Final Reflection

The Web 2.0 Course was definitely an enriching learning experience for me. I agree that Web 2.0 tools can have great potential to engage our 21st century learners. Tools such as wikis, nings, You Tube, blogs, Scootle and others, if used properly, can definitely enhance learning and make teaching more entertaining. I think that these tools will make catering for the varied learning styles of our students easier as they allow children to learn at their own pace.
The big difficulty will not so much be in teaching students the technology as they are often a lot more knowledgeable than us when computers are involved. The trouble will be in teaching students the necessary skills (communication and collaboration, questioning, reflection, creative thinking and critical thinking) to use these technologies and I believe that these will have to be explicitly taught.
I agree that Web 2.0 tools can help make students responsible for their own learning but teachers will still have to model HOW to be a responsible and effective learner.
Collaboration is always a great way to learn, especially in a girl school. With web 2.0 tools collaborative learning is brought to a new level and I hope that students will appreciate that they are able to learn anything, anytime and anywhere. These tools definitely made my professional development a lot more enjoyable.
As explained in Blooms Digitally Web 2.0 tools can be used to access students’ higher order thinking skills. Our year 9 students worked on an iMovie assessment task where they needed to collaborate to script and film a movie about a scientific topic for a specific audience- working at the "creating" level.
I am aware that we should not just use technology just for the sake of it…technology is just a tool to achieve some of our educational goals. However Web 2.0 tools will encourage teachers to release a bit more of the responsibility to learn back to our students!!! Let’s stop spoon feeding our students…
I really enjoyed reading the blogs of other teachers especially:
My Chemical Journey by Gary Molloy (comments made on modules 2,4,5 and 6)
Web 2.0 by Rachel Noonan (comment made on module 5)