Thing 5 - School 2.0

To me, School 2.0 is essentially the evolution of the classroom through the utilization of modern technologies. The Atomic Learning video made an interesting point that this is not the first transformation of the classroom. Over a hundred years ago schools were nothing more than a room with a chalkboard and teacher at the front, with students looking forward in their desks. Over time the classroom has grown to include items such as textbooks, projectors, and computers among other things. It shouldn't be surprising to see that as technology changes over time, so do the things affected by technology such as school. As School 2.0 gains more and more of a foothold in the classroom, we'll see familiar classroom items change in ways that may not have been conceived as early as a decade ago. For example as tablets become more and more user friendly and cheaper in price we may see schools completely abandon physical textbooks in favor of e-textbooks that can be loaded onto the students tablet. Instead of having to carry a load of textbooks and binders to class, a student may merely need to bring his tablet to school and have everything he needs at the tip of his fingers.

The growth of social networking may also have a profound effect on how School 2.0 evolves over time. The Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators post cited a 2007 national survey in which it was found that about 55% of students ages 12-17 are active on social media. The key word in that statement to me is '2007'. That was nearly five years ago - social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter either didn't exist or had yet to become the behemoths that they are currently today. If a similar survey was taken today, I'd wager to guess that the percentage of social media users in that age group is significantly greater than 55%. That seems to indicate a significant opportunity for the growth of School 2.0. The challenge, of course, would be to harness this source of communication and control it in a way that is appropriate for the classroom. Definitely not an easy feat, but perhaps it'll be a key feature in our classrooms one day.