Technology in the classroom

More thoughts about Web 2.0. Today I was thinking about how Web 2.0 effects education. Please feel free to comment.

Today I started thinking about communication technology and how it actually effects pupils in the classroom. As a special educational needs teaching assistant, I am always looking for new and positive ways I can engage the pupils. I became curious as to how much, the somewhat recent technological advances, have benefited today’s pupils. Does a new technology automatically create advanced learning possibilities?

            I can’t help but notice that there is a very obvious devision in teaching preferences and approaches at the moment. It seems to me that we are in a transitional phase of ‘old’ and ‘new’ teaching practices, with technology being the devision. Some teachers are using the technology being provided to them, while others still teach in the traditional way. The traditional can be compared to Web 1.0. A teacher stands at the front of a class and speaks, revealing his or hers knowledge, and the pupil listens. Many of these teachers use technology such as whiteboards, overhead projectors and photo-copiers, which assist teachers in ‘communicating and reproducing materials and in maintaining their authoritive position’, (Hodas, 1993).           

            Alternatively, a newer ‘breed’ of teacher are using a Web 2.0 type of teaching method. Lankshear and Knobel 2007, celebrate the idea of people ‘exploring new ways of doing things and new ways of being that are made possible by tools and technique’. Web 2.0 applications encourage pupils to have a certain control over their learning. By being encouraged by a teacher to perhaps blog and discuss a certain topic, rather than simply copy out an extract from a text book, the pupil will not just be ‘talked at’, but permitted to come to his own conclusions and voice them.

            From my personal knowledge, however experienced a teacher may be, a collective input from a classroom often comes up with more and sometimes newer ideas, than a teacher speaking alone. I read Maryam Moayeris’ (British Columbia University) ‘Classroom uses of social network sites: Traditional practises or new literacies’. In this, she points out ‘ the importance of moving away from the teacher as knowledge container and provider and shifting to a more collaborative and active learning mode’. I feel we can certainly achieve this with the use of Web 2.0 in a classroom situation.

            I think that it is a difficult time in education, as new ideas and technologies unfold. Teachers are expected to use new teaching methods, and it can sometimes be hard to adapt. Phil Carroll encouraged me to think about what the affects on education will be if teachers are not encouraged to use new technologies in the classroom. Having witnessed many lessons where teachers are lacking in knowledge and ability with technology, I feel that they let down their contemporaries. The world is very technology literate nowadays, and however knowledgable a teacher may be in a specific subject, I do not think they are fully equipped to teach this generation of pupils without a technological background. In the school I work in, we are given training days in order to better our knowledge and as newer teachers are employed, the over riding number of staff in the school, do have a good knowledge. I still think we are a long way away from even permitting the use of Web 2.0 in schools. In the school I work in, all versions of Web 2.0 are filtered and access is denied. I can understand that the school can not allow pupils to go on a site such as Facebook while they should be doing their school work, however I think it would be very beneficial to educate pupils about the existence of Web 2.0. Most pupils will already know how to use Twitter and Facebook, but may be unaware of the exciting possibilities of discussing, learning  and influencing others around the world. I am excited about my own future teaching practises, having now been introduced to a fair few new examples of communication technology since beginning this course.

            Technology, and subsequently education, are changing direction, and I am pleased to be heading the same way.