What does it mean when a tool is called a "Web 2.0 Tool?"
I already knew they wouldn't know the answer. I gave them a survey about their technology backgrounds the day before, and had already taken a peek at the results. At the end of the survey, I asked a series of questions to see how familiar they were with various technology tools, ranging from Microsoft Office applications to various Web 2.0 tools that I know are staples of teachers in other classrooms around the country. Below this post I have posted some screenshots of the overall results (click on each of them to see the larger version).
Here are a few things that jumped out at me from the data:
- Facebook is now "where it's at" for my students in terms of online hangouts. This makes all of those articles I read about MySpace dying a little more valid.
- My students seem well-versed in the major Microsoft Office applications. However, my 1:1 experience last year revealed that while students do know how to use the basics of these programs, they do not have a lot of experience with the more intermediate and advanced functions. In other words, they know enough to "git-r-done," unfortunately.
- While some of them have experience with Google Docs & Diigo (those students being some sophomores and the students who were in my summer IMS class), they pretty much have absolutely no real experience with Web 2.0.
But these explanations don't excuse the fact that these students are about 10 years out of date when they walk into my room each year. They have been filled with fleeting trivia, minutiae, and test preparation, but they have not been given any useful tools for learning. As a matter of fact, I would dare to say that, minus their uncanny social media and phone-operating skills, they pretty much have the same technology skills I did when I was in high school--which was from 1988-1992. That's why all of my classes are doing an activity I call "Getting to Know Web 2.0" for the first two weeks, to give them a start at building the skills they will need when they graduate that should have been started long before now. (Thanks to @chrisludwig for the idea that was the basis for this activity.)
In Will Richardson's article, "Why Schools Should Break the Web 2.0 Barrier," he states that:
"To be truly information literate, we must teach our kids to be savvy editors, collaborators, and co-creators. We must help them become facile with writing in hypertext, linking and connecting ideas and people. Furthermore, they must learn to read with a different attention in these much less linear environments. None of this can happen effectively on paper; nor can a fluency in these global networks be taught locally."
In our district, we can't do any of what Will Richardson advocates while the main focus of many computer applications classes are focused around teaching students how to use Microsoft Office.
Looking back on this post, I want to make it clear that I am not trying to accuse or blame anyone for our students not being prepared for their future. I do understand the explanations that were given to me about my students' technological backgrounds, and I'm really not trying to be a hubristic jerk (but, as my husband says, there are some things I'm good at without even trying).
But I am tired of everyone offering these explanations as if we shouldn't do anything to change the situation, as if the explanations should be enough, and I should now scurry back into my classroom like a good little worker bee, get out my textbooks and my worksheets, and stop causing trouble with all of my questions.
All I'm trying to do is point out that everyone involved in my students' education (including myself) needs to do better for our students. We need to do right by our students. And the way we can do that is by letting go of our pedagogical traditions, our entrenched fears of technology, and our out-of-date visions of what students need to be prepared after they graduate, and start thinking about what they, our students, really need for a change.
Daniel Pink said it best: "If we want to prepare our children for the future, we need to stop preparing them for our past.”