Patrick Aroune's Profile

The new literacy means being able to function in and leverage the potential of easy-to-create, collaborative, transparent online groups and networks, which represent a "tectonic shift" in the way we need to think about the world and our place in it (Shirky, 2008).

This may be the first large technological shift in history that's being driven by children. Picture a bus. Your students are standing in the front; most teachers (maybe even you) are in the back, hanging on to the seat straps as the bus careens down the road under the guidance of kids who have never been taught to steer and who are figuring it out as they go.

This may be the first large technological shift in history that's being driven by children. Picture a bus. Your students are standing in the front; most teachers (maybe even you) are in the back, hanging on to the seat straps as the bus careens down the road under the guidance of kids who have never been taught to steer and who are figuring it out as they go.

A recent National School Boards Association survey (2007) announced that upward of 80 percent of young people who are online are networking and that 70 percent of them are regularly discussing education-related topics.

education that Web 2.0 is simply the use of the Internet as a two-way medium- - -that it is a platform upon which content is not only consumed but also created.

education that Web 2.0 is simply the use of the Internet as a two-way medium- - -that it is a platform upon which content is not only consumed but also created.

Web 2.0, defined this way, is facilitating a dramatic change in our relationship to information.

When, however, we see the ever increasing amount of content as "conversations" that are taking place, it becomes an educational imperative to teach ourselves and students to be productive participants in those conversations.

What is abundantly clear is that no matter what our schools are currently doing, most of our students are already actively involved in this content creation and conversation outside of school.

whether we see the Web as a dangerous collection of minefields or as an unparalleled learning environment, most youth are participating on the Web without the benefit of much guidance or mentoring from the adults who are most interested in their progress and well-being.

I think the inherent characteristics of Web 2.0 are so aligned with significant educational pedagogies that we are going to have to dramatically rethink our educational institutions and expectations because of them.  Even though the benefits of Web 2.0, like those of a liberal-arts education, resist easy assessment methods and therefore present a challenge to how we measure educational success, I'm optimistic that they will ultimately prove so valuable as to require that we rethink teaching and learning.

in an amazing flowering of the Chris Anderson's "Long Tail" model (www.thelongtail.com), students (and teachers!) can find specific intellectual paths to tread where they are able to participate, say, as an historian and not as someone preparing to be an historian. 

When the world's knowledge doubles in short periods of time, the incentives or rewards for keeping information proprietary significantly diminish, and the resulting willingness to share presents great opportunities to learn and to participate.  The ability to "look something up" or to learn something new has never been greater.

We are, to paraphrase Clay Shirky, in the midst of the greatest increase of creative capability in the history of the world

Passionate Interest and Personal Expression

students and educators to build for themselves a online portfolio of the endeavors they are passionate about.

Where the resume and the degrees have been our short-cut indicators of abilities and accomplishments, the personal body of work now contained and hopefully organized on the Web gives everyone who wants it the the opportunity for an expression of personal interest and achievement.

But the world has changed, and employers want and the world needs students who have learned to participate actively and independently

character traits of Web 2.0 mentioned above are significantly enhanced, if not dependent on, devoted adults helping to mentor and guide students

undamentally answering a human need to connect, create, and express ourselves, the immense popularity of some early social networks have showcased garishness and vulgarity that aren't inherent in the technology, but became an early part of it because of the very absence of influential adults.

build a casino or a schoo

Teachers will need time and training to learn to use these tools in the classroom, and we're notoriously bad at spending time or money on this.

"That isn't to say that nothing can be done with keyboarding before grade 4," Tovey continues. "It's good for students to get familiar with the keyboard in the earlier grades.

"That isn't to say that nothing can be done with keyboarding before grade 4," Tovey continues. "It's good for students to get familiar with the keyboard in the earlier grades.

The methods used are limited only by the child's imagination and access to technology. And the cyberbully one moment may become the victim the next. The kids often change roles, going from victim to bully and back again

Cyberbullying may arise to the level of a misdemeanor cyberharassment charge, or if the child is young enough may result in the charge of juvenile delinquency. Most of the time the cyberbullying does not go that far, although parents often try and pursue criminal charges. It typically can result in a child losing their ISP or IM accounts as a terms of service violation.

And in some cases, if hacking or password and identity theft is involved, can be a serious criminal matter under state and federal law

When schools try and get involved by disciplining the student for cyberbullying actions that took place off-campus and outside of school hours, they are often sued for exceeding their authority and violating the student's free speech right.

We recommend that a provision is added to the school's acceptable use policy reserving the right to discipline the student for actions taken off-campus if they are intended to have an effect on a student or they adversely affect the safety and well-being of student while in school. This makes it a contractual, not a constitutional, issue.