The web has come a long way in a few short years. When I started teaching 12 years ago, use of technology at school was primarily for word processing. The internet was used for research, searching website, accessing information clearing houses such as ERICS database and EBSCO for scholarly articles and communicating via email. The advent of the instant message made communication via the web a little more “real time” if you will, but tools such as blogging were still in somewhat of an infancy stage and social networking sites did not exist.
The advent of Web 2.0 has changed the way we, our colleagues, and our students access information and communicate with one another. I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the options and opportunities available. Users of Web 2.0 are part of a growing community who can exchange information and ideas at a moment’s notice. With social networking sites, such as Facebook, being used not only to share information with friends but with the world. Businesses, corporations, organizations, and even political figures use Facebook to promote themselves, their ideals, and their wares.Virtual communities such as Ning allow us to be part of a community with like interests – to share thoughts, ideas, and questions – to learn from one another as we go. Flash programs and other interactive tools provide our students with a variety of interactive learning experiences to enhance their learning, while Podcasts, both audio and visual, give us access to a virtual classroom, which can be accessed any time, any where. For me, these tools have helped me to stay abreast of current research in mathematics education and to share ideas with other in the profession so that I can improve what I do in my own classroom. With so many options, however, finding time to keep up with them all can be daunting at times.
The ability to access, organize, and share information in the Web 2.0 age has blossomed. With a myriad of search engines to help us locate information, security programs to tell us which sites are trusted (although not necessarily reliable), social bookmarking sites to organize, catalog, and annotate information we find on the web. Google Docs, Wikis, and blogs offer an ability to share documents and information instantaneously with friends and colleagues that has made face to face collaboration a thing of the past. Now, students can complete assignments whenever and wherever it suits them best. However, this leads to issues of reliability of resources, and issues of copyright and plagiarism. It is all too easy, with a few clicks of the mouse, to copy information and paste it into one’s own document. While these tools are valuable for ourselves and our students, we must prepare our students first by teaching them internet etiquette, what constitutes plagiarism and what is and is not appropriate use of web resources. The idea of authorship is being blurred in this new world, often making student research products more difficult to review, even with plagiarism-finding sites such as Turnitin.
How do we wade through all of these options to decide which is the most useful for us, as educators, and which is beneficial for our students? The opportunities seem endless and at times overwhelming. Not only that, but which devices do we use to access these tools? With the advent of netbooks, iPods, smartphones, and WiFi, we can access information anywhere, any time. We are not tethered to that desk top computer any more. Now, we can read, learn, organize information and communicate with one another 24/7 – in the car, or a coffee shop, or between classes at school. Finding an appropriate use for these tools in the classroom can be a challenge, but one that can be worthwhile. Again, however, we must teach students appropriate use of these tools in an educational setting.
For some, the advent of Web 2.0 is a blessing, for others simply confusion and consternation. While I see use of Web 2.0 as something that can make my life easier and a valuable tool for communication and collaboration with colleagues, I find that many of those colleagues haven’t caught up with this new-fangled technology, creating a widening gap between those of us that do use technology and those that don’t. I have one colleague who almost never uses email (or even the phone for that matter) let alone shared documents and course management tools. Yet our students are way ahead of us in their use of technology, creating an even bigger gap. I feel that, in order for the technology of Web 2.0 to be used effectively, and for the purpose for which it was designed, somehow we all need to end up on the same page.
One of the reasons that I am so interested in becoming more proficient with all that Web 2.0 has to offer is to be able to engage my students in learning by making use of the tools they use outside of the classroom everyday. Finding the appropriate tools, both hardware and software, to use in an upper level mathematics classroom, is one challenge for me. Many seem more suited to the English, or social studies, or even science classroom. Getting colleagues in my department up to speed with technology so that we can share ideas and teaching practices efficiently is another. It is one thing for me to incorporate technology beyond the graphing calculator in my classes, but, ultimately, I’d like to bring the department into the 21st century with me. This, I fear, may be easier said than done.
And so, my search continues. So much Web, so little time.
