This class has given me an opportunity to explore and use multiple web 2.0 tools such as this blog, twitter, Diigo and Wikispaces. I’ve also learned about numerous other tools I have at my disposal. Between this class and others I’ve taken recently, I feel I’m in a place where I’m beginning to understand the power of these tools and their applications at work, school and home. I’m thrilled that at the beginning of September I had no blog and now I’m writing my 12th post. I’m also pleased to have responded for the first time to professional bloggers. All of these activities have increased my confidence with using these tools and I look forward to continue using them.
In a perfect world, we would be able to go back to our workplace or school and implement some of these new tools. In the real world, many of us are blocked from accessing these tools we’ve learned to enjoy that not only benefit us but could benefit our employers as well. However, let’s just assume for a moment that we could implement some of these tools. How do we use them and what do we need to consider when implementing them into our classroom?
When researching online learning best practices for another class I’m taking this semester, I came across General Guidelines for Distance Education Programs from Distance learning: Principles for effective design, delivery, and evaluation written by Mehrotra, Hollister, & McGahey. (2001) One of these guidelines stood out above all others:
- Identify the teaching or learning objectives to be achieved, and then choose the technology tools that make the goals achievable.
I’m very excited about using these tools, but we can’t let our excitement cloud the reason for using them in the first place. There’s so much “buzz” in my workplace about Web 2.0 and what tools may be available to us in the future, but:
- Have we really taken the time to decide how to use these tools and are they more effective than the tools we currently use.
- Will the benefit of using these tools outweigh the time and energy that we spend in trying to have them implemented?
I’d argue that it does but these are questions we need to answer as we move forward. I have no doubt that Web 2.0 is already changing the way we learn and the way we’ll design learning in the future. Let’s enjoy the journey but not forget to step back from time to time and reevaluate our destination.
Resource: Mehrotra, C. M., Hollister, C. D. & McGahey, L. (2001) Distance learning: Principles for effective design, delivery, and evaluation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Retrieved November 23, 2008 from http://www.rodp.org/faculty/pedagogy.htm.
Hey Tony, great post. I have to comment on something you mention – “In the real world, many of us are blocked from accessing these tools…” With the prevalence of Web 2.0 tools, where do we begin defining “the real world”? I feel that employers that are not accepting these new applications are marginalizing themselves from the majority of users – the majority of internet users should be considered the “real world”. I know we each have our own realities of what can and cannot be done through our employer’s firewall – but the use and implementation of Web 2.0 technologies goes beyond the work place.
I know it is just semantics, but the more we identify Web 2.0 as the real world, and the absence of technology as “not the real world”, the stronger our positions will be as we negotiate access with paranoid IT directors.