Module 9

Scootle has a number of excellent resources particularly the learning objects, although I would not classify them as Web 2.0.  It would be good to take a systematic look at them as we prepare for Yr 7 having laptops.  I would need to explore learning paths in more detail as I have yet got it.  But I will have to do that later.
Social networking is so much a part of young people's lives that it has to be used.  But how do we do so in a safe and educationally valuable way.  The problem with setting up a site for just educational purpose is that they don't seem to want to use it, yet too many problems are involved in using facebook etc in the classroom.  I think we probably need have appropriate models developed for educational uses.
Second life may be a good way to go for some, but just as I am selective with the range of traditional teaching strategies, using ones that work for me and my students, likewise I envisage I will be selective in the use of Web 2.0 technologies, using some and choosing not to use others.
If we do use them educationally I think it is important to teach safe use of the resources.  When working in the science lab, we explicitly teaching safe practices, likewise when using web 2.0 resources we need to ensure we explicitly teach safe practices.
Not convinced about twitter in the classroom.  140 charchters is not much and does it just encourage an stream of unreflective thoughts?
One of my concerns about many of these tools is that while great skills are developed, in terms of covering the content of the syllabus it is very time expensive and can I justify investing the time in this way.  I would have to say that a creative science teacher could definitely add some of the tools to their teaching kit bag but should be selective as to which other tools they discard.  One of my current questions is what do we stop doing to do things using web 2.0 and what will be  the consequences- both negative and positive.
I dispute the assertion that traditional education has become irrelevant, ineffective and unproductive.  Good traditional teaching can occur using traditional methods or Web 2.0 and poor teaching can also occur using traditional methods or Web 2.0.