Setting the Stage

To provide some brief background info, thoughts regarding web 2.0 and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills are my basis for today's post. As a bit of a theater enthusiast, I can't help but to play on words, and "set the stage" so to speak, so here's what I see:

The average teacher's lounge, including the old coffee and heated-up leftovers smell, a few teachers, including one of the negative Nancy variation (isn't there always one?). Discussion topic: 21st century skills. Nancy complains how she is already struggling to cover content standards, and can't believe we are now expected to teach students how to use computers and technology. She asks loudly, "Does any of this tech stuff even pertain to real life?" Entrance cue to one hurried teacher carrying a laptop and a second teacher jamming to some music on an i-pod.

Incorporating 21st century skills into one's teaching repertoire can be daunting, even for educators who are fairly confident about their own tech skills. Some examples of how 21st century skills could be incorporated into an elementary classroom seem advanced to me, and I have been fortunate to have had a laptop cart and interactive white board in my high school class room for the past 2 years. Students have used the laptops to complete web-searches and virtual labs, find science related news, and in some small part, add to the class wiki.

Here is where web 2.0 comes in and smacks me in the face: Despite feeling as though I've been incorporating technology-based skills into my instruction, it seems as though I have been using the web as a reference tool rather than the creative engine that it is.

Web 2.0 changes the mechanism of web use from that of the provider of static information to a tool of collaboration. Web 2.0 brings a change in focus- encouraging students to create, to think critically, and to collaborate with others. These are useful skills to enable students be successful in an ever changing world.

Changes in knowledge and information require updates in not only textbooks and computer software, but also in the instructional methods that are used to teach. Educational use of web 2.0 to further advance how we teach is a noble thought. Ideas, however, that we must do so in order to produce students who can compete with those from other countries, while not a completely invalid theory, would not be my personal driving force.