Jeff's e-portfolio

I loved this presentation- so many great ideas. As ever, I can only apply the experience to being an educator, not a librarian. And I am comfronted with the question as to whether I am doing enough to encourage my students to be creators rather than just passive consumers of knowledge.  As mentioned in a previous post, there are a couple of reasons both practical (not all students have equal access to technology) and administrative (classroom rules banning technology)- not to mention the burgeoning linguistic skills of students- that make exploiting Web 2.0 platforms a bit problematic. But it seems to me that Web 2.0, or Classroom 2.0 is really just another way to facilitate something that from one school of educational philosophy has always been a goal: the preparation for our students for active citizenship. I am thinking here primarily of Paul Friere who saw in education an opportunity to empower marginalized groups by engaging them in participatory development. I’m not sure if I would describe my international students as marginalized, and teachers don’t necessarily need to engage students on Twitter to empower them (although that can be part of it). Today I had students respond to a blog that deals with netiquette issues. They were very keen to do this, and my take-away was that students want to participate; sometimes they just need to be given the chance.