I love technology. I love being able to pop open my Macbook Pro (thoughtfully named Rory) and glide my fingertips over the silver mousepad of greatness, where I immediately am immersed into a digital world. I feel like I could conquer the online seas and sink metaphorical battleships with the tap of a few keys. Power. Yes. I have the power. As a selfish person, I would prefer that I was the only one to have this knowledge and power of the digital world. BUT, unfortunately for me, you can obtain the power too. One way to obtain said power is through Web 2.0.
Web 2.0 is a phrase that was coined for the internet in response to the companies that had miraculously survived the “crash” of the web several years ago. As if a horrific earthquake had shaken the grounds, companies made of concrete crumbled where stronger companies built on solid foundations and with wood remained. As two business men sat in a conference room one day, they decided that the name “Web 2.0″ was more than qualified to represent the new era in online technology that was about to wow users across the globe.
As a future teacher I can say I will absolutely utilize the web to teach my students. You can use things like google, Wikipedia, and youtube. For instance, check out this video on youtube that I found. If I were to be teaching my students on speeches and how to write them or present them, I could show them Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech.
To quote the great Stan Lee “With great power comes great responsibility.” Which is to say that you need to consider that others (such as your students) are not as adept at surfing the web as you are, and may actually find themselves in deeper water than they had intended due to natural curiosity.
I agree that it is a great tool, but so is fire. I admire your enthusiasm for the internet, but temper it with caution, and know that there are a lot of people and sites out there who have less concern for kids than we do.