With a mad amount of collecting and collating Web2 technologies going on at the moment, I remembered the huge Go2Web20.net site that gathers together many (it says “all”) Web2.0 applications and sites.

With so may collaborative elements available, I feel we could easily flitter between new ideas, instead of sticking with a valuable resource and using it wisely with children, and so have an impact over a sustained period. I am guilty myself of wanting so much to show the latest “find” but do believe we need to look at the outcomes and creativity we can inspire FIRST.

I really value the comment made by Jeremiah Hackett, about keeping things in perspective. It is about learning and children rather than just a focus on the technology.

Go2Web20.net is a daunting website, Jim, and one that I’ve spent (literally) hours playing with. Every time I look into it, I constantly think this would be cool and this would work so well in my XXX unit. I have pulled much from it that has enriched both my classroom and my life.

That being said, I hope the first advice veteran teachers are giving to younger teachers is not which Web 2.0 tool to use, but rather a caveat in riding their chosen tools to the end of the year, as well as a clear curricular frame that the technology support. Such guidance would have guided me well my first year of teaching — a year that looked more like a Web 2.0 barf than as sound teaching, as I pulled my students through one web-tool after another, telling them that we were all learning in the process.

Kids like technology — sure. But more than that, they like consistency, transparency and relevance. The 2.0 possibilities so often come across as one-offs, and we oftentimes lose sight of our curriculum behind the sites we use.

That being said, as sound tools, I think the 2 best tools are the oldest: a Ning (which gives a blog to each student and a threaded forum) and a means of creating digital storytelling content. Embed the usage of each into the course from day one, hammer the multifoliate aspects of each from the first day, and I think you have enough fuel to feed an entire year. Save Go2Web20.net for mid-June, when you’re thinking about the year to come.