Week 9: Using Web 2.0 tools in school

Unlocking the tool kit - Should public schools open up access to all web2.0 tools, including allowing students to blog, or watch youtube videos? What do you think?

I think that schools should have open access to web tools.  Kids are going to abuse the system but they always have.  When I was a kid in school, we used to pass notes back and forth.  No one banned us from using pens and paper as a result.  The "What if" video/slide show from week 8 is a great example of how, historically, we are always resistant to change but that, in retrospect, it seems really silly because we have to change.  I think we have a responsibility to teach our kids how to filter what they are exposed to, themselves… AND we need to teach them how to behave in a manner that is both safe and respectful/self respecting.  The only way we are going to be able to do this is through teaching them to work the internet, Web 2.0 applications and social networking sites.  Youtube, blogs, wikis, facebook… all of it… cell phones, laptops and ipods… they are all tools but we treat them like weapons and contraband.  This stuff is the norm of the lives of these kids but we tell them that the tools they use personally and at home are wrong.  We don’t teach them how to use them wisely and then we punish them for using them in school-inappropriate ways.  We need to get in with what they know and are able to do in order to hook them into what we are teaching.  We need these tools and we need to know how to use them to our advantage.