I teach middle school. Enough said. Each day, I look at my classroom full of students and see them looking back at me with a dazed expression. I see students fidgeting in their seats, staring blankly into space, and counting down the minutes on the clock until the bell will ring. I see students attempting to hide cell phones under desks or threading their headphones through sweatshirts in an effort to drown out the lecture. As soon as notes are placed on the board, I see the entire class pull out their cell phones to take a picture of it because no one actually writes anymore. Don’t you know that was so last generation?
In the halls, I hear conversations about who likes who or who is dating who, typical adolescent teenager stuff, but something is different about these conversations. The sources of information, the conduit for the gossip seems to be changing. Instead of the usual, “Guess who called me last night?” or “Guess what I heard?” I now hear, “Did you see what he posted to snapchat?” or “Read this text she sent me”. In an effort to seem relevant, I attempted to start a conversation about Facebook only to have a student tell me, “That’s for old people. Get with the program Ms. Stewart”. At the ripe age of 26, I had no idea I was that old.
Society is changing at lightning speed. It seems that we were just introduced to the millennials, and now we have to worry about this new generation – Generation Z also known as the Virtual Generation. As Solomon and Schrum (2014) mention, students are beginning to interact with the digital world in a nonlinear fashion. As educators, we are responsible for keeping up with those changes and ensuring that our technologically entrenched students are given the tools they will need to keep up with the ever changing online world. One of those tools takes the form of the internet and Web 2.0. Like many things in life, Web 2.0 is one of those concepts that seems to have taken on a life of its own. There really are no clear definitions of what Web 2.0 is; however, one thing is certainly clear – Web 2.0 is definitely marking a fundamental change in how society is viewing and using the internet and as educators, it is our responsibility to ensure that we are giving our students the tools they will need to be competitive. Schechtman, DeBarger, Dornsife, Rosier, and Yarnell indicate, “If students are to achieve their full potential, they must have opportunities to engage and develop a much richer set of skills” (as cited in Solomon & Schrum, 2014). Based on my observations and experience, I completely agree. As teachers, it is our responsibility to provide those richer set of skills.
As a special education teacher, I am most interested in learning about Web 2.0 tools that will help differentiate for my students. I believe that technology is the great equalizer. Diane Ravitch defines differentiation as a form of instruction that seeks to “maximize each student’s growth by recognizing that students have different ways of learning, different interests, and different ways of responding to instruction (2007, p. 75). Web 2.0 tools give educators the opportunity to offer students a variety of ways to show their learning. Additionally, offering voice and choice leads to higher student engagement. Solomon and Schrum (2014) suggest using tools such as Flipsnack, Empresser, and Sketchcast. I am looking forward to researching these tools in order to offer my students more opportunities to show what they know and to experience success. In addition, many online resources offer differentiation for people with disabilities. For instance, they may offer read-to accommodations, changes in font, speech to text options, and even options to change the reading levels of materials to cater the instruction to the specific needs of students. One of the biggest goals of a special education teacher is to teach students how to advocate for themselves and to teach them how and why they should use accommodations. Technology is the tool that makes these students feel less obvious.
Ravitch, D. (2007). Edspeak: A glossary of education terms, phrases, buzzwords, and jargon. Alexandria, VA: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2014). Web 2.0 how-to for educators. Eugene, Oregon: International Society for Technology in
Education.