What is it all About: 21st Century Teaching and Web 2.0, where is the pedagogy in any of this? Part I

While attending NECC in Washington DC last week, I had several conversations that initially frustrated me. I was ecstatic about the conference and the opportunity to be surrounded by some of the best minds in education, those who are willing to work hard and push the envelope to make the education system better. While my enthusiasm did not wane over the course of the week except on one or two instances when I found myself in a presentation that was not holding my attention, my conversations with some peers left me frustrated. I kept hearing about, flashy technology without evidence or pedagogy and the question of why should I change, why should I add some flashy web 2.0 tool to my curriculum?

So I started to look hard, at the workshops I attended, was I just excited about some latest greatest tool? Was I just caught up in the “twitter” and glitz of trends, trends that will soon fade? Or was there more substance to it, was there really research behind the web 2.0 frenzy, was there good solid pedagogy to support all of this?

I think it is important to start with a simple explanation of just what is Web 2.0. I attended several sessions at NECC with Steve Dembo and Steve Hargadon. Each was an excellent presenter who had wonderful ideas on Web 2.0. What I took away from those two sessions in particular was Web 2.0 is: participatory, creative, collaborative, entirely web based, plays well with others, tracks information, and allows you to be more mobile. In other words, you can collaborate any time, any where with anyone around the world, and more often than not, it is FREE!

I wanted to start with the question: “What is the objective of the lesson?” and “what are educators trying to do with all these web 2.0 tools?” Are we simply using them to keep the kids attention, or entertain them while attaining the same mediocre level of student achievement? Or are we able to truly raise the bar for students? The most logical place to start therefore is with Blooms Taxonomy, but not the old taxonomy from the 1950s, the new digital one. Digital one? You ask. Is that not just Bloom’s in a word document? The answer to that is a definitive NO. The new Blooms as revised by Andre Churches is much more than an electronic document. It takes into consideration the web 2.0 tools readily available today. The first notable difference between the two is the use of verbs instead of nouns in the revised taxonomy. For example the first level in the original Blooms was knowledge, in the new Blooms it is remembering.

Why is this important, you might ask? It is important because the change to verbs means a change towards action and doing. The new levels from bottom to top are: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. It somewhat make you think about the NETS for students. Part II will start taking a look at each level of the new Blooms and tying it all together to the NETS. I think when we get to the other side I will have the answer to where is the pedagogy and How this will change the classrooms of the future.