Breaking Down the Walls

In the past students have been confined by the walls of the classroom. The teacher and the books within the classroom were the major sources of information. To study different parts of the world all students could do was read about them. Teachers today can take a virtual sledgehammer to the walls of the classroom. That virtual sledge hammer can take the form of email, chat and instant messaging. Students can talk to anyone in the world through the use of these Web 2.0 tools. For example, my students used skype to talk to a world renown reptile expert from the National Geographic Channel, Dr. Brady Barr while he was at his home in Indiana. My students were afforded an opportunity to ask questions about reptiles to a real expert in the field. It was something those students will remember forever. Without Web 2.0 tools such as skype and others like it, my students would have never been able to talk to Dr. Barr. They would have been stuck talking to me about reptiles.