art ed + web 2.0 + [e]merging media blog

Just found this website called Teacher Tube and it's basically what it sounds like - an education and safe YouTube(ish) site. The problem is that most of the videos that I watched are not that great. I'm guessing that they were created by geezers like me. What would happen if they were created by the young whippersnappers who make the interesting content that is on YouTube?

How could a teacher incorporate video making into an art classroom? Are there alternatives that anyone can think of for meaningful artmaking related to video art? I think George Szkelley (not sure that's spelled correctly) has a book about art education and video art.

I guess my ultimate point is that when the technologies of Web 2.0 are taken from being "out" there and being a bit messy and chaotic and then they are brought into a safe space, do they stay as good? Is our fear of anythign unmoderated so great that we can convince ourselves that we should avoid anything that is not "teacher approved?"

Anyone else have thoughts about what happens when you take a social type of computer technology and restrict it to certain users with certain ideas?

Posted by at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

All my devoted readers will be glad to know that I am making progress on my article on classroom implementation ideas for Web 2.0 technologies. It's coming slowly, but I hope to have it out by June 15. Speaking of the passage of time, I just came across this article today on cnn.com that references the development of web 3.0. It's a bit stunning to me that these ideas of semantic searching are coming true so quickly. But, it's an exciting time to be working in this area because this technology may bring some significant changes.

I keep looking back though and thinking about how little movies, radio, TV, computers, and the Internet have affected public schooling. Can Web 2.0 or now 3.0 really be any different? If so, how can we make it be different.

Larry Cuban writes about technology and school reform. I think this is a fascinating overlap of research interests. Perhaps the problem with many educational technology movements is that they have not been tied to "real" school reform. If teachers who are using traditional means simply put their content online, they only have online worksheets. That's not a change in pedagogy, just a change of format. Though I firmly believe in the power of technology to improve schooling, it just won't happen until the structure and infrastructures of schools change.

Posted by at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)