Gradually over the past 5 years the web and web published has changed dramatically.  It used to be that you had to be a super techie to publish anything on the web… now a days anyone can publish… anything… anywhere.  With tools like blogs, wiki’s, podcasts, video/photo sharing sites, social networks, and hundreds of software sites, anyone can write on the web now.

I envision a classroom that has many assignments online that leverage the power of the internet and the tools mentioned above.  Compared to a traditional classroom with several papers and students passively listening to a teacher talk, I have created a list of four benefits to publishing content online.  I will incorporate some of the paradigms from Steve Hargadon’s “Web 2.0 is the future of Education” into my list.

1. Motivation - When students publish on the web they are publishing to a global audience.  Typically they will spend more time pondering and thinking about what they are going to say.  The work they do then becomes part of them.  They go from passive learning to passionate learning.  They have to think deeply about what they believe and that brings the gospel deeper into their hearts.

2. Potential Projects - When technology and the web come into view the potential for projects becomes much larger.  Students are not limited to a paper, but can interpret the assigment in what ever medium best suits them.  That may be writing (my best medium), or it may be music, video, some sort of social experiment, or something totally different.  It opens the doors of creativity and also allows students to express themselves how they best learn.

3. Feedback and Participation - Traditional writing only has one, or at most a few people that will read the work, so the feedback is limited to that small circle.  In most cases those people also think and act like those writing so their feedback will not vary.  With a global audience the feedback is much more diverse.  Students will also have the opportunity to defend their work.  The work they do not only is a presentation, but it become participative as they continue to talk about it, and defend it in some cases.

4. Engagement - Most of all projects that use the technology that students are familiar with engages them.  They don’t check out, or turn their minds off when they come to class… they are excited and will often spend hours and hours outside of school working ont these projects because they are what is exciting to them.  The more time they spend working on these projects and thinking about them, again… the deeper it get’s into their souls and helps them determine who they are and what they believe!

Examples

Over the past year I have seen several good examples of teachers who are already giving their students assignments like this.  In 2002, Seth Adam Smith created a YouTube video about the prophet Joseph Smith for a Church History Project at the BYU Summer Navoo Program.  Since then he has made over 90 other video’s and continues today.  Here is one of his more recent one’s.

Another video I found that I really like is this “BackPack and Brick’s” video about repentance. I honestly don’t know the background to this one, but I have emailed the user to find out. :) I suspect it was an assigment… if not, it would have been a great one.

I also came across this funny video that was the winner of an Institute Academy Awards activity that was certainly thought up by the digital natives that are so comfortable and excited by this type of technology.

Although these examples only have to do with video, students can also blog, compose, write software, or a myriad of other things that they know about, but I’m not familiar with. They are, after all, the experts in this field. Let them do their work and see what they can come up with! :)