Imagine a secure Web-based platform where teachers and students can create weekly news broadcasts, make spreadsheets that provide simultaneous viewing, and even tap into real-time classrooms abroad so students can discover different cultures and have real-time conversations with foreigners.
This is happening in a select few schools, made possible with Web 2.0 tools, or second-generation tools, including blogs, podcasts, wikis, video streaming, and interactive Web sites.
The original purpose of the Internet was to facilitate access to a large body of information that was housed in facilities around the world and not easy to get to, according to Susan Brooks-Young, a Web 2.0 consultant and former school principal and assistant principal in California's Mountain View School District, Fullerton School District and Bonita Unified School District. The Internet's intent was about accessing a collective intelligence.
Web 2.0 tools and technologies help do this. They save districts time and money and eliminate the need to transfer or move files back and forth across computers. Users can interact, and they can add and delete information and comments on Web sites, which older Web tools wouldn't allow. "The use of Web 2.0 is all about information," Brooks-Young adds.
"Public education is about social networking and getting along with others," which comprise some of the 21st-century skill set, says Kevin Jarrett, technology facilitator at Northfield Community (N.J.) School District, which is just outside Atlantic City. Brooks-Young and Jarrett were among four experts who spoke during a recent Web 2.0 seminar by the Consortium for School Networking, touting the successes and uses of Web 2.0 in classrooms. While Brooks-Young agrees that many teachers and administrators are overwhelmed by pictures, music, video and blogs all on one Web page, as it's "like learning how to speak multiple foreign languages," it's vital for school leaders to be "cognizant of the world the kids are in when they are not in school."
Many Web 2.0 tools help students think critically and solve problems, which fall under the 21st-century skills. When Brooks-Young is hired to consult districts or groups of administrators and discuss digital leadership, she doesn't teach them how to use the tools so much as she teaches them how they can keep up with the rapidly shifting landscape of digital tools. The best tip is "recognizing that change is no longer an option," she says. "The world will continue to change, and we need to be willing to change to be open to new ideas."
The second-generation tools are growing in popularity in schools, helping administrators and teachers organize their work and make curriculum connections with students who don't know how to communicate or simply live without computers and these social tools.
The Pennsylvania Plan
Every five years in Pennsylvania, the state requires every school district to create a strategic plan. Connie Sitterley, director of instructional technology at PENNCREST School District in Saegertown, Pa., created the district's technology plan two years ago that was based on goals and objectives in the district's strategic plan. (PENNCREST stands for the four independent school districts that combined to create the district.) Her motto was that if technology was not supporting and enhancing the curriculum, then why bother having technology? Although the district is far from having one laptop for every student, one of Sitterley's goals was to have students use Web 2.0 tools in computer labs and on the one or two computers in each secondary classroom.
With the help of her 25-year-old daughter who works in the district's technology department, Sitterley started seeing the beauty of Web 2.0. She started listening to educational podcasts and reading blogs, including those from educators Bob Sprankle, Vicki Davis and Wesley Fryer and from consultant David Warlick, and reviewing some online applications. In a district that covers 400 square miles and has three campuses, Sitterley says using technology to connect staff and students is vital.
