Thing # 5 ... There was a Web 1.0???

          … Okay so maybe I have more to learn about technology than I had originally thought (and I already thought that was lot!).  Sine I completely missed Web 1.0, I really need to become familiar with Web 2.0.  After reading through all of the linked resources to familiarize myself with the subject, Web 2.0/School 2.0 sounds very amazing and beneficial to teachers, students, and education in general … but I also have some concerns about it it as well.

            School 2.0 is a fantastic way to present teaching.  If done properly, it can revolutionize education.  It is changing the face of teaching and learning.  This new idea of education is breaking the traditional boundaries that most of us have grown up with.  As I look back on my schooling, I remember lots of heavy textbooks, endless hours of notetaking, straight rows of desks, lecture-style teaching, card catalogs, and confining classrooms.  All this is now changing.  Web 2.0 is bringing education to life: it is giving teaching and learning new legs, and those legs are taking us to places we never thought possible.  With such ground-breaking technology, students can scrutinized the painting of the Mona Lisa, take a virtual field trip to the Louvre in Paris where it is now on display, research Florence Italy where Leonardo da Vinci first started painting it, and Skype with a professional artist in Frances who can provide them with substantial background information about it … all in 1 hours’ time!  That, to me, is simply amazing.  This type of education is pushing the envelope and creating some exciting new dynamics.  Students can video conference with other classrooms around the globe, participate in discussions and projects with groups who are not even in the same room, and integrate emerging ideas at the touch of a button.  Technology has certainly enriched education and is changing the description of what education should entail.

            I am also a bit hesitant about it too though.  All of this technology seems to be coming at us at such a fast rate of speed.  I am worried that it will eventually cause an overload and become so overwhelming that real education might be lost.  Technology is certainly glitzy and captivating, but it is also addicting to the point where some cannot function well without it.  Technology is becoming so embedded in education, and we are relying on it more and more now.  Can we be just as creative without having to use it?  Are we depending on it too much to teach or learn?  Are we forgoing personal interaction in favor of artificiality?  These are some of the questions that I am starting to think about now that I know more about School 2.0/Web 2.0.  But perhaps it is my inexperience at this point, as to why I have all these questions.  Whatever the case though, it will be interesting to see how this will change education in the long run.