The most significant change in the use of media in schools was not the read/write web. This idea was the foundation trope of the push to get more technology into the classroom, and to weed out teachers who didn’t agree with the associated groupthink. There is little evidence to suggest media went from read-only to read-write or that ‘collaborative’ is a better way to learn or pass exams. The literacy rates speak for themselves and backed up by statistics on youth unemployment and under-employment and the consumer society.
The message was profound. If you want to be able to choose what you like and what you don’t like, then you need to be media-savvy and active in media-cultures to ensure that the ‘good guys’ succeed, thus improving all of childhood (not just schooling).
No child or teacher is ever alone online these days. The read/write web was a dream, or perhaps a clever marketing message. Today as you click a link, read a page or make any choice online, you are immediately accompanied by dozens of companies who profit from sharing the ‘history of the now’ with unseen others for purposes unknown.
Of course the irony is that some believe that “humanistic marketing” is actually a brand engaging in mass-civic-good and that kids need to learn better with these (not those) technologies (signs, symbols, tools, values) as soon as they walk into school.
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