Students Build Technology Skills and Support NETS-S Through Use of Web 2.0 Applications

Today’s students learn in an educational system that is working to develop key skills that will make students marketable and productive citizens in an ever increasingly digital world.  The basics of the 3R’s of generations past have been replaced with standards and benchmarks that cover every subject a student studies at every grade level in their educational career.  Technology has not been left out of this mix.  Students now are expected to master skills, such as, communication, collaboration and digital publishing which are all part of a set of national technology standards called the National Educational TechnologyStandards for Students (NETS-S) (NETS for Students 2007, 2007).  These important skills can be practiced and honed in our classrooms thanks to a number of educational web 2.0 tools now available to teachers all over the world. 

Communication has changed in today’s classroom.  Historically, classrooms included students who waited for a question from the teacher and then students raised their hand (or didn’t) to answer the question.  Teachers in those days heard from only a small fraction of what their class was thinking about.  Students today live in a world swamped with communication in all types of formats.  Teachers today can support the NETS-S standards by using web 2.0 tools like Edmodo and Padlet to give students another way to respond to questions.  Both of these digital tools are great examples of educational back channels, or using technology to provide a voice to students without interrupting class or after the school day has ended (Holland, 2014).  Edmodo (About Edmodo, 2014) is a platform that has the look of a social media website, but really is a technology tool for teachers to deliver information and questions to students and provides a delivery method for students to respond back to the teacher and his or her classmates.  Padlet (Padlet, 2014), is another web 2.0 tool that teachers have found useful as a communication tool for students.  This virtual “board” allows a student to pin messages on it about topics being discussed in class, etc. 

Collaboration is another NETS-S skill being supported through web 2.0 tools.  More than ever before, students can collaborate in real time without even being in the same building.  Two excellent tools for this include the nonlinear presentation tool, Prezi and a free resource from Google, called Google Docs.  Student’s ability to collaborate from afar is something that they will apply in a real world career type of setting so acquiring these skills in school is an advantage.  Prezi has an environment where students can work on their parts of a presentation in real time with classmates and bring the presentation all into one (Prezi, 2014).  Google docs is a more open resource when it comes to sharing.  These tools range from word processing and spreadsheets to digital presentations and drawing applications all of which allow students to creatively collaborate using the tool that best fit their needs. 

Publishing is a NETS-S skill that is not new to education, but publishing has become far easier in the digital world.  Web tools like Google Blogger and Wikispaces now allow students to author their own content and allow for a place to publish their content to share with the world.  The idea that anyone in the world could read your authored work creates a very different writing approach than writing something that only your teacher will likely see for grading purposes.  Students are more likely to put more effort into their writing when being published for the entire world vs. just their teacher and classmates.  Allowing students to publish themselves using a blog or a website is a great way to refine the writing process and incorporate student to student editing. 

These resources and numerous other web 2.0 tools are available for teachers to integrate into the topics of study.  Most of these tools are generic enough that they could apply across grade levels, content areas, etc.  The NETS-S standards were written to support all K-12 teachers, but more importantly to support students in acquiring the skills necessary to be a critical part of our society and culture well after their K-12 education has come to an end. 

References:

About Edmodo. (2014). Retrieved June 7, 2014, from Edmodo: https://www.edmodo.com/about?language=en

NETS for Students 2007. (2007). Retrieved June 7, 2014, from www.ISTE.org: http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007

Padlet. (2014). Retrieved June 7, 2014, from Padlet: http://www.padlet.com

Prezi. (2014). Retrieved June 7, 2014, from Prezi: http://www.prezi.com

Holland, B. (2014, May 21). The Backchannel: Giving Every Student a Voice in the Blended Mobile Classroom. Retrieved June 3, 2014, from Edutopia: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/backchannel-student-voice-blended-classroom-beth-holland