Building Educational Experiences with Web 2.0 Tools

Introduction

For this assignment, we have been asked to select a Web 2.0 tool to introduce to our staff, and outline the professional development that we would plan. Upon reflection of the ten new web tools I have just learned about in this course, I would like to approach this type of professional development by planning instruction about blogs and blogging.

Blogs are one of the tools which I believe provide a foundation or springboard for other Web 2.0 tools. The concepts about web tools learned through an exploration of blogging would be transferable to learning about and understanding other web tools.

Another reason for selecting blogs as a starting point for staff professional development is that blogs provide novice users a chance to “get their feet wet” and start to familiarize themselves with the “Read/Write Web” (Richardson, 2006). For more tech-savvy users, they can explore more the sophisticated uses for blogs, but can still use blogs as a place to reflect and showcase their discoveries.

Ideally, I would like to have copies of Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms available for staff to begin reading. Many of Richardson’s statements about why educators should be using web tools in the classroom are the same points I would use to introduce blogs to my staff.