Journal 2

Breathing Fire into Web 2.0
By Justin Hardman and David Carpenter.

This article discusses how schools are not keeping up with today’s tech-savvy students and it highlights the steps or changes that need to be taken so that schools can become fully engaged with the Web 2.0 world. The Hong Kong International School (HKIS) has created a virtual learning community called myDragonNet. Its success is explored in this article. David Hardman was hired to enhance and fully develop this tool. He designed it to reflect the ways teachers and students actually work. MyDragonNet allows teachers, students, parents, and administrators to collaborate and communicate, manage classroom curriculum, and create electronic portfolios. All of this combined creates a more productive educational community.

Questions:

What are the benefits?

I feel that this type of multi-faceted virtual learning community promotes a more inclusive learning environment. It allows teachers, students, and parents access to each other on a more regular basis. A concern that I hear all the time among educators is how can we get more involvement from the parents. I feel like this may be the answer to that question. People live busy lives and do not always have the time to sit down for a one-on-one meeting, a tool like myDragonNet allows more options and it is not as time restrictive.

What are some potential downfalls?

MyDragonNet seems like an awesome idea on paper, but how realistic is it in terms of implementing this type of tool in schools throughout an entire district. What would be the cost? In the article it only discusses it being used in a single school and the cost to maintain it is not mentioned at all, so I guess that is what I am curious about and in the long run I think the money needed to launch a system like this would be its greatest downfall.