Are nifty websites the future of education?
March 12th, 2008 | Published in Thoughts, Books & Reading, Education, Technology | 4 Comments
Steve Hargadon argues that Web 2.0 is the future of education. I disagree. Of course it will influence and change education to some extent, but will it be the future of education? Unlikely.
Steve says Web 2.0 will help move education “from formal schooling to lifelong learning.” People have been devoted to lifelong learning long before the Internet. The Internet does make some information easier to retrieve, but many people do not take advantage of this, just as many people didn’t take advantage of books on their shelves. I’m not convinced the Internet is going to change this too much. Hopefully I’m wrong here, though, because it would be great if more people were interested in lifelong learning.
I took a quick look at Classroom 2.0, which Steve recommended for learning about education and Web 2.0. On the homepage was a teacher asking this question:
I’m looking for a new project for my (online) students in an Ancient Civilizations class to deomostrate their knowledge of the material we’ve been learning. They’ve written numerous blogs, they’ve created PowerPoints, and I’ve offered podcasting or videos( but haven’t had too many students intersested in in these). I was thinking of a comic strip project to where the students show how the geography of the area has played a very important role in determining how the society developed and what technologies evolved. I’m having trouble finding a comic strip generator that students can use their own clip art or has appropriate pictures for this assignment. Anyone have a suggestion? or other ideas for web 2.0 projects for this class.
Now it would be hard for me to find a better demonstration for my skepticism. This is a teacher for “gifted” students. She misspells demonstrate and interested. She’s having her students write “numerous blogs,” which I assume she means blog posts, which I assume must be something like very short, undemanding essays. And a comic strip generator? Good God. Has it really come to this?
This is, in essence, a teacher asking how to do the basics of teaching. How can your students demonstrate their knowledge of a subject? You have them write papers and debate with other students. You ask them questions. Yes, there are creative ways to have them learn. But if you want them to create a comic strip, you can have them draw it on paper. But, alas, that doesn’t have very much to do with Web 2.0 and flashy websites and cool technology.
Can Web 2.0 help education? Possibly. But it can also hinder it, as we see with the teacher’s question above. I suppose teachers really exist who are having their students mess around with comic strip generators and powerpoint and podcasts instead of writing and reading and debating. And I thought I got a lousy education.
So I don’t think the future of education is Web 2.0. I don’t think nifty websites can replace the classroom, reading classics, writing essays, memorizing, debating ideas, doing painstaking research, or running experiments.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:27 am (#)
It is essential for students to use the web in the classroom, due to the fast-paced environments and constant developments in web on college campuses and in the working world. Students would be very behind when reaching the college campus without having extensive web and computer background. It is, however, another thing, to be using the web instead of teaching students proper communication and writing skills. There isn’t anything more unnerving when a co-worker is lacking communication skills- especially in meetings or discussions. It’s as though they have been emailing and texting their classmates and teachers back and forth opposed to having a face-to-face discussion.
Web tools need and should be used in the classroom. It shouldn’t take away from the learning experience, just enhance it!
March 12th, 2008 at 11:45 am (#)
Hi Allison,
I agree students should have web skills. But from what I’ve seen, most students know how to use the web much better than their teachers! It’s like teaching the kids to use a television or remote control. They’ve grown up with it.
Josh
March 12th, 2008 at 1:50 pm (#)
You might enjoy Ted Oppenheimer’s book “The Flickering Mind: Saving Education from the False Promise of Technology”.
March 14th, 2008 at 12:44 pm (#)
Joshua:
Your points are well-taken. However, I think my post communicated something that I didn’t intend: that I’m talking about the current tools of Web 2.0 as a solution to education.
What I want to communicate is that what we are calling Web 2.0, or the framework of the Internet which has extended the democratizing of publishing and expanded the ability for dialog, will be essential both for changing our perceptions of education and for addressing those changes.
It’s something I’m still trying to wrap my head around.
Classroom 2.0, the social network you’ve quoted from, is an example of how teachers can now network with each other in ways that weren’t really possible before. Whether the discussion is on collaborative tools in the classroom, or specific aspects of teaching 4th-grade US history, these tools allow and facilitate connections and dialog that will impact students and teachers. A student interested in something esoteric will now be able to study it, find others interested in the same thing, and potentially participate in the creation of knowledge in that area.
The particular discussion that you saw may not represent your highest ideal for this dialog, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other conversations of great value.
Hope this helps the discussion. Since I hate how hard it is to follow conversations on blogs (Blogger now has a great feature allowing you to ask to be emailed any follow-ups), you may have to consider this a “drive-by” response and ping me if more takes place here that I can respond to–which I’d be glad to. I’m at steve@hargadon.com.
Cheers.