Week 5, Thing #11: Web 2.0 Award Winners

Wow! There went a couple of hours. StumbleUpon seems to be a random sampling of stuff that other people found interesting. And, if in not too discriminating a mood, you'll find it interesting too. It is not unlike wandering into a library and picking up books off the shelving carts. Random but fun and sometimes informative. I found myself reading "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strips. I also learned that there might be a habitable planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. Maybe Spaceman Spiff can go there. And then I saw a photo of a solar eclipse from space. Whoooaaa! What a fun time vacuum.

I looked at a few other sites, too. Some widget sites, some mobile technology, but several required setting up an account which was just one too many steps for me.

Ning looks like a nice forum for a virtual book club. Hmmm.... Is there a benefit to virtual over face-to-face? I will need to ponder that one.

And my score on the Travel IQ was 93... below average? I need to brush up on my African geography.

Web 2.0 in the Hands of Students

Our school has been suffering from a bit of bad press lately. I will not rehash it all here, but suffice it to say that an administrator has been put on temporary leave and everything bad that can be said about a person who has been working as a disciplinarian in a public school setting has been said. Not just said, but printed in the local paper.

Now, some students have posted a video titled "Willard Sucks" to a site holding a contest for students encouraging change in their school. Other schools were installing wind turbines, managing food waste, etc. Our kids were griping about cafeteria food and how the teachers don't listen.

I have removed the link to the video because I have decided that I was just adding to the negative publicity.

I hate to think that linking to their video is validating them. But I also think it is important for us as educators to consider the variety of ways our students will use these new tools. Have any of us crafted lessons about the impact of public posting on our communities? In a sense, this is a bit of cyber-bullying, at least because it made all the teachers feel picked-on and victimized. Also, the teacher whose name was used to post the video without his permission is extremely upset.