Janice’s Adventures in Web 2.0

I am coming into this course with very little knowledge about the world of Web 2.0 so it is hard for me to even imagine how I will use my new tools for my own professional growth and with my students.

After reading Steve Hargadon’s article about Web 2.0 and the “future of education” I can see some major themes. One of the exciting aspects of Web 2.0 is that it will help our students to be more active rather than passive learners. They will be engaging in interactive learning and the sharing of ideas, rather than the traditional mode of education, where the teacher provides new information that the students need to absorb and spit back. It will also be one of our goals as teachers to help students to learn to surf more effectively through the tidal waves of information on websites, blogs, etc. We will also be needed to help our students to learn to collaborate online and offline with others as a means of learning and growth.

• I envision an easier and more effective way than the listserve in my future as a way to collaborate with other professionals and share ideas.
• I am not sure yet how I would use these new tools to engage today’s “digital learners.” That is one of my goals for this course.
• I definitely feel it is important to have our learners more participative in their own learning.
• I plan to interact with other people taking this course to help each other and to learn from others in order to enhance and support my own learning.

Lifelong learning is one of the things that make life more interesting. The fact that no matter how old you are, there are always new things to learn and master is very empowering and exciting.

As someone who finished graduate school when the first Apple computers were just beginning to appear in classrooms I have already come a long way toward becoming computer literate and keeping up with the constant changes in technology. The most important habit for me as I take this course, as I said the the 7 Habits presentation, is habit #3: to view problems as challenges. I intend to be positive and to try not to get frustrated when the tasks are hard for me. I plan to see each problem I encounter as a challenge to be faced and conquered. I am looking forward to learning about Web 2.0. Intereacting with the others who are taking this Web 2.0 course, via our blogs should also prove to be enlightening and worthwhile!

THE LIFELONG LEARNING HABITS THAT RESONATE THE MOST FOR ME ARE THE FOLLOWING:

• #4 Having confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner: I think that half the battle when learning new skills is just to believe in yourself and your capabilities. If you think you can accomplish something, then you will!
• #5 Create your own learning toolbox:      *I have always been a person that seeks out other people, resources, etc to get things done and solve problems  *I would love to set up a study group/support group with or or two others in the class locally, to perhaps meet weekly or biweekly to work through any problems/challenges we hit as we explore each “thing” in K12Learning 2.0 Experience. My guess is that some things will be easier than others for each of us so we can help each other as we go along.  I am not sure this will happen with everyone’s summer schedules but please contact me if you are interested-I live in East Cobb.
• #6 Use Technology to your Advantage: I am already finding the tutorials very helpful as a means to learn new skills and I plan to take advantage of them as I go through the course.

THE HABIT THAT WILL BE MOST CHALLENGING:

Habit #2 Accept responsibility for your own learning: The hardest thing with this course will be for me to keep up with the pace. With the myriad of distractions and other tasks I need to accomplish this summer, as well as working part-time, it will be important to set aside time each week for this class. The other thing that will be hard to do is to try not to go off on tangents but to stay on task until each assignment is completed.