Web+2.0

Personally I love Web 2.0. Having the ability to not only work from just your desktop, or your own network but over the internet over a write and read format is a powerful tool, not just for educators, but for people everywhere. As I have used some of these technologies in the past I think it is an essential resource for teaching. Websites like google docs makes sure that you can transfer your documents seamlessly to the internet and therefore to any other computer that you may need them on. This has made my life as a student that much better as I can save a presentation that I need for a class on google docs and then pull in up on a school computer to present. This ‘larger’ internet I believe is only going to get bigger as we will be able to transfer more and more information from our own computers to the internet which has now become the human network. Sites like Wikipedia have really lead the way in the area of read/write format of the web. Basically Wikipedia through its innovation of letting people edit and add to any Encyclopedia article on their site has put Microsoft Encarta’s Encyclopedia in the Stone Age and has bankrupt many of encyclopedia companies. Originally companies like Microsoft said that an idea like Wikipedia would not work. Who in their right mind would right information about something just based on that passion for it? Eleven years later Wikipedia is thriving and is available in 282 languages and is easily the most accessible encyclopedia in the world. What makes Wikipedia so appealing? Well, I think in large part the ability to update information so quickly. This is a Web 2.0 trademark, as just as soon as something in the world changes it is updated to the encyclopedia. This is evidenced by this last weekend Whitney Houston’s death, not even 5 minutes after the story broke of her death a date of death was already posted to Wikipedia and information pertaining to the details of her death were quick to follow. This would have taken an old encyclopedia at least a year for the ‘new’ version to print and to be honest the world changes to quickly nowadays to have to wait a year. Sites like Facebook and Photobucket have now made the ability to share photos online instant. Wanna know how my Super Bowl party went? Just click on my profile. Wanna see my brother’s new baby, also just a click away. All of these mediums have now enabled us to share not only words, but pictures at lightning speeds. ‘Slide’ can also be used along with many different options to present Powerpoint presentations. So as I’ve talked about these 5 mediums can not only be used for personal life, but for teaching uses. I will outline how in the following paragraph. Googledocs obviously can be used to enable any student, or even myself as a teacher to easily save a Word, Powerpoint, Excel or Access document and then share it with my students on any computer (theirs included) to teach with. Also this allows doc to doc sharing for students to discuss work even if they aren’t on the same network.

With Wikipedia students can look at what some of the most passionate experts of something have to write about any given subject. Although there is problems with potentially having such a free form encyclopedia (such as not complete information) it is still a good resource and while most professors say they don’t like have college students use this medium it is usually cited material that can be helpful in most research. Obviously Facebook and Photobucket might not be the most ‘classroom friendly’ mediums, but you can still show students pictures over this medium, need to see photos of the indy mountain range, you can easily show them photos on this type of format. Lastly, ‘Slide’ is once again helpful with powerpoint presentations, but now taking it to a new level by having the ability to access more and different kind of effects. The web is ever growing and the huge steps that have been made with 2.0 only leaves the door that much more wide open for what is to come with 3.0… and I can only imagine the opportunities our students will have with that kind of web!