Web 2.0 technologies are re-defining the way people communicate, work, study and spend their leisure time. As future teachers we need to prepare our students to be able to function in a world where all these technologies rule. It is almost ludicrous to deny the power of social networks such as MSN or Face Book or to ignore the fact that students can write more in their mobile phones that they do on their English books. Web 2.0 technologies should have a place in the classroom where students and teachers alike can utilise them to improve the means of information attainment and communication. Web 2.0 technologies break geographical barriers and deliver content in ways that are not longer linear (Abbott, 2001). The immediacy of response and information gathering make these technologies fantastic tools for collaboration. Students of today are active contributors and schools have been preparing them to think and analyse rather than to passively absorb information. Because Web 2.0 technologies go beyond the constraints of a classroom caution must be exercised and students must be constantly monitored, but aren’t we doing that yet? As the vastness of information and response that any on the Web 2.0 technologies can generate is overwhelming, it is essential also to have the necessary skills to discern between what is valuable and what is disposable. However, the main reason to include Web 2.0 in the classroom is that students are already familiar with the technology and they are engaged by it.
References:
Abbott, C. (2001). ICT: Changing Education. London: Routledge Falmer
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