Web 2.0

I continue to be amazed at the powerful tool Web 2.0 is. I've been trying to come up with an appropriate analogy and one that may or may not work is the following: Imagine you suddenly wake up in a stadium full of cheering people all watching players on a field scrambling to get their hands on a footlong, oblong, pointed ball. There appear to be two teams playing against each other to see how far down the field they can carry the ball. You've heard of this sport but are not knowledgeable of the rules, never mind the individual plays that are being called. It appears that the game has been going on for some time because the players are very engaged and the spectators are cheering them on. You realize that you can waste no time learning the plays because you are not a spectator, you are a player! That's how I feel, excited but overwhelmed at the same time. Desperately wanting to learn the plays but realizing time is of the essence.

Now imagine you are an educator with a full schedule of classes, lots of students, lots of planning and preparation to cover all aspects of the curriculum and now you need to quickly learn how to function in a new world, a Web 2.0 world. It must be overwhelming. I can only hope that school districts work quickly to not only update their technology but find effective ways to support educators as they struggle to learn how to navigate the new technology while delivering the curriculum.