The Benefits of School 2.0

I was sitting in maths earlier this week, learning about some formula that I'm almost certain I'll never see again after my exam in May (unless I fail that is...) when I turned to the guy sitting next to me and told him about the Blog I wrote a couple of days before hand, and how there were people out there taking a serious interest in my opinion... which to be honest really surprised me. When I had finished the story there was a pause. He then asked me, "What's a Blog??"... My only thought after that was if only he knew. If only he had discovered. Not just what a Blog is, but what a Wiki is, what an RSS or and Atom feed is. How it could benefit him. If only he had been taught... There are those people who don't know about Web 2.0, what it is or what it could do for them, but there are also so many people out there that fear the whole Web 2.0 or school 2.0 idea, there are even those who still fear the whole concept of the internet. But why? Well, like I said in my last post, people fear it because they don't know the facts, the benefits or the potential. This is human nature, people fear the unfamiliar. So why aren't people made aware? Why not eliminate the fear and let them discover what all these tools can do for them. Give them the opportunity... at least if they knew the facts they could make their own educated decision about whether to use it or not.

I would like you to think about how it could be if school 2.0 was put into place... there are teenagers my age that could be in school not only learning about English, Physics or History, but gathering their own information about whatever aspect of that subject they need to know about, not only relying on that one person standing at the front of the class telling them how it is. They could be writing Blogs or making Wiki's about what they have just learned about, and discussing it with others, not just from the same class as them, but from different parts of the world as them. What's more is that it will all be there to refer to when exam time comes around. All the notes they've made, all the Blogs posts they've made and all the discussions they've had can all be accessed by typing in the URL... no more sifting through a years worth of notes crammed onto sheets upon sheets of A4 paper. This is one of the main reasons I value the idea of School 2.0 so much. But why stop there? Music, art, film, literature, people have so many different hobbies and interests, so what's to stop them making Wiki's about these interests, what's to stop them blogging about the latest film or album. Taking what they have learned about Blogging, Wiki's and RSS (among other things) and using it as a recreational tool as well as a learning one. The potential is there, people just need to know the potential, know what the tools can be used for and know how to use them. It's in the hands of our education system, do they stick with the same old methods or do they upgrade and develop along with technology? Well, If our education system takes the next step then these next generations can still learn what they need to know, but in a much more advanced, a much more modern and a much cooler way. If they stick with the same methods then yes, students still learn, and still find out what they need to know to pass exams... but does this help them in todays society, one which is becoming more and more reliant on computers... and especially the internet?


The Bass Player