This fantastic video (which I found via Dr. Scott McLeod) completely captures and summarizes my philosophy about 21st century education and teaching with 21st century technology. My favorite quote from the video in regards to education with 21st century technology is “death of education but it’s the dawn of learning.”

One thing that every teacher and, more importantly, administrator should take away from this video is that the current web 2.0 space is a space where students can collect data, collaborate, verify and challenge information. The Internet makes available to today’s students far more information than was available ten years ago. Yes, students can find misinformation, but they more options to challenge or verify the information they find than students have ever had before in our history. As educators we have to take advantage of the exciting new tools tat are at our disposal, if we don’t we’re putting our students at a disadvantage in the global market.

Students connecting, creating, collaborating, and challenging is what teaching with web 2.0 tools is all about. Schools need to stop preventing students from taking advantage of the 21st century tools that students need to know how to use productively. How schools don’t allow students to carry cell phones, yet have no idea how educationally valuable cell phones could be if used properly? In my school, students aren’t allowed to use cell phones during the day, but the cell phones many students own have more capabilities than the eight-year-old laptops they’re issued.