Are Web 2.0 tools effective in teaching and learning?

Constructing a lesson plan:

A teacher does not have to mess with html. They can post their lessons instantly. Students cannot lose them and parents can always know what is expected of their child. Parents can comment to the teacher or make comments on their childs work.

Not everyone learns by listening. Not everyone learns by reading. With blogs and wikis, you can teach all kinds of learners without extra work. And the beauty is that if a student doesn't get it the first time, they can repeat the lecture until they do.

You can add links to important data that is relative to your class. Replication of effort is being squashed. And with the many opencourseware classes offered on the internet, your student has an opportunity to see the content from different angles, ones that might better fit into their own 'ways of knowing, ways of learning' that you cannot possibly have the time to duplicate just for one student.

In a blog, lessons are time-date stamped and placed in reverse chronological order so that the most recent lesson plan is on the top and viewed first. There is also an archive feature in which past lesson plans can be accessed.

With a wiki, any change made is recorded by who made the change and when they made it. This is an invaluable record for the teacher.


As a platform for a students work:

There is a difference between the types of online communication students use. Most are familiar with email, instant messaging, text messaging and have probably already used a blog (livejournal or mystory). But they use all of these online sources with their own language that, btw (by the way), is developing and proliferating. By bringing the blog and/or wiki into the classroom, you are using their favorite communication tool to teach how to write, how to think in a more 'old world' and 'traditional' way. Some things from the past are extremely valuable, like language. This is an opportunity to blend the two worlds in a very productive way.

Blogs and wikis are unique because they are web pages that are not static. They allow for commentary and feedback. Typically only one person runs them, but they can have multiple authors.

Another change from a typical website is RSS (sometimes that means Really Simple Syndication). You can subscribe to a persons blog and bloggers can subscribe to each other. What this means is that when anyone adds content to their blog, you are immediately notified. In an instant your work is published. Whole communities are forming as a result. Your list or blogroll (members of your community) can be embedded into your blog for all to see. It creates strong networking. If you like the blog you see then you might like the blog that the author likes.

But how is it different for the student? If you have ever written to a forum or discussion board, you realize that your voice can be lost. Emails are only read by who you send them to, same for instant messaging. But a blog/wiki can be read by anyone at anytime and the students name is attached to it. This very knowledge is what has led to students writing better. It gives them a sense of authenticity. They realize that they have a real audience that gives personal feedback. They are not just writing to the teacher but to a known and unknown audience. This causes an awareness that papers written to a teacher never experienced. Results show that students are interested in learning how to write better, not just with spelling and grammar, but with content.

Collaboration has proven to be very effective in engaging a student to learn. Blogs/wikis are a wonderful platform for collaboration. Several students across the room or across the world can work on a project together, simultaneously or not.

The following is one teacher's reaction to using Web 2.0 tools in his classroom:
Drexel