Have you ever heard of Web 2.0? I’m learning all about it in my class – Emergent Technologies in Collaborative Culture. So back to Web 2.0, after reading a section in a book Web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools (2007, Solomon/Schrum) I have learned the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Let me break it down a bit based on my readings. 

Web 1.0                                     
Application based                   
Isolated                                  
Offline                                    
Licensed or purchased       
Single creator                       
Proprietary code                  
Copyrighted content           

Web 2.0
Web based
Collaborative
Online
Free
Multiple Collaborators
Open source
Shared content 

One of the biggest challenges the education system is faced with, is the opportunity to reach youth with
Web 2.0 tools in the most effective way.  I feel it is important to study your audience in order to reach them on their level so that the information “sticks”. But how do we do this while combining Web 2.0 tools? How do we make learning fun to the point that it doesn’t seem like actually doing “work”? 

It takes a forward thinking teacher, ready to take risks in order to gain effective results. We can’t be afraid to fail when it comes to introducing new media and tools to “keep up” with our education system. We have to take charge and lead the way for the leaders of tomorrow.

So lets break down Web 2.0 a bit more. According to Wikipedia, ”Web 2.0” refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that aims to facilitate communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites,wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.”

If you’re still confused like I was, an example of a social networking site is Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc.
These Web 2.0 tools are used worldwide as a collaborative communication system. This is one of the reasons why Web 2.0 is taking over…now we just have to keep up with the ever-changing Web!

References
Gwen Solomon, Lynne Schrum. (2007). Web 2.0 New tools, New schools. Oregon: International Society for Technology in Education.

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (2009). Retrieved on April 5, 2009,
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

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