Workshop 1: Web 2.0 and blogging

Hello!

In today's session we learnt about Web 2.0. 

Web 2.0 is a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs and many more.

The use of web 2.0 in the classroom can make the experience for children a lot more interactive. There are various social networking websites than can be used as part of lessons in the classroom such as flickr for downloading photos and youtube for downloading videos.

 

This can also make lessons in the classroom much easier for a teacher in that they are able to deliver clearer and more interactive lessons for the children. This can inturn increase the class's understanding and motivation to learn.

An article in the education section of the 'Good Magazine' shows an interview with Sal Khan, manager of  the 'Khan Academy' (a virtual youtube school) where he says "Youtube is the school of the future". Although this quote is aimed more at online learning rather than in person, it also promotes the use of youtube for homework and extention activities.

http://www.good.is/post/youtube-is-the-school-of-the-future/ 

The use of blogs have also been shown to be effective in the classroom and used as a good educational tool. Children are able to write about favourite topics or subjects and this can be published on the internet. This is visible to family and friends anywhere in the world with internet access. As well as practising and improving writing and ICT skills this also gives a realistic aspect to this task and give a sense of excitement and increase motivation in a child when carrying this out, in comparison to writing in books which are only viewed by school staff and other pupils.

Below is a video showing how "web 2.0" technologies and social networking effect learning experiences in school.

 

As much as the use of Web 2.0 has many advantages for schools, there is also the issue of e-safety. Schools must therefore take all risks into consideration and have in place e-safety rules and measures that are carried out at all times.




Thats all folks