Thing 5

What does "School 2.0" mean to you?
What does it mean for schools of the future?

It seems to me that we are in the formative phases of Web 2.0/ School 2.0.
The descriptions I have read emphasize "for the 21st century."
Since we are in the first decade of the 21st century, I am sure my grandkids will get a kick out of hearing me, 30 years from now, explain how I used a computer, the internet, and so on.
I will probably tell them how teachers had to figure out ways to integrate the internet with the classroom lessons. They will probably be amazed that their parents had to haul books back and forth from school; a convention that I feel will go by the wayside as School 2.0 progresses.

But for now, I feel that the greatest challenge we have as teachers is to get over the perceived pressure of standards and figure out a way to teach and learn using all the resources we have at our disposal. If we can train this generation of students to THINK, I feel we will see test scores rise.
This is a technology generation, we need to get out of the book and stimulate their minds. Lofty words, I know.

For middle school level, when we are able to have computers, hardwired in all classrooms - that is when School 2.0 will be utilized to it's fullest. For now, it's great to have laptops on mobile carts for student use, but the time contraints of set up, etc. use up too much time when there is so little time to utilize. We may have to drag some in the school district into the technology age, but I know that is where the future of education is going. Operational technology, in my mind, will be realized when students use technology on an hourly basis at school and other learning environments.