Students Meeting the NETS-S

With the use of communication, collaboration and publishing Web 2.0 technologies, students will be successful with NETS-S (http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx).  So many of the applications of Web 2.0 technologies are directly connected and related to those standards of NETS-S.

In NETS-S students must apply their existing knowledge to new ideas and processes.  They are also challenged to create original works whether they are working alone or in groups.  They are to simulate complex issues and situations as well as need to identify trends and answer the question “What If?”  With the use of the Web 2.0 technologies, students are able to accomplish this.  Pretty much every student that I am aware of knows how to create a PowerPoint presentation for their classmates.  Instead of continually cranking out these solutions, Web 2.0 allows students to look at them in a different way and publish them like they have never before done by the use of sites such as Glogster and SlideShare just to name a few.  Instead of creating a PowerPoint presentation, students could use Animoto or Yodio to create their presentations in a format that they have never done before.

The ability for students to create original works while working in groups is easily accomplished by the use of sites such as Wikispaces or Skype.  These two Web 2.0 technologies alone are very popular in our own PBL class here at Wilkes and should benefit any and all students trying to meet NETS-S.  In fact, the use of Google Docs assists with the collaboration efforts of students and is being used in our class as well.  This is a wonderful way for students to collaborate and brainstorm their ideas in a digital age.  Also with the use of some of the chat Web 2.0 technologies mentioned this week (such as Chatterous and Today’s Meet), students can communicate with themselves and/or teachers in real time and ask some of those very kinds of “What If…?” questions.  This is especially true of students while a teacher lesson is currently going on in class.  He/she can ponder why something may or may not work in a certain way and get an answer almost immediately from either another classmate or the teacher.

Also as a part of NET-S, students are involved in publishing in a digital environment and using digital media.  There are so many Web 2.0 technologies that will allow them to accomplish this.  For example, with the use of ZooBurst, students are able to do digital storytelling.  Also, using sites such as Picnik for photo editing, JayCut for movie making, Animoto for movie making students are able to harness the power of additional Web 2.0 technologies to collaborate with others and produce media using digital environments.  Students are also able to effectively communicate ideas to multiple audiences with the use of Web 2.0 technologies.  For example, the use of blogs are a great way for students to put their ideas “on paper” and then publish them digitally for the entire world to see as well as comment on.  In our group, being able to put our ideas on Wikispaces has been a wonderful asset.  We’ve each been able to publish our own page of thoughts and ideas that we could not only share with the other members of our group but will also be able to share with our class members and other educators that are going to be interested in the projects that we create as a part of the PBL class.

Edmodo would be an excellent site that students could you to communicate and collaborate with students from different cultures from around the world.  In fact, with the use of a blog, students could also collaborate with others from different cultures.  Edmodo along with the websites we explored a couple of weeks ago would allow students to contribute to global project teams in order to solve problems – whether they were based here in the United States or around the world.

The use of Web 2.0 technologies would also foster critical thinking, problem solving and decision making.  Tangler and Bubbl could allow for brainstorming of ideas which could lead to authentic problems being identified and help come up with questions that a group believes that they would need to investigate in order to solve a problem.  I also think that with the use of the multitudinous amounts of Web 2.0 technologies mentioned in class, students would have a different perspective on doing projects and class work – one of which would be upbeat, positive and would make them intrinsically motivated to want to learn more and thus as a result become better learners and students.  With the use of these Web 2.0 technologies, they would also be using multiple processes and different perspectives in order to solve problems and explore different avenues of thinking.

Web 2.0 technologies are not only cool but help our students collaborate and learn and become better critical thinkers.  Students these days like to be challenged in unique ways that they have never been challenged in before.  With the introduction of NETS-S and the Web 2.0 technologies that exist today (along with the fact that students are using Facebook, Myspace and other ways of social networking), the sites introduced in our class seem like a natural extension of the learning process to students and will make them better citizens in the digital society that we live in today and for the months, years and decades to come for sure.