The Read/Write Web is changing the world and we must now choose whether we to be participants in this change or merely bystanders being changed. I choose the later, as does many of the people I communicate with regularly. However, in our schools we are faced with many teachers who refuse or are too overwhelmed to become part of the Read/Write Web and instead shun it or even worse, dismiss it as a plaything, and not a serious learning tool. According to the survey in 2008 performed by the Pew Internet & American Life Project over 65 percent of adolescents had a MySpace or Facebook account, a number that I am willing to state has only increased since then and will continue to do so in the coming years. Students are reaching out and making connections on a global scale and we will look as antiques if we as teachers do not acknowledge these connections. Although Facebook and MySpace may be written off as temporary online playgrounds, they are much larger than that because otherwise why do the sites have such lasting power? Adolescents and children are a fickle audience and they will just as likely abandon your service if they are bored. Obviously with a number as high as 65 percent and growing, they are not abandoning but instead spreading the word to all of their friends. With every member added to a site like this the world becomes smaller. I can now see what my best friends in Denmark did yesterday, even if they have not emailed me or called directly. That is the power of social media. We create immediate connections and set up a whole new way of communicating where it is not just our words that show what we are doing but also pictures, links, videos and choice in applications. You feel as if you know someone based on his or her Facebook page and that is a tremendous power indeed. No longer is our communication locked in by phone or face-to-face, instead I can reach out to anyone at any time from practically anywhere, all brought on by the Internet.
The Read/Write Web had not just transformed teenagers but even children much younger than that. I often hear from my 9-year-old students that they can just email me from their email account. My daughter, who is 18 months, climbed up on a chair at the library today and immediately reached for the mouse of the computer knowing that this was her tool to make something happen on the box. In fact, according to NetDay, “the fastest-growing age group for using the Internet is 2 to 5 year olds.” And I believe it. My 5 year old niece begs to go to kid friendly website and she knows how to. These are not lessons that have been taught in school, in fact, at my school, true technology exploration does not begin until the 4th grade. By then, most students have been exposed to the Read/Write Web for more than 5 years. So in a sense we are trying to teach them things they probably already know through the power of their own exploration. We tend to discredit younger children and technology but as the quote from NetDay shows, those are the children we should be watching and helping make the right decisions when it comes to proper usage of the Internet. When we catch them by the time they are in 4th Grade, many poor habits can already have become so ingrained that they are hard to break simply because nothing has ever happened to them before. The Internet transforms lives every day, mine included, whether it is for the better or for worse. We hold the power as educators to guide our students into using the phenomenal tool to transform their lives into something better, more connected to the rest of the world, in truth to help them become global citizens. And we must start young; there is no excuse any longer.
