Week 1 - Blog Posting #1 - Web 2.0

When you consider the use of web 2.0 technology in the classroom, you will have a lot of challenges. You will face the challenge of not enough technology, not enough access, not enough support, not enough time, and so on. But for me the best part of web 2.0 technology is that these problem can be solved by the world, not just by you. Many times I hear form teacher that they don't have time so they need to pick their battle and these problems are just too big for them to solve. I would say to those teachers, "you are right, these problem are to big for you to solve by your self", that is why you should not try. If you embrace this new web 2.0 tools you can access a whole world of collaboration to help you solve these problems. Today I learned about a web 2.0 tool that will solve a problem that I have had in using music in my classroom. The problem is that the music available out there is not useful for my content area. I teach chemistry, and I would love to use music to help students learn and memorize the very challenging chemistry content. I would love the have songs like the one I grew up with like, "I'm just a bill" and "conjunction junction".

Schoolhouse Rock- How a Bill becomes a law. Posted on youtube October 03, 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ

Those songs have stuck with me throughout my life and if we can come up with songs that help students learn then I feel that administrator will welcome the use to music in the classroom. The problem is finding these songs. Well today I found a web 2.0 tool that allows you to collaborate with musicians throughout the world to create these content base learning songs. The web 2.0 tool is called http://www.bojam.com/ check out this video for more information

Bojam - launched at TechCrunch50 conference in September 2008 posted on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ZoyDl3w64

So using bojam, I could access the world of musicians to help me create these educational songs. I think musicians would love to be a part of something that could change the way chemistry is taught.