Web 2.0

According to Wikipedia "Web 2.0 describes the changing trends in the use of the World Wide Web technology and web design that aim to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0). Most of us use Web 2.0 applications daily and never give much thought to them. I know I didn't until I realized what Web 2.0 was. To sum it up, Web 2.0 is blogging, is social networking, is wikis, is photo and video sharing sites. It is web programs designed to give the user freedom to upload and share what they want without having to actually create a website. Instead of just using the web to get information, it allows users to be a part of the web.

Web 2.0 opened the door for many web users. I think the web 2.0 concept is what made the World Wide Web boom. I think the pros would be the freedom it allows users. Non tech-savvy people can socialize and interact with people globally with little effort. It has allowed the world to interact with each other with ease. I think another pro is what it has done for education. With Web 2.0 educators can easily access information and can expose students to the thoughts and opinions of others through the use of wikis and blogs. It would also encourage students to leave their own messages or thoughts on others websites and then see what their response is. I have also heard of teachers using Facebook for educational purposes however, I have not actually seen this. I'm curious how this would work.

One of the biggest cons I can think of with Web 2.0 is that it does make everything you do public. I work in a high school where Facebook and MySpace are all the students care about. I see so many fights because of what one person posts on their page. The other downside is that the pictures you post or the videos you upload again are all public. You have to be careful what you do or say so it doesn't get you in trouble. I know you can set your profiles to private, but like with anything, you can get around that. My students have shown me how you can get onto private profiles on MySpace without the owners permission. Another con of the web 2.0 is that you have to be careful about the information you find. Because anyone can edit information on these websites you have to be careful that the information you find is factual.

The biggest Web 2.0 applications I'm familiar with are MySpace and Facebook. I'm on Facebook daily. I also use Blogger (for this class and another class). I also use Yahoo for a lot. I use the calendar to keep track of what's going on. I also use Yahoo as my homepage to get quick access to weather, news, celebrity gossip and e-mail. Another application I use is Snapfish. Here I upload photos and can share them with my family and friends. Google is my favorite search engine. I know it is probably the oldest but I'm comfortable with google and like its information.

As far as using these applications in my classroom, I don't use many of them sadly. I use Wikipedia often to find information but I typically don't let my students use this site. When I use Wikipedia I also find other sites with the same information to verify that the information is correct. Students, however, typically find the first site they come across and trust that the information is correct. Because of this I typically require that the websites they use are .org, .gov, or .edu. These sites are not typically Web 2.0 sites so I trust the information is accurate. I had intended to use Blogger in my classroom to have students blog about current events. Unfortunately the school district I work for has blogging, and other social networking sites, blocked. I've started using the forum in OIS to have students collaborate but I'm not sure this is the same as true blogging. As I mentioned before I'm curious how teachers are using Facebook for classroom purposes. I think this would be great but problematic at the same time.

I have a friend in another district who uses blogging in her classroom. She posts topics related to her lessons and lets the students voice their opinions. This has allowed the students to have some say about what goes on in the classroom. For example, once she posted how they like to learn. Many of them replied they liked games. She now plays a lot of games with them to help reinforce the material and the students are loving it. I've seen other teachers use YouTube and TeacherTube also. It seems if students know that their work will be public they try harder and it gives them a sense of pride in what they've done. I attempted to have students create videos for TeacherTube. It was a disaster but I will try again.

Web 3.0? This is a little tricky. I've read several websites but don't really see what the difference between 2.0 and 3.0. Here is a video I found on YouTube about Web 3.0. After reading an internet article on Web 3.0 I'm beginning to think that with 3.0 anyone can do anything. In 2.0 users have the freedom to edit information based on the limitations the created has set. In 3.0 you can create applications and programs with no knowledge about how to actually create them. You computer can do it all for you. How? That I'm not so sure about. It seems very futuristic to me. Like robots taking over our world!