Web 2.0

Why should we use Web 2.0?


The internet and Web 2.0 tools are fantastic resources in the K-12 classroom. 
When we teach, one of the many goals should be to prepare students for the world in which they currently live, as well as for their own futures. 


Web 2.0 tools allow students to interact with the internet and to create content to share with others. 

When we utilize the internet, a student's classroom is no longer limited to the room they are in. 
Students can find information from resources all over the internet. They can experience works of art located halfway around the world on sites such as SmartHistory.org, or go on virtual field trips. Students can also collaborate with others to share information, whether the students are in the same school or on different continents, the internet and web 2.0 tools allow them to experience things that were once thought to be impossible. 

In my classroom, I utilize Web 2.0 tools for many things. 
For my 5th and 6th grade classes, I am introducing them to project based learning. Currently my students are using Google Apps for Education (GAFE) to research, collaborate, create and present their own redesigned computer lab. My students are utilizing online catalogs to determine the furniture that they would like in the space, and are then obtaining quotes and pricing out the costs associated with their designs. The students are creating their presentations and layouts using Google Docs, which allows them to share their documents among the group and to also share the information with me. This type of real world experience is facilitate by the use of Web 2.0 tools, and allows students to use tools that many will be expected to use in the work place. 

Work in progress: on of the slides from my students' presentation

Web 2.0 tools allow students to have the opportunity to participate in higher order thinking, often at the highest levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, providing opportunities to create and evaluate instead of simply to read, remember or understand.