Web 1.0 - Web 2.0 - Technology and the teacher

Hi everybody :-)

Thanks Daniela for having broken the ice: my experience with ICT is similar to Daniela’s, even in the “unawareness” in moving from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. I have used ICT since the 90s, but started applying it to classroom pedagogical aims only around 2000. First I introduces power point presentations instead of OHP slides, then gradually experimented with other more interactive forms such as creating virtual classes in moodle – something I would like to do again in the near future with my university students.

With my collegues we also set up a self-access centre in the Licei Renier in Belluno where I was teaching at the time, using Cd-Roms and resources in the web to create personalised learning paths both for “recupero” and “eccellenza”, an experience I continued at the Centro Linguistico Ateneo at Verona University while I was collaborating as a Language Consultant. When I was teaching Italian as L2 at the same CLA I used forums as an expansion to the lesson, particularly to enhance writing skills in a collaborative way, which was a very positive experience, too. Meanwhile my on-line tutoring skills grew as a student first, then as a tutor in ALIAS courses (http://venus.unive.it/aliasve ) and in the Ministry project Azione Italiano L2 (http://venus.unive.it/italdue ).

Until I watched the video I didn’t know about differences between Web 1.0 and 2.0; besides the aspects Daniela has pointed out, what struck me is the fact that Web 2.0 offers more possibilities for interaction and a ‘more democratic’ use of the web, as info in different multimodal formats can be added and contributions be made even without knowing much about the form-formula technical aspects. The focus seems to be more on the collaborative – sharing aspects, which have been made possible by Web 2.0 in its “linking people”, as the video recites.

This brings me to the quotation “Technology will not replace teachers, teachers who use technology will probably replace teachers who do not”. Behind actions, and even more so behind didactic choices and actions, there are people. Technology cannot substitute people - it can constitute an important tool to enhance learning possibilities. But not only: most of our students are strongly familiar with these forms of creating and sharing information, and their knowledge of technological tools is often much greater than ours. Besides the possibilities offered in didactic terms by ICT, it is in my opinion fundamental for us teachers to include in our everyday practices these aspects of ‘real life’, which play such an important role in our learners’ everyday cognitive and affective world.

I have recently read an extremely interesting book by Gunther Kress, Literacy in the New Media Age. New York: Routledge, 2003, where differences about grammar and ‘reading paths’ between print and the screen are scrutinised. Most teenagers have grown up being accustomed more with screen-reading than print-book reading, and this has important implications in terms of literacy and of reading skills: education may have to adopt changes in perspective and practices to meet this new reality and impact of technology and the media.

Well, all for now

warm greetings

Paola