Podcast29: Thinking Critically About Web 2.0

13th January 2006

posted in podcasts, skypecasts |

Is enthusiasm for web 2.0 and its potential to positively reform educational teaching methods across the globe overblown? An international audience including Darren Kuropatwa in Canada, Ewan McIntosh in Scotland, Miguel Guhlin in San Antonio, Texas, and Wesley Fryer in Lubbock, Texas, engaged in a lively discussion this evening via skype to explore these and other issues. Specifically, the questions we addressed were: Is enthusiasm in the blogsphere for web 2.0 overblown, since the realities of the modern, accountability-driven classroom overpower individual drives for creative innovation? Is there hope for systemic school reform in the United States and elsewhere in the world? Should schools repurpose their existing educational technology budgets, which largely serve now to support a traditional transmission-based model (pedagogy) of instruction? (And do something radical instead, like pay their teachers more?!)

Program Length: 59 min, 49 sec
File size: 14.4 MB

(Click here to listen to this podcast)

Show notes for this podcast include:

Darren Kuropatwa’s blog: A Difference
Ewan McIntosh’s blog: edublog
Miguel Guhlin’s blog: Mousing Around
Wesley Fryer’s blog: Moving at the Speed of Creativity
Our skypecast planning and idea wiki
Clarence Fisher’s Remote Access blog
Scottish Schools Digital Network
The Other Side of Outsourcing Video
Levels of Technology Implementation by Chris Moersch
Alan Levine’s blog: CogDogBlog
Brian Lamb’s blog: Abject Learning
How did we have this free conversation, record it and publish it for a global audience? See paragraph 3 of this blog post.

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Technorati Tags: education, podcasting, reform

On this day..

Response to a newspaper editor, Buddy Pearson, on social networking experiences - 2008
Stuck in Denver - 2007
Thoughts on grades, authentic assessment, and measuring learning - 2007
Podcast117: Engaging Brains with Games and Simulations - 2007
Podcast116: Safe Classroom Blogging to Improve Student Writing - 2007
OLPC stakes - 2007
Tale of Two Fish - 2006
UK Podcasting Directory - 2006
FlickrEDU - 2006
TxTIP Year 1 Evaluation - 2006

This entry was posted on Friday, January 13th, 2006 at 1:00 am and is filed under podcasts, skypecasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

1 On January 13th, 2006, edProgress » How to Reasonably Discuss Controversy said:

[…] Yesterday, I made an entry in this blog regarding Web 2.0 (actually, a couple of entries). Today, I received an update that Wes Fryer has a new podcast (as of yesterday) on the very same topic. Although I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, I think that the fact it is being discussed points out that we, as educators, need to move forward carefully. […]

2 On January 13th, 2006, the open content blog » Podcast Over Coffee said:

[…] This morning we actually stopped and listened to last night’s informative and lively conversation between edu-tech-bloggers Wesley Fryer (Lubbock, Texas,) Darren Kuropatwa (Winnipeg, Canada,) Ewan McIntosh (Edinburgh, Scotland,) Miguel Guhlin (San Antonio, Texas.) […]

3 On January 13th, 2006, Janice Friesen said:

Wesley,

Thanks for the podcast. It was very thought provoking. Just a few days ago I posted something on my blog on the topic which tied right into what you were talking about. Here is my current conclusion (from http://malahinitx.blogspot.com)

“But what holds things back? Why is there a dlay in using technology appropriately in schools? One thing - $$$$. Inservice training, equipment, support, expert technicians who can design network architecture and keep things up and running are expensive.

We are trying to do school on the cheap so that we can continue to spend most of our tax dollars on weapons and homeland security.

All of the above is not to say that I don’t believe that Web 2.0 and the possibility of true interaction using the web will not make a difference. It is HUGELY important. But, that is not the issue. We can blogevangelize all we want and still the same percentage of teachers will adopt the change. We can keep trying to collect DATA to prove that technologies will make a difference in learning. But until we decide as a nation that our children and future generations are important investments we will NOT make any changes to school as it has been for the last 100 years.”

Here are a few thoughts generated from the Podcast:
1. Ewan mentioned using technology as a kid and the fact that it formed what kind of a teacher he is (technology using). I wonder if there have ALWAYS been a few “early adopters” who thought differently when they were kids and now they are on the cutting edge as teachers using technology? What evidence is there that this will not always be the case?
2. Do tech support needs grow to fill whatever space they are given? This is in reaction to Michael Guilin saying that Campus Tech Specialists don’t really make change because they just end up doing tech support rather than coaching. I like the idea of a new model. I just wonder if the model of the campus tech specialist is a problem because those people have been asked to do too many tech support tasks and they need to say no????

4 On January 13th, 2006, Miguel Guhlin said:

Janice, thanks for sharing your questions. Education is always under-funded, whether we spend money on buying the latest and greatest or spend cheap and go with free, open source software. Why? Because school districts are spending taxpayer dollars. In the years of plenty, we bought the best we could afford in hardware and software–even though, like Eliot Solloway, we didn’t need “excess functionality” that wasn’t used.

So, can we measure the country’s priority on education by the amount of money spent on technology? I don’t believe so…on people, perhaps. What we need to do is ask, why are we spending so much money on hardware/software that will be used divorced from Curriculum & Instruction?

Let’s forget campus/district technology specialists. Let’s just focus on people who teach who happen to use technology to communicate coherently, and collaborate constructively.

Miguel Guhlin
http://www.mguhlin.net/blog

5 On January 13th, 2006, Roger said:

In terms of possibilities for systemic change I can highly recommend Fullan, Michael (2005) Leadership & Sustainability: System Thinkers in Action http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1412904951/002-4457352-3152828?v=glance&n=283155

I found Fullan’s descriptions of the issues and nature of transformational leadership at school, district and system level to closely parallel my own experiences within our State education system.

On the role of tech support mentioned by Janice I strongly support other models. We didn’t really get much movement in more teachers using ICT until we:

1. provided ICT coaches (who were teachers)
2. used students to provide a Help Desk service to take pressure of tech support staff
3. allowed tech support to say no to unplanned requests for new technology/applications
4. supported existing quality teacher professional learning modules in ICT with time to access them
5. provided teachers with a computer in their staffroom (1:4 initially) and their classes with a realistic chance of accessing computers during teaching time

6 On January 13th, 2006, Bubbling Minds » Blog-arkiv » Oyogi said:

[…] Oyogi er et videndelingssted. Man kan sp?rge Oyogi, eller man kan svare p? et sp?rgsm?l, der er stillet. Med tiden kan man sl? besvarede sp?rgsm?l op. Lige nu er der kun 62, men alt har jo en begyndelse. Jeg “testede” systemet og stillede et sp?rgsm?l: What is Web 2.0? Og s? gav jeg mig til at h?re en interessant podcast “Thinking Critically About Web 2.0” (optaget via Skype). Da jeg efter en times tid vendte tilbage til Oyogi, var jeg i mellemtiden blevet kontaktet af ‘bigfleet’ med henblik p? en chat om mit sp?rgsm?l, og da jeg ikke reagerede havde ‘bigfleet’ lagt et grundigt og flot svar p? mit sp?rgsm?l - ret imponerende!! Nu er jeg helt flov over min “test”…. […]

7 On September 12th, 2006, Web 2.0 » Blog Archives » Web 2.0 Blog Network Hating Web 2.0: Privacy vs. Convenience said: