Reading Reflection #3

 Principals for Web 2.0 Success

            Daniel Light wrote about the 10 ways to build vibrant learning communities with the Reading and Writing web in his article, “Principals for Web 2.0 Success”. Light explains how Intel funded studies conducted by the Center for Children & Technology to discover how to best help educators to integrate technology into their classrooms, while other investigations have looked into how social-networking and web 2.0 tools are supporting learning and teaching. Several discoveries were made in these studies, including ways that principals and tech leaders can help ensure a smoother and easier learning curve for educators and students. The article then highlights the top 10 ways in which principals can assist this technology learning curve in classrooms. Here are the tops ten tools that are highlighted in the article, Invest in a virtual learning environment, talk up web 2.0 ease of use, use web 2.0 tools for professional development, use social media to show support, share success stories, allow teachers to customize their tools, share productivity tools, continuously update tools, communicate openly, and lastly create defined virtual communities.

            Although this article was directed towards principals and other administrators, I found it to be very insightful. Although I may not be a principal anytime soon, I think it is always important to be mindful of strategies and methods to make our educational environments successful. Keeping teachers up to date, and current with technology is as big of a task, if not bigger, than keeping students up to date. We need to make sure that as educators, we are using tools correctly and efficiently. This article showed the importance of getting tech support from our superiors, as well as the importance of creating open communities for teachers to learn and collaborate about useful technology.
          The success of Web 2.0 correlates with the ISTE NETS standard 2 a&b. a) Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments
and media; & b) communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. Web 2.0 tools encompass the collection of online media and formats that can be utilized by students, which is why it is so important that our teachers are able to use these tools effectively.

Light, D. (2012). Principals for Web 2.0 Success. Learning & Leading with Technology, 39(8). 18-19. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20120607#pg20