blogs wikis and RSS

So many interesting thoughts from this week's articles and discussions. In Solomon's article on Web 2.0, he mentions Prensky's coinage of the terms digital natives and digital immigrants. I've envisioned this divide many times. There is a real gap between those who grew up before "the internet" and those who've never been without it. Just as there is a cultural divide between actual immigrants and first generation citizens to a country, there is a similar divide between native "techies" and immigrants. I understand the desire of this generation to completely immerse themselves in this new culture but if we abandon all of the "old" ways there will be a real loss. This is where some of my mixed emotions about the Web 2.0 phenomen come into play. Jumping on the bandwagon educationally so to speak without really trying to develop programs with educational merit would be just as bad as ignoring Web 2.0 altogether. As Solomon states, with the advent of technology, students "think and process information fundamentally differently." I want to know more about these differences and how technology is rewiring the brain. When I read that video games are being developed for 9 month olds and preschool groups are the fastest growing online community, I am really disturbed. Especially when we know so little about how technology affects developing brains. Yet I think there is a real tendency in this country and in education to herald things just because they are new. 

That being said, I believe there are real merits to harnessing technology's power to motivate and educate but it needs to be done in a measured way. I know that we are all learning this together and some experimentation is necessary. As a former middle school librarian, currently working in a high school setting, I continue to see how the opportunity to be social is a real boon to learning. Technologies like blogging and social networking can facilitate this: "to the current generation of students, the internet and other forms of electronic discourse are not necessarily associated with their concept of 'reading and writing' in an educational sense, but rather are tools for social interaction." (Duffy, Peter and Bruns, Axel) I see many students who profess to hate reading and writing but spend hours in front of a computer screen- reading and writing. If we present them with the opportunities to read and write in ways that they already love, albeit with guidelines and expectations built in, there should be an intrinsic motivation to learn and engage. 

Part of my fear of all of this, I suppose, is a fear of the lack of control or the "wild west" of the internet and the information available there. I realize that knowledge and "truth" can actually change and evolve: look at how many times history has been "rewritten" or told from another angle. However, I feel that there is such an emphasis on quick and easy, fact checking, editing etc. often get lost in the shuffle. 

Nevertheless I am really interested in trying out some of the technologies mentioned:

Blogs- I've already done a blogging project with an English teacher with a focus on summer reading and literature response and it went very well. I'd be interested in doing some kind of a book sharing and reviewing blog. The key is to get students interested in it and participating. I'd like to work with another English teacher on this. 

Wikis- I'm fascinated by the ability to collaborate as a group, edit and give feedback that wikis provide. I'll be doing a social issues project with 2 freshmen teachers and am already thinking of ways to get students to choose issues important to them, and work in groups to create wikis on a topic that can then be evaluated by other groups in other classes doing the same topic. I do find that using these technologies can be a huge management issue and often need more guidelines and expectations set up AND require more work on a teacher's part. 

RSS- still not quite sure about this but it could be a good way for students to follow a topic of interest to them- kind of an online notebook/library set up. I still need to know a little more about this.