Web 2.0 and Uneven Development

I am excited to see the way teachers and future teachers are embracing some of the possibilities offered by blogging, RSS, and wikis!

As someone who has often been a "early adopter" of technology I would say that such adoptions have often meant for me a struggle with the institution to get the hardware, equipment, rooms, and software that I needed for the experiments that I wanted to perform. One thing that excites me about Web 2.0 is the way that so much is already "done" for us -- waiting for us out there on the web, such that we don't have to pay for, load, or manage new software. Nor do we need especially powerful computers, because the running of software and the storage of information is basically done remotely. This ought to make these technologies easier for teachers to use (except in so far as the public schools use filters that block access).

I thought that many of the technologies I started using for teaching would much more rapidly become "standard" activities. Twenty five years ago I was using word processors in class to help student do revision. Fifteen years ago I was having my students engage in threaded discusions. Eight years ago my students were all making websites. Five years ago I started teaching all my classes in a wireless, laptop classroom. As I undertook each of these I thought that, OK, soon everyone else is going to be on the same page. But that is not the way it has worked. The technologies involve new learning on the part of teachers and new ways of understanding teaching -- those changes take time. What I have seen instead is, to use the classic and appropriate expression, "uneven development" with some jumping ahead, and others lagging behind, at least in terms of meaningful technology innovation.

There is also lots of "hype" about how technology will save students or radically transform learning... and that I have become skeptical of as well.