MAIN > SPOTLIGHT ARCHIVE > Spotlight Editor (May 01)

Friday 1st May 2009 2:52 pm

New Study on Use of Web 2.0 Applications in Classrooms

Study spotlights the discrepancy between attitudes toward Web 2.0 and use in the classroom.

image

View the SLIDESHOW here

MacArthur grantee the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) today released Leadership for Web 2.0 in Education: Promise and Reality, based on a national survey of 2,100 school district superintendents, curriculum directors and technology officers.

The study finds that although school leaders believe that Web 2.0 applications expand the resources for classroom learning, they are constrained in using them in the classroom. 

“If U.S. students are to be the next inventors, entrepreneurs and leaders in the global economy, we must see to it that our young people have the innovative tools they need to be successful in the 21st century, particularly in the classroom,” said James Bosco, principal investigator and co-chair of CoSN’s International Advisory Council.

Key findings include:

  • The nation’s district administrators are overwhelmingly positive about the impact of Web 2.0 on students’ lives and their education.
  • The majority of district administrators believe that student use of Web 2.0 should be limited to participation on approved educational Web sites.
  • The majority of school districts ban social networking and chat rooms while allowing prescribed educational use for most of the other Web 2.0 tools.
  • While curriculum directors report low levels of general use of Web 2.0, they describe significant opportunities in curricula and teaching materials.
  • The use of these tools in American classrooms remains the province of individual pioneering classrooms.



Web 2.0 is defined as an online application that uses the World Wide Web as a platform and allows for participatory involvement, collaboration, and interactions among users. Web 2.0 is also characterized by the creation and sharing of intellectual and social resources by end users.

CoSN is the premier professional association for district technology leaders. The mission of CoSN is to empower K-12 district technology leaders to use technology strategically for the improvement of teaching and learning. CoSN provides leadership, community and advocacy essential for the success of these leaders. 

Category: Unexpected

Tags:

Like this post?

Comments

Submit Thoughts

We would love to have you add in the discussion. Please submit your content to our editorial review board:

Name (public):

Email (required but private, only used if our editors need to contact you):

Upload your photo (recommended: this helps bridge online/offline worlds)

Affiliation (public):

URL of your website or institution (public):

Comments:
(We will automatically remove html codes.)

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Please enter the word you see in the image:

(Warning: You will NOT be warned if our spam filters delete your comment. Cutting and pasting tends to confuse our spam filters, so always keep a copy. If your comment passes the spam test, you will be shown a brief "Thank You" message after hitting the Submit button, otherwise you will be returned to this page with your comment gone and no warning. Only comments that pass the spam test will be emailed to our editors for approval and posting. Contact our editors using the link in the footer if you have a problem.)

Produced by Games for Change. | TOP