scams and so on – and digital citizenship as practicing respectful and tolerant behaviours towards others and having civic engagement – much like the definition of offline “good citizenship”.

Jones and Mitchell (2015) also suggest that building specific good online social skills rather than admonishing bad ones may be more effective. This is an interesting point to me – many programs I’ve come across do focus on the “bad” aspects such as cyber bullying. Would it be better to teach some good skills alongside the warnings? One study cited showed that youth participation in online interest driven activities (e.g. contributing to a discussion forum or website around a hobby, or giving instruction to a less able person around an interest area) predicted future civic participation in areas including politics, volunteerism and community problem solving (Kahne, Lee, & Feezell, 2013). Perhaps encouraging students to start online interest groups within a school community and beyond might be one way to help students be good digital citizens.

When it comes to digital lives, we can’t put the genie back in the bottle. We must therefore learn how to manage it well in our own lives and teach these skills to our students, just as we teach them other life skills.

References

Jones, L. M., & Mitchell, K. J. (2015). Defining and measuring youth digital citizenship. New Media & Society, 18(9), 2063-2079. doi:10.1177/1461444815577797

Kahne, J., Lee, N.-J., & Feezell, J. T. (2013). The civic and political significance of online participatory cultures among youth transitioning to adulthood. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 10(1), 1-20. doi:10.1080/19331681.2012.701109

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2014). Integrating educational technology into teaching (Sixth international ed.). Harlow, Essex: Pearson.