WEB 2.0 FOR TEACHERS: A PRACTICAL APPROACH

The core of this work is a learning experience developed through the latest months of 2008 with a group of 25 secondary school teachers. During the seminar the group was aimed to learn how to use the Web 2.0 resources in their daily teaching duties. It had been planned in advance to use the experience in order to evaluate the difficulties the use of Web 2.0 tools could cause in the middle-aged group of teachers. The idea behind this purpose was linked to the fact that older generations generally do experience trouble when facing the use of digital technologies.

The seminar was planned in three phases. First one: evaluating previous knowledge of the participants. Second one: teaching them how to use general Web 2.0 resources adapted to a daily teaching environment. Third one: evaluating the changes experienced and the ability of the teachers for integrate new skills. Once the course was over, the teachers were also asked to answer a questionnaire where they had to leave their opinion on the experience.

The conclusions of this practical approach were highly interesting. On the one hand the start idea of the whole experiment was confirmed: older generations, never trained in the use of digital technologies, will have to face a challenging situation in their teaching future. On the other hand, the investigation showed that the convergence between traditional teaching and the integrated use of digital resources is yet years ahead to come. In general terms, the investigation also brought up an interesting relationship between personal interests of the individuals taking part of the experiment and their academic work.

The conclusions of this practical approach may be useful to understand the future impact of communication technologies in teaching/learning environments.