Web 2.0 pertains to the phenomenon of the internet (interconnected international electronic network system) which we are currently experiencing.  This "phrase [was] coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004...refer[ing] to a second generation of Web-based use and services— such as social networking sites and wikis— that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users".[1]  With Web 2.0, we are not only capable of accessing materials and resources but creating materials and resources as well.  Such materials and resources may be adapted as educational technologies or tools to enhance both teaching and learning.

 

   The Enhancing Education Through Technology Act of 2001 commissioned the establishment and expansion of the use of technology in elementary and secondary schools with the primary goal being "to improve student academic achievement".[2]  A Pew Research Center survey of "The Internet at School: Teens, Technology, and School" by Lee Rainie and Paul Hitlin in 2005 indicated that "teen use of the internet at school ha[d] grown 45% since 2000".[3]  By 2008, public schools in the United States reached a ratio of 3.1 students to one computer where 98% of the total number of computers in public schools provided internet access to students.[4] 

 

   As Web 2.0 tools and the access thereof continue to increasingly broaden in education, it is becoming increasingly important for teachers and students alike to acquire competency in using such tools.  Web 2.0 competency is important because it is instrumental in the facilitation of student interaction and engagement with the educational material, fellow classmates, teachers, even parents and family members as it also provides benefits which reach beyond elementary and secondary classrooms to college- and career-experiences (like technical skills, mediated communication skills, internet research skills, collaboration skills, digital media skills, internet navigation skills, content generating skills, etc.).

 

   A recent study by Andrea Crampton, Angela T. Ragusa, and Heather Cavanagh published in the Association for Learning Technology (ALT)'s journal, Research in Learning Technology found that:  

 

students who accessed the online resources achieved greater academic success...The relationship between [online] resource access and academic success was related to both the diversity of available resources and the proportion of each type accessed by the student....[it seems that] the provision of a range of resources enhances an educator’s capacity to provide a diverse range of learners with adequate agency to devise their most effective learning environments.[5]

 

   For this project, I will endeavor to analyze and evaluate three Web 2.0 tools in light of my licensure area(s) and determine their potential uses and benefits for the promotion of student learning and/or the improvement of professional practices.  The three Web 2.0 tools are: WordPress, YouTube, and Popplet.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENDNOTES

          1. Thomas C. O'Guinn, Christ T. Allen, and Richard J. Semenik, "The Promotion Industry," PROMO, 2011 Edition (Mason, OH: Soth-Western Cengage Learning, 2011), 28.

          2. Enhancing Education Through Technology Act of 2001, Public Law 107-110, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Title II, Part D, Sec. 2401-2441, available from http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg34.html (accessed June 1, 2013).

          3. Lee Rainie and Paul Hitlin, "The Internet at School: Teens, Technology, and School," Pew Research Center, available from  http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2005/The-Internet-at-School/Data-Memo.aspx (accessed June 1, 2013).

          4. T.D. Snyder and S.A. Dillow, "Table 109: Number And Internet Access Of Instructional Computers And Rooms In Public Schools, By Selected School Characteristics: Selected Years, 1995 Through 2008," Digest of Education Statistics 2011 (NCES 2012-001) (Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education), 175, available from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012001.pdf (accessed June 1, 2013).

          5. Andrea Crampton, Angela T. Ragusa, and Heather Cavanagh, "Cross-Discipline Investigation Of The Relationship Between Academic Performance And Online Resource Access By Distance Education Students," Research in Learning Technology 20, (February 2012), available from http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/download/14430/pdf (accessed June 2, 2013).