Journal-+K12Online

Victoria Davis K12Online: The Web 2.0 Classroom
[] The biggest idea in this article is that we (teachers and students alike) need to move from consumers of information to creators. As teachers, we need to become fluent in this process in order to teach our students. This process takes steps to prepare our students for the new world they will be entering. The author lists her six pillars of an effective Web 2.0 classroom:
 * 1) Internet safety and privacy
 * 2) Information literacy
 * 3) Internet citizenship
 * 4) Internet teamwork
 * 5) Intentional internet activities
 * 6) An engaged teacher

I found a some of the author's ideas to be important to remember:
 * "Students must move from a 'textbook' world where they are taught to trust everything that is printed in their book, to an online world that requires investigation, source checking, and discernment." Many people look for information to support their ideas and beliefs. Teaching our students how to make sure the information is truthful is an important task.
 * "If an offline tool works best...use that." I know that I get wrapped up in using technology as much as I can, but somethings just lend themselves better to paper/pencil.
 * "the Web 2.0 classroom...is an adaptive classroom. You will see a consistency of content from year to year but often see a variety of tools used to relay the content." I can attest to this - I am on my second learning management system (LMS) for this year. I started the year with everything on paper, then tried one LMS, and now another. I am trying to determine what works best for my teaching and my students.