Learning 2.0

I am excited about the possibilities that computers, YouTube and other applications provide for students and adults to express themselves in creative ways. It is exciting that we can literally post our ideas so that anyone with access to a computer can see them. I’ve added David Warwick’s 2cents blog to my RSS. I understand that we have technology that was undreamed of when I was in the K-12 school system. I really enjoy discovering new applications and what they can do, but when all is said and done, not all students have equal access to computers, cameras and camcorders. Yes, every school day I walk down hallways to see students with their iPods, mp3 players, and camera phones. And yes, there are probably more students that have these then don’t, but what about the students in many of the low income areas that don’t have these products.

I know many students are tech savvy but what do we mean by tech savvy? They can set up a multimedia projector? They can create a PowerPoint? They can take pictures or video and create a project? Does it have meaning? Does it solve or suggest a solution to a problem? Does it show critical thinking? Are we creating value?

While I have seen some really great videos on YouTube, I have also seen that there are some really dreadful ones that I wouldn’t want to admit I made. Blogs and videos give access to pretty much anyone with the knowledge of how to type or take video to put their ideas out in the world to be seen. I suspect less than 50% is actually seen by the majority of the www public.

Is Learning 2.0 a force for learning, yes! Is everyone going to utilize it? Not so sure. It seems like teachers that aren’t recent graduates (within the last 5 years) are still struggling with how to implement the new technology. I’m not faulting anyone; I know that it takes time and experimenting to learn how to use anything new. We all find ourselves just trying to keep up with the work we already know how to teach. So I guess that leaves me with more questions then answers.

Technorati

I've played with Technorati and could probably spend hours on the site looking at different blogs. I did notice a difference in what was brought up on Learning 2.0 but not a huge diference. I found an education blog by using a tag on environment. This isn't what I expected, but I added it to Del.icio.us so I can go back to it in the future.

Del.icio.us

I like Del.icio.us and use it for bookmarking pages I want to come back to. I often don't do much with tags or comments and until this class had not tried to click on any of the tags to see who else might be on it. I know that it's considered a social bookmark site, but my main concern was keeping track of sites I wanted to go back to. Today I explored and discovered some other sites via tag that I wanted to add. I didn't see many comments on the tags I checked. My user name is cattale.

Rollyo

I went to the web site and created a profile, with the reference being JD's Scribbles but I don't seem to understand how to use it. I followed instructions to drag it to to my tool bar and I now have something called a RollBar posted on it that when I click on it opens up on any web page I happen to be on. But I don't get the impression it is only looking in the web sites I set up. It seems to look at the web in general. I could see that it might used to create a search engine to get students to use specific web sites for research rather than relying on using Google, Yahoo or any of the common web search engines.

Library Thing and me

I set up a LibraryThing account in June and after waiting forever to try to add Three Cups of Tea, I pretty much abandoned the site as not worth my time. So I was a bit reluctant to go back, but I did and even added all of Robert Jordan's Eye of the World series books before I again had terminal waiting happen. After deciding I had had enough I x'd out for the night. The next day it wouldn't let me log back in on a different computer and even wouldn't let me back in on the same computer, it wouldn't let me ask for my password and totally frustrated me to the nth degree. Well tonight I finally managed to get my password situation resolved and I tried to add 3 cups of tea again and low and behold terminal waiting. I know many people are enjoying their LibraryThing accounts, but I think I'll stick with just knowing what I have at home by looking through my bookshelves.

Indian Paintbrush

Indian Paintbrush, originally uploaded by jdsteven.

Tried several different toys before I finally figured out how to get one to my blog. This is it.