The World Wide Web has grown at an enormous rate and has rapidly become part of our lives beyond all expectations.
Seen originally as a pool of human knowledge and human culture over time it has developed into what we now term as Web 2.0
The correct definition of this development is as follows:
Web 2.0 is a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing and most notably, collaboration amongst users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web based communities and hosted services, such as social networking sites, wikis, blogs and folksonomies (also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging).
Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to nay technical specifications, but ti changes in the ways software developers and end users use webs.
Examples of some of these new networking and social media sites are as follows:
Flickr Skype YouTube
Zoho Facebook Myspace
Dropbox Crazy Talk
And notably one of the fascinating tools to come about as a result of the broadening use of the Internet is:
BLOGS & BLOGGING
Simply this is seen as an online publishing tool that enables people to easily publish their loves, passions, dislikes , hobbies and insights for the whole world to red and enjoy.
Clearly we cannot ignore the impact that this will have within schools and the broad usage that children and young people may make of it. Perhaps it is still early days to truly measure the impact this will have.
But for sure this humorous cartoon pokes fun at the change in this boys life.
Information and communications technologies are both pervasive symbols of modern society and essential business tools. Households have embraced them too for a variety of uses, from entertainment and shopping, to paying bills and searching for information.
With the wide use of computers, equipping students with computer skills has become an important goal of school systems across the country. The development of these skills forms part of school curriculum. Appropriate goals are set at each grade level, much as with knowledge and skills in other subject areas.
How will the Internet provide effective learning?
How will Internet access be authorised?
Internet access will be granted to a whole class or individuals as part of a scheme of work, after suitable education in responsible Internet use. Older pupils may carry out their own Internet searches for research purposes and should know how to conduct searches safely and what to do if they come across something unsuitable. Pupils’ entitlement to use the Internet is based on their responsible use of it. Irresponsible use may result in this privilege being removed.
Why is Internet use important?
Internet use is a part of the statutory curriculum and a necessary tool for staff
and pupils. Also it is an essential element in 21st century life for education,
business and social interaction. Therefore the school has a duty to provide
students with quality Internet access as part of their learning experience.
The educational benefits of Internet access far outweigh the possible risks and good planning and management will ensure appropriate and effective pupil use.
Whilst regulation and technological solutions are very important their use must be balanced by teaching pupils to take a responsible approach, and this forms an essential part of the school’s e-safety provision.
How will the Internet provide effective learning?
The purpose of Internet access in school is to raise educational standards, to support the professional work of staff and to enhance the schools management of information and business administration systems. Internet access provides many high quality teaching and learning resources, some free, some subscription, as well as providing huge potential for research.
Naturally this raises concerns over the safe usage of this new educational tool. The potential dangers for misuse is very real. This leads onto addressing what has become termed as E-Safety. The following points give examples of how schools may address this issue.
How will Internet access be authorised?
A school may write up what is termed as: "Pupils’ Home School Agreement" which will include the Rules For Responsible Internet Use which needs to be signed by pupils, parents/guardians and returned the school at the beginning of Reception and the beginning of KS2, or when a new pupil starts at the school.
How will the risks be assessed?
In common with other media such as magazines, books and video, some material available via the Internet is unsuitable for pupils. The school will supervise pupils and take all reasonable precautions to ensure that users access only appropriate material. However, due to the international scale and linked nature of information available via the Internet, it is not possible to guarantee that unsuitable material will never appear on a terminal. Methods to identify, access and minimise risks will be reviewed regularly by ICT co-ordinators.
Safeguards when accessing the Internet
The school Internet access will be designed expressly for pupil use and will
include ISP filtering as well as school filtering appropriate to the age of pupils.
Pupils will be taught what Internet use is acceptable and what is not and given
clear objectives for Internet use which will be planned to enrich and extend
learning activities. Access levels will be reviewed to reflect the curriculum
requirements and age of pupils. For example at Key Stage 1, access to the
Internet will be by adult demonstration with occasional directly supervised access to specific, approved on-line materials, via the school’s intranet page. Only the older children, under direct supervision, will be able to use search engines.
access and they will be asked to sign and return a consent form which is attached in the appendix.
In common with other media such as magazines, books and video, some material available via the Internet is unsuitable for pupils. The school will take all reasonable precautions to ensure that users access only appropriate material.
However, due to the international scale and linked nature of Internet content, it
is not possible to guarantee that unsuitable material will never appear on a
school computer. Neither the school nor the LEA can accept liability for the
material accessed, or any consequences of Internet access.
Social networking and mobile phones.
Staff may use such sites that are allowed by the local authority filtering system but only when not teaching lessons.
Pupils are not permitted to use or carry mobile phones within school. However, appropriate use of mobile phones will be taught to pupils as part of PSHE. Staff may use them only outside lessons, unless contacting the school when on a trip/course.
Interactive
Whiteboards in Education
There is no escaping the impact that Interactive White Boards IWB have had on schools world wide. Currently up to 85% of classrooms in the UK currently use IWB's. Designed originally for the military, it has been within the realms of education that they have truly developed.
Report by education researchers Robert Marzano and Mark Haystead entitled 'Evaluation Study of the Effects of Promethean ActivClassroom on Student Achievement looks into the impact of these systems within schools. The over riding conclusion being that the effectiveness of the Interactive White Board really comes down to the confidence and experience of the teacher using. Evidence shows that unless its utilised effectively it does not raise student achievement level.
The screen that is visible to the classroom as a whole is the screen of the computer. Thus one needs to understand how the traditional teaching environment will change. The problem has been that lessons planned for the new interactive whiteboards has been based either on traditional board use, or a methodology borrowed from conventional use of ICT seen as a solitary learning device.
What are the benefits?
Because interactive whiteboards are so like
conventional whiteboards, they can help
even technophobic teachers to use this
medium with ease for presentations from
the front of the room.
■ They help in broadening the use of e-learning
because they rapidly demonstrate the
potential of alternative modes of delivery.
■ They make it easy for teachers to enhance
presentation content by easily integrating a
wide range of material into a lesson, such
as a picture from the Internet, a graph from
a spreadsheet or text from a Microsoft Word
file, in addition to student and teacher
annotations on these objects.
■ They allow learners to participate in group
discussions by freeing them from note-taking.
■ They allow learners to work collaboratively
around a shared task or work area.
■ When fully integrated into a VLE (virtual
learning environment) and learning object
repository there is potential for widespread
sharing of resources.
■ When used for interactive testing of
understanding for the entire class, they can
rapidly provide learner feedback.
Some Disadvantages
Some Disadvantages
- If the system crashes the lesson plan fails. You are at the mercy of the technology in use. Failing to prepare for this could be problematic.
- Positioning of the children may be a problem and considerations for sunlight streaming into classes has to be looked into. Blacking out classrooms may be time consuming and create an environment less conducive to study.
- You may simple become too dependant on the technology and perhaps loose some of he traditional skills that are important to the teacher and pupil relationship.
- The children themselves can become frustrated if they feel the teacher is struggling with the technology.
- Making the system interactive so that children can come up to the board and take part is crucial. Installation needs to be taken into consideration in terms of the height of the board. The overall placement of the IWB is crucial to its effectiveness.
Adopt Adapt and Innovate
Teachers need to consider taking advantage of other useful resources that are out there on the web to aid their teaching but at the same time realise the need to change these lesson plans and recourse's to suit their needs and styles and be creative.
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