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Wednesday, March 12, 2008

School 2.0

I found the article on School 2.0 to be very interesting. It truly brings home a lot of the concepts we are currently being taught in the Computer Technology Education concentration. School 2.0 reminds me of wiki's and blogs. Each facilitates community discussions which is the underlying concepts behind School 2.0. It is very much like an implementation plan where all parties must be involved in order for change to be successful. The community is the learning ecosystem and that encompasses school, home, school administration and all others within the community. It is not just the school and the parents; it must encompass school administration, the school board and most importantly the students. What do they feel is important to learn coming into the 21 century? The map adds to the sense that School 2.0 is not about technology but about the many paths you can take to connect across traditional boundaries. A way in which people and places can communicate over the World Wide Web. School 2.0 helps a school or community to devise a solid, successful plan for breaking the barriers of traditional communication. How these changes will be implemented as well as how they will be supported once they are in affect must be considered. Training is also a key factor in planning a collaborative community. I have researched many articles regarding implementing technology within a school district, and many times these plans fail because the teachers and administration do not feel comfortable enough to use the technology or equipment.


School 2.0 goes beyond technology into the realm of online communication and collaboration where proper and continuous training and support will be even more essential or just as essential as a training and support on a new computer application.


It appears to me that School 2.0 provides an excellent resource that provides process areas that should be addressed in order for our schools and community to be able to collaborate effectively across many platforms. School 2.0 is an attempt to bring all members of a school and community together, to allow them to be able to communicate instantly and effectively. When looking at the map it reminds me of a blog. Teacher 1 posts about student A, teacher 2 reads it and says "hey, try these great links for Student A, they will work well for him/her". At the same time, parents could follow the same blog on student A to see what has occurred during the day or what project he/she is working on, get an update on grades as well as receive comments from teachers on a regular basis. We have many tools that do these things separately, CMS systems allow us to input grades, attendance and generate reports while other tools allow us to communicate online and other applications to teach with. School 2.0 appears to be a wonderful way of implementing web tools and communication across a school system and community that will enrich our student’s experience. It will empower students to be responsible and allow them greater resources and experiences than can be achieved in a traditional classroom setting.

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