Web 2.0 offers vast resources for a variety of purposes from diagnostic, to formative and summative assessment, to learning activity and learning project. Throughout this unit, we focused on the variety of resources and the variety of purposes, with an emphasis on developing investigation skills and questioning. The activities in this section prompted me to revisit some items that I had written earlier and incorporate an added emphasis on web 2.0 resources.
The lesson was originally written to satisfy requirements of a NASA program. With this revision, the collaboration, investigation, and communication aspects were enhanced. These new additions increase the student engagement and interactivity of the project.
The discussion boards this week offered many opportunities to explore and share various web 2.0 resources. Beyond the resources, the innovative ways in which class members used these resources. With a single resource, it may have been used as class led instructional activity or student exploration or student performance assessment.
A recurring theme in the discussions involved the use of web 2.0 resources that require account creation. It was asked, but never answered, how to handle designing student accounts when students may not have individual email addresses. As I have explored some resources for incorporating into my classes, I have also looked towards ease of account creation. Some of my personally preferred resources do not score high in administrative resources. For example: when researching wiki's, I prefer the functionality of Google Sites, but instead chose wikispaces because of it's educational sub account tools.
Online responsibility and accountability is a key feature I look for when selecting web 2.0 resources to use in the classroom. The ability to create individual student accounts to track changes or monitor appropriate/inappropriate uses is important. However, in terms of services that do not permit bulk account creation, I question the necessity to force students to register. In a culture where privacy and internet safety is stressed, it seems antithetical to compel students to use personal information (in my case, the students do not have school provided email) when signing up for online services.
Yet, I am also contradictory. The public sharing and collaboration of the web 2.0 resources is a great benefit. Whether to collaborate beyond the classroom, share with the community, or provide a resource, the public visibility of student products has a valuable role in learning.
So, the conflict remains: privacy vs publicity; compulsion vs encouragement; mandatory vs beneficial option.
(JMenaker)
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