Since I began teaching 13 years ago much has changed in the way of technology.  I remember the days of overhead projectors and dittos!  As I read the works of John Seely Brown about learning and Web 2.0 there are many things that intrigued me.

First, the phrase “learning to be” was eyeopening.  Traditional teaching has been the teacher presenting the subject matter to students for them to learn about; now there has been a shift in classrooms with the focus on social collaborative learning where students are fully participating in the learning and applying it to a field of study.  Traditionally when you walked into a classroom you knew that the students were learning because they were all sitting in their seats quietly. Today, that is no longer the case. The roles of teacher and student have shifted dramatically with the use of Web 2.0.  Teachers take on the role of facilitator and instead of rescuing a student from struggling with a problem the teacher will offer cues to help the student work through error analysis, or this could include the student reaching out to mentors or experts outside of the school with the use of technology.  This way the student is persisting as a problem solver and his/her work now has deeper meaning to it.  Students are given authentic problems or challenges that target real world skills. In classrooms where personal and social learning is taking place, the students and teachers work together.  This may include identifying goals, developing an approach to inquiry, and how information will be shared with an authentic audience.  Having an online learning environment where students can access lessons taught is another feature of social learning in a traditional classroom setting.  For example, in my second grade classroom students are given assignments on Google Classroom.  Within the assignment links to videos or websites and even outlines of the lesson are included.  Students may share their work with a partner or small group to collaborate together.  As students turn work in they are given virtual feedback in the Google Doc comment feature.  A huge benefit for me this year was when a student was out of school for a few weeks after having surgery, he was still able to access lessons and to work with his classmates from the comfort of his home.  The use of technology makes all of these things possible.

Brown  compares the Web to electrification in the early United States stating that “electrification changed nearly every aspect of how we lived.” So to he states, we can say about the Web.  If I think of how much technology has changed and how I use it each day, I agree with his comparison.  Additionally, he continues with the assessment that the Web is the first “medium that could truly honor multiple forms of intelligence-abstract, textual, visual, musical, social, and kinesthetic.”  As an educator this is a pretty powerful medium.  In my classroom my students can research a topic of interest, Skype or Google Hangout with experts in their topic, collaborate with peers in their class or even in another school.  Additionally, they are building digital portfolios and seeking out authentic audiences to share their work as well as receive feedback from to help them improve.

This type of social learning using Web 2.0 is exciting to me as a teacher and lends itself well to teaching students growth mindset.  In a classroom that is designed around a growth mindset, the students are more apt to persist, take risks, and to be accepting of feedback.  It is a place where mistakes are made but that is okay because students are taught that the effort they put into their work is what matters the most.  When teachers are committed to designing a classroom where social learning is supported through Web 2.0 then they are bravely beginning a new narrative for their students educational story.  Teachers need to be ready to not know the answer to the question that the students are asking, helping them to find the resources or people who do know the answers.  Using technology and Web 2.0 to connect students to the community and build a network of experts that they can count on and refer to when needed.  Learning environments that support social learning have technology available all the time, are collaborative and teach students to listen to and learn from each other.