Thing #5 of “23 Things”

Some Perspectives on Web 2.0/School 2.0 and the Future of Education

I read most of the posted perspectives on Web 2.0/School 2.0. I couldn’t find one of them in the intended location, but I Googled it and found several articles with the same name. Some of these perspectives are lengthy and confusing or too technical; some are more straightforward and easy to read. But all of the perspectives talk about what Web 2.0 is and how schools are being impacted and will be impacted by Web 2.0 (The so called School 2.0).
Web 2.0 is not a new software version for the internet as the name suggests. It is instead a different way of doing things on the internet compared to Web 1.0; the traditional read only internet-user interaction. Web 2.0 is also known as the Read/Write Web because the users not only seek information but also actively creates it and change it.
Web 2.0 is more interactive and completely global. Podcasts, Blogs, Wikis, Social Networks and many other new ways of sharing and storing information as well as creating artwork, music, writings are now available and becoming more and more important and natural in our society.
To me School 2.0 is a new way of looking at education in our schools. Many schools and specially universities have online classes or teachers which never see their students in person. School 2.0 should happen when most of our schools have included many of Web 2.0 tools into their instructional plans and curriculums.
Unfortunately many obstacles exist that prevent this. The most obvious one is “inertia”. It is hard for everyone to change how content has been taught for decades and even centuries. Older teachers are comfortable teaching the way they have been teaching and don’t see how this web 2.0 will work better than traditional education.
The other problem is the lack of money to buy the needed resources, such as laptop computers for every class. If every school had laptop computers for every class, the transition to School 2.0 would happen sooner than later.
If I could ask three things to improve my classes I would ask for 30 graphing calculators (preferable the TI nspire) and 30 laptop computers with access to the internet for my classes. I would also ask to have access to YouTube and other social networks.
There is an increasing amount of resources on the web for educators. Given the minimum conditions and the attention of the administrators and the government, Web 2.0 will enter our schools to facilitate the transition to School 2.0
The school of the future I think is going to require more than just Web 2.0. We may see in the future a decentralization of the educational environment and perhaps even a complete rethinking and restatement of school goals and the ways schools operate. The schools in the future may stop looking at grade levels and begin seeing levels or degrees of school completion. More like some universities do today. The school of the future will include Web 3.0 or Web 4.0!

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