Web 2.0 and Social Constructivism
Being a keen supporter of the constructivist approach to teaching and learning, I am loving the simplicity in which web 2.0 and social constructivism gel and complement one another. Social constructivism emphasises social context in development, and we now have web 2.0, an amazing tool that allows quick and easy collaborative connections with the entire world, so of course the two go hand in hand!I believe web 2.0 has the potential to allow social contructivist education to reach it's full potential. Children now have access to all of their peers, whether they sit in the desk next door or on the other side of the planet, allowing for cross-cultural collaborative thinking like never before.Blogs and Education
At first I was a little limited in what I perceived as uses for blogs in education, but the more I search the more I find. As journals, they have amazing potential for reflection given skilled guidance from a teacher, and I am beginning to see that they are the diary of today. I love the idea of using a blog as a tool for news communications between a class and the wider school community (e.g. http://www.ogps.wa.edu.au/ accessed 28/3/11) or as a way of recording a learning journey for a class or individual (e.g. http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/bees/ accessed 28/3/11). One I thought of myself (!), is what a great task keeping a blog would be for a student who is away for part of term; a child can post holiday stories and photos, and the class can enviously read about the adventures. What an exciting medium to get children reading and writing!So there you have it, the first post of many, in my sure to be tech-savvy teaching career.
