Journal 2

Article: “Breathing Fire into Web 2.0” by Justin Hardman and David Carpenter. From Learning and Leading with Technology (Feb 2007) on iste.org.


The article notes the disparity between the promise of technology and the reality that we have in our schools today. Private business has taken much more advantage of the new infrastructure then schools have, and many of the students and faculty are already using Web 2.0 tools at home for social networking.

The author says some teachers are using wikis, forums, and blogs, which are aspects of Web2.0, and administrators are beginning to integrate classroom management and curriculum mapping software. Beyond that, schools should participate in an online communication and collaboration system that incorporates all these Web 2.0 features.

The article goes on to describe how the Hong Kong International School is implementing its own Web 2.0 tool called MyDrangonNet. MyDragonNet seems to do all of the same things that WebCT does for CSUSM. I would like to read an article like this about WebCT so I could compare it to MyDragonNet. There is some information about WebCT on www.blackboard.com . They have an academic suite and a commerce suite. Their online learning application, called Blackboard Learning System, is the most widely used course management system among U.S. postsecondary institutions, they claim.

As the article describes MyDragonNet, it has been designed with a very large vision and does more then basic course management. The tool has three major components. It has lots of database capabilities to organize all the information in efficient ways such as to map curriculum to standards for any grade and you can search through all the varied media and data types in various useful ways. Also, teachers, staff, parents, and students are all in close communication through its messaging component. And there is an electronic portfolio management component that showcases all the projects teachers and students have completed and would like to share. The author refers to this highly evolved system as a “multifaceted virtual community experience”. That sounds pretty cool!

Question 1: How would I use a tool like My DragoneNet in my high school class?

These are awesome capabilities! I could use it to communicate with parents and students. That would be the best benefit. Even with all the sexy applications and the new high bandwidth applications, email and the person to person communications implied is the most important aspect of it. This system has that as a primary goal. A teacher should be accessible to the students and the parents. That’s really all that needs to be said.

Question 2: What about the curriculum to standards mapping features?

Well, OK, those are really cool too. Why should each teacher “recreate the wheel from scratch”? Engineers don’t do it in private business. We should be able to incorporate elements from other teacher’s lesson plans as long as we understand them and it makes sense. The value that the teacher adds is to know his or her students well and then to know the content well enough to choose widely among all the possible technology enhancements. These features only give you a multiplier on the skills you already possess.