Sorry as a librarian and former teacher, Web 2.0 (meaning interactive, immersive) tools are going to change the way we think, communicate, and learn. The whole human society, especially in the Western world.
Most schools are still word and print-based or auditory-sequential learning. Meaning the main transmission of knowledge is through words with the focusing on reading, writing, and doing math. If you're going to be a lawyer, politician, English professor, you will benefit tremendously from a classical (word-based) education where logic, reason, reading, writing, grammar, Latin, etc. are emphasized.
If you think in words, you've got a natural advantage with a word-based curriculum and learning. It's easy for you to remember addresses or directions by words (i.e. Take Essex Street to Broad Street) rather than by landmarks or what you see.
I've got news for you - not everyone thinks in words! It also doesn't necessarily foster creativity for those of us who do not think in words.
Some of us visual people think in images and learn more effectively and efficiently when information is presented this way. This means playing free online interactive, immersive math games or watching a educational video where someone uses color is better than a teacher lecturing us on multiplication or writing problems in b/w on the blackboard or whiteboard.
Some of people are visual-kinesthetic learners and can process information better when they play with their hands or create for themselves. These are the kids who learn more from taking apart machines than studying them from a book.
Don't believe things are going to change BIG time. Google web 2.0 tools for students or teacher or look at sites like
www.livebinders.com. Having a laptop or iPad is the very, tiniest tip of the iceberg.
Jane Goodall completely changed the way we think of ourselves as humans, as well as chimps, - by observing them (using her own eyes!) and not by having a science degree. Thank color photography and National Geographic magazine and TV shows in the 70s for bringing Goodall's work to the masses.
Today it's digital technology and the open source movement that is helping to revolutionize society. We are moving from an analog to digital world.
