For this post, I'm stepping back (or stepping up) to look at the Web 2.0 world as a concept, not only as an ever-growing array of fascinating, useful, and clever tools. This may sound like a presumptuous undertaking for a relative newbie to many of these issues and ideas, but I'd like to frame the conversation through the lens/lenses of Dr. Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University.
Dr Wesch is an internet phenomenon--creator of a series of clever, pithy little videos that do a great job of playing with the concepts around the read/write web and its continuing evolution. Here's the first video he created, after trying unsuccessfully to simply write about Web 2.0:
Wesch vividly emphasizes the continual change and evolution, at seemingly ever more rapid rates, of this rich, user-generated world. By the way, this video has received well over 4.5 million hits on YouTube in the past year.
On a larger and deeper level, Dr. Wesch continues to explore changes in teaching and learning, using (and perhaps, integrating) technology as an embedded and expected tool, but not simply as the be-all or end-all solution to teaching and learning challenges. He emphasizes the vital importance of continually rethinking possibilities.
In my own teaching and learning, I'm highly aware of the quickly accelerating pace. While Web 2.0 and beyond intrigues me, it also adds another layer of learning and preparation with both desirable (new tools/information/access) and not so desirable (it's time consuming!) ends.
Working with my current crop of college-age musicians, I can still relate to and understand the technological changes they have seen in their lifetimes--they all remember little red cassette tapes of stories and music from their childhood and the myriad changes that have happened since, for example. While generally pretty tech savvy, most of them don't spend tons of time exploring the internet, and I'm still able to introduce them to new ideas and tools--at least in the short run.
What concerns me though, are the younger students coming up. What will our college students look like in even five years? Those kids, at around age 13, are technology natives, unlike our current students. How will they respond to the professors already in place, who will always be technology immigrants?
How might this change our teaching/learning styles and relationships between teachers and students? Just venturing a guess--perhaps our roles will focus more on bigger topics of critical and creative thinking, analytical and evaluative techniques for vetting and making sense of the enormous amount of available material. Just like the flattening and expanding of expertise on the internet, teachers will need to continually evolve in how we share, flatten, and expand our sense of expertise along with that of our students.
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2 comments:
Janis:
WOW! That was a great video to summarize how the web/intranet is changing not only how we teach, but how we learn from each other. Just from the Web 2.0 tools that we learned in class, I was able to identify many of the sites that were quickly reviewed within the video. This made me realize how much I have learned and how much more I don't know regarding the capabilities the intranet has to offer.
The web is teaching us. We are teaching us. Thinking about that, there are no long limitations on what you can learn (ex. money, classes, etc). You could learn everything from the intranet. Which brings up the question of how will educators adapt to this concept in how they teach?
Tracy
Thanks for the great post. I was watching the clip and my husband, who is a web developer, mentioned that he's seen that clip and thinks it's one of the best he's seen explaining Web2.0 and the changes we are experiencing. I hadn't seen it before your post and found it to be a fascinating piece that really does cause you to look at where we have just traveled as well as look ahead to the possibilities.
I'm glad that you wrote about the concept of Web2.0 and how it is changing everything. As I learn more about Web2.0 tools and understand how the younger generation is growing up with these tools as part of their lives, I'm excited and scared at the same time. I consider myself relatively tech savy and I'm overwhelmed by the amount of information and the tools available now not to mention those that will come about in the near future. The amount of time needed to keep abreast of all the new tools is overwhelming.
I’m also excited by the possibilities of what we are capable of achieving with these tools. There are possibilities now that didn’t exist even 5 years ago and it will only continue to increase. I’m very excited to be able to utilize these tools in education but am also aware of the disconnect that you talk about with students as natives and teachers as immigrants. I am more concerned about how “being native” to the newest technologies will actually change students, their perceptions of the world and their interaction with material. Will we move to a reality where all information is malleable and subject to editing? Will students reject the limited knowledge of teachers in favor of the expansive knowledge base of the internet? Clearly the role of teachers will have to change but how drastic will that change be? And can teachers – and teacher training - change as quickly as students?
Again, thanks for post.
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