Advantages+of+Web+2.0+in+Schools

Im going on a bit of a stretch for accessibility but Im going to look at it in another way...how are the teachers able to access and use the Web 2.0 in their classroom?

In the article I found titled, "District Administrators See Advantages of Web 2.0 in School," it talks about how Web 2.0 can benefit the students according to the 1200 schools polled in a report by Consortium for School Networking. Some if the areas that were found to be positive for using 2.0 were:
 * Self-direction and regulation (65 percent positive, 12 percent negative)
 * Sense of community or culture (65 percent positive, 15 percent negative)
 * Peer relationships (58 percent positive, 21 percent negative)
 * Relationships with parents or family (56 percent positive, 21 percent negative)
 * Homework habits (55 percent positive, 26 percent negative)
 * Behavior in school (46 percent positive, 19 percent negative)

Although the article listed these as positives, the article also talked about how there were limitations and those limitations were in the willingness, or the knowledge, of the educators to use or to know how to use the technology in the classroom. The article also discussed how many schools restrict what technologies are allowed in school. Social websites are almost universally blocked and here are some other examples of limitations:


 * 38 percent ban playing interactive games;
 * 30 percent ban participation in virtual worlds;
 * 27 percent ban blogging;
 * 18 percent ban students from creating polls or surveys online; and
 * 14 percent ban the use of wikis.

Embracing change to the way we teach is tough but it will continue to change with all the technology that is out there... don't we have to make this technology accessible to our students? I feel that it is our job to find a way to make it a worthwhile product in the classroom...we have to make it accessible and to make it viable so that our classrooms are more beneficial to our students.

If we tie this back to our original idea of accessibility, these ideas are often forgot about when it comes to students who cant use the Web 2.0 ideas. All these tools are great, but so often it is forgot about as to how we get our lower learners to use these tools. It reminds me of our discussions a few weeks ago where i posted an article about sites eventually being forced to make their material more accessible to the visually impaired. Looking at the list of limitations above, getting students with disabilities to use these tools would be very difficult at times because the sites, the games, or the blogs would not be adjusted for their learning level unless it was a specific game for that type of student. To help with these barriers there would have to be games and/or sites specifically aimed at these learners or the teacher may have to have additional help in the classroom to walk students through the tools they are using.

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