Web 2.0 and Co-Creations
Co-Creating may become one of the most powerful engines of change and innovations that the education world will experience. Co-Creating with other educators across the nation is like tapping a knowledge pool of similar interest, a reservoir of creativity that may emerge through an enthusiastic wealth of talent producing warehouses of digital curriculum. It will not be an easy change and many tough challenges lie ahead to offset the standardized models of the existing rigors of traditional education.
There is nothing wrong with mass co-creating, yet some see it as moving away from traditional practices of “drill and be drilled” forms of learning. The problems are even more alarming when educators become facilitators of learning that moves distinctly away from mass customization; limiting flexibility and relying on elements of creative thought. After all it was the Wright brothers who decided to fly after mashing together ideas about bicycles and creating new ideas about propulsion and wing designs. True co-creating does entail deeper knowledge of existing technology. Technology that is currently not prevalent in American schools, at least from the digital natives’ point of view.
These cries for change are now beginning to take hold as the business world is for the first time recognizing a new workplace; a workplace where individuals use the network to drive company decisions and collaborate daily in a new Web 2.0 environment. These new initiatives are beginning to emerge nationally recognizing that there is a digital divide between real world business practices and general education career preparations of the work force of tomorrow.
The new workforces of the Lego workers are now being recognized for their co-creating ideas, workers that generate the remixing of multiple concepts on a large collaborative scale, creating new mashup products.Is it possible that the real world is moving everyday closer to global collaboration and the self contained classrooms of today are shifting in another direction? A direction of isolation, building the Great Wall of China and containing all knowledge, rigorous curriculum to specified outcomes, measured and assessed to a world where these measurements may no longer be important in determining success in the workforce.
Has the term collaboration changed from working well with others to the mixing of ideas for the recreation of deeper meanings of the disciplines? In this new of world of digital natives who will monitor exactness? Who will control the truest forms of knowledge for others to repeat the same paths of learning? Who will be the valedictorians of their class as individuals climb the latter to earn their rights to prestigious degrees of higher learning? All of these questions will be pondered as the world becomes flat. In fact the gap between the development and use of technology is like crossing the grate digital divide of leaving all children behind. Are we now standing on the other side of the great digital divide looking for ways to bridge the gap? And is it to late to cross over?
See Also Slide Share Presentation: Digital Tools for Digital Kids
View: I Am A Digital Native
Download Video: Posted by kingismike at TeacherTube.com.
Filed under: Technology Integration | Tagged: Technology and Teaching, Technology Integration, Web 2.0 and Education
