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This wiki is created primarily for teachers who are unfamiliar with, yet are keen to expand their knowledge and understanding of, some Web 2.0 (pronounced web two point oh) technologies and tools and to learn about how they may be used in classrooms to enhance student learning and engagement and to improve their own teaching practices. Secondly, the wiki is intended to be updated and further developed with new tools that emerge in the Web 2.0 world. This wiki is targetted initially to the teachers at a Victorian (Australia) Years 4-12 College in informing them of a range of Web 2.0 technologies and tools in the hope that some will be inspired to integrate them into their classrooms. It is a continual work in progress with new tools and applications added.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =** WHAT IS WEB 2.0? The read/write web. **= Web 2.0 has revolutionised the way students and teachers engage in learning. The Web 2.0 suite of tools facilitate sharing, participation, communication and interaction. Dr. Ross Todd in his 2nd address, //School Libraries in the Digital Age,// at the The National Library and Information System Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (2008) described Web 2.0 as a platform that moves beyond the selection of information to generating content and ideas rather than consuming content, while seeking to facilitate community, community, collaboration and creativity between users. This read/write approach to the web allows students to engage in collaboration and constructivist learning in order to generate new knowledge and understandings. Most of these Web 2.0 technologies are **FREE**.



= Why is Web 2.0 important to our students' education? =



** Consequently, so should our TEACHING and LEARNING. **
Teaching and learning in the Web 2.0 world needs to change because of the vast access to ideas and technologies, can find, receive and store information in a way never before possible, and can create and share globally with relative ease. As educators we can choose to either engage our students in more interactive, collaborative-enriched environments or lose them to digital interests outside the classroom. If we as educators are not serious about how we educate in the 21st Century, we may continue to lose even more of the student academic, interest, enthusiasm and success.

Teaching 21st Century learners, or the digital natives, requires understanding and embracing how technology is part of their lives. Today's students are accustomed to using technologies, and need technology interactivity in their classrooms to assist their engagement and preparation for employment in the technology-driven world.

media type="custom" key="6012801" align="left" This Prezi was created by Ryan McCallum, a technology integration specialist, at Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose Schools. It captures the essence of why Web 2.0 technologies are of benefit to students and their learning.

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= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = **Why do we need to implement Web 2.0 into our teaching?** = That's easy to answer! Our Victorian and Australian curriculum documents mandate the use of ICT, including Web 2.0, be incorporated into our learning and teaching programes.

1. The Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) articulates an interdisciplinary approach to the learning and teaching of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), which incorporates Web 2.0. The [|Interdisciplinary ICT Domain (2008 revised)] emphasises that ICT (including Web 2.0) knowledge, concepts and skills are integral to student learning to increase students' abilities as an independent and expert learners.

2. The draft[| Australian National Curriculum (2010)] mandates specific ICT knowledge and skills (including Web 2.0) required for learning and teaching from P-10 in all learning areas. In summary, the draft curriculum requires students to develop skills for participating in new and emerging technologies, use digitised online learning objects, materials and databases, use Web 2.0 to facilitate collaboration among students, using Web 2.0 tools (e.g. wikis and blogs) to enhance students' critical thinking capabilities and for communicating and sharing ideas and understandings within and beyond the classroom (ACARA, 2010).

3. The Federal Government's [|Digital Education Revolution] (DER) (2008) requires that Web 2.0 technologies be embedded in the curriculum and in pedagogy so that students learn to create and exchange knowledge appropriately in the digital-enriched environment. The DER, which emphasies stimulating, student-centred and innovative teaching and learning, aims [I believe] to ensure that students use Web 2.0 technologies meaningfully, effectively and safely so that they work collaboratively to engage in higher-order thinking so as to explore more complex learning tasks and knowledge sharing.