Monday 21 November 2011

Will Web 2.0 help me improve my students learning?

I've been looking at Web 2.0 tools for about 4 months now and it has really motivated me to try a variety of things even to the point where I have a Twitter account for which I saw no use 2 months ago. I'm also getting an Ipad2 mainly based on the fact that I'm excited about how it might help my teaching and improve student learning. I started this personal blog and have since used blogs with 3 different classes and set up two for 2012 for my year 12 PE class and my Reception and year 1/2 class - both with totally different goals in mind. I'm still learning how to use these effectively with students. I've used tools like Youtube, Screenr, Slideshare, Ask 500 People, Blogger, Edublogs, Voki, Google Docs, Glogster, TubeChop and Twitter. I have also looked at a number of other tools but not used them yet.

The question I have is has my teaching and therefore student learning improved because of my use of these tools and as I get better at using them will it continue to improve? The answer is I don't know! What I do know is it has motivated me to think about how and what I'm teaching in a deeper way. My motivation is high when using these technologies and students seem to engage with them. The key word there being 'seem to engage'. I guess if I'm honest I don't really know if it's a novelty thing or if it will be sustained long term. Am I getting through to the students more effectively than the teacher in a classroom with a lot less integration of Web 2.0 technologies?

To try and answer this question I intend to survey my students before the end of 2011 on there thoughts about Web 2.0 technologies. Hopefully this will help me find out how much it motivates students and therefore increases there willingness to engage in their learning which could lead to the assumption of improved learning.

I guess this picture sums up for me what I hope Web 2.0 will ultimately do for my teaching and my students learning.

1 comment:

  1. looking forward to following your journey. I have some more worked lined up in SA soon, great state for Phys Ed

    ReplyDelete