Is it possible to get too much 2.0? Over the past three semesters, I have taken on a blog and several wikis for science, history, and English, I have been Skypeing, Twittering, social networking, video editing, podcasting, and interactive whiteboarding.
I have used Celestia in the classroom and soon will start with Stellarium. Google SketchUp has sat on my hard drive and has not been used…yet. I have downloaded videos from TeacherTube and YouTube. Of course, YT is blocked so I have to get what I need while at home.
Our content mastery room and two science teachers have used iPods for oral administration of exams. On our elementary campus, iPods are replacing CD players.
One teacher accepted the use of building Googlepages rather than traditional posterboard presentations. Another teacher is looking forward to dusting off the wikispaces we created last year. I started a blog with one of our elementary classes and hope to revamp it this year.
But how much is too much? Is there a season of absorption that has to occur before I add anything else? Mr. M and I agree that our culture has to change before we can infuse more 2.0 tools into the classroom. Some intense training is needed to bring about all the nifty things I would like to use. Google Docs are great, but I cannot get teachers to use them. I have tried collaborating, but it takes time for teachers to see the benefits and want to become digital immigrants.
It occurred to me that I need to write a plan for using 2.0 tools in the classroom. I need to decide what I need to do first and then put the rest on the shelf. Perhaps there are steps to take to get it all in. Are there skills that are required before moving on to something else? Do I need to learn to blog before I podcast? Do I learn to tweet before I skype?
And what about our students who do not have Internet in their home? How do we bring them into the 2.0 culture?
Entries (RSS)
February 9th, 2008 at 1:00 am
You are right, teachers these days need ‘resource time’ and time for professional development … the job is more demanding than ever. I can understand how difficult it is for many practising teachers to change a whole way of thinking about teaching. there are so many incredible resources, but keeping up with it all is a job in itself. Every day I bookmark something new to try and am over-awed by the amazing tools that are at hand. I also experience information overload though!