In the last several years, Web 2.0 technologies have dramatically changed the way people use and interact with the Internet. Websites and web tools such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, and wikis have, almost overnight, become part of our common culture. Young people in particular have embraced these technologies wholeheartedly. The potential for the use of Web 2.0 technologies for instruction is just now being realized.
Web 2.0 was a term coined in 2004 by Tim O'Reily in a purely business context to refer to the explosive growth of interconnectivity and interactivity of web-delivered content. Web 2.0 has since become a shorthand term to describe technologies that not only allow, but depend on user interaction for the content of websites.
Because of the dependence on user developed content and interactivity, a better (in my opinion) and more descriptive term for Web 2.0 technologies is the read-write web. In the read-write web, the website visitor is no longer a passive consumer of information developed by some faceless webmaster, but is instead an active participant in the creation of a website's content.
There are thousands of websites and web technologies that can be classified as part of the read-write web, with new technologies appearing frequently. However, there are six categories of web technologies that tend to comprise the bulk of the read-write web. In no particular order, these are:
- Social Networks - Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace allow users to create a space on the web, determine the site’s appearance and functionality, and create the site's content. Users join communities of people with similar interests, called networks. Most social networks include features such as photos or videos, lists of network members and events, groups within the network, and communication tools such as forums or blogs.
- Blogs - A blog (short for "web log") is an online, chronological collection of personal commentary, images, and links. Most blogs have the capability for readers to add their own comments to the blogger's text. Blogs are a form of Internet publishing that have become established communications tools and have come to be viewed as valid alternatives to mainstream media publications.
- Social Bookmarking - Social bookmarking is the practice of saving bookmarks (the address of a Web site you wish to visit in the future) to a public website and then “tagging” them with keywords. Visitors to social bookmarking sites can search for resources by keyword, person, or popularity and see the public bookmarks, tags, and classification schemes that registered users have created and saved.
- Media Sharing - Video sharing sites such as YouTube and TeacherTube and photo sharing sites such as Flickr let users upload media files and make them available online. Generally these sites allow users to post and tag media, view media, post comments in a threaded discussion format, search for content by keyword or category, and create and participate in topical groups.
- Content Syndication - RSS ("real simple syndication") is a protocol that lets users subscribe to online content from multiple websites using an RSS “reader” or “aggregator,” which checks the subscribed Web pages and automatically downloads any new content. Without having to go to all of the individual Web sites, users can quickly and easily access new material from sites that interest them. An excellent mechanism for distributing regularly updated content, RSS is a natural complement to blogs, news sites, photo-sharing applications, and podcasts. The popularity of podcasting results on some level from RSS technology. When new podcasts are available, the aggregator (or, in this case, podcatcher) automatically downloads the new file to your computer or portable music player.
- Wikis - A wiki is a Web page that can be viewed and modified by anybody with a Web browser and access to the Internet. While the potential for distructive actions exists, wikis can be surprisingly robust, open-ended, collaborative group work sites. The most prominent of the wikis is the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Because of the nature of the read-write web, new technologies are regularly appearing and may, at any time, explode as users decide that the new technology is the "next big thing". For example, a fairly new category that is generating a lot of interest and and a lot of growth is the area of "micro-blogging", exemplified by Twitter. Limiting users to 140 characters per post, Twitter users tend to use "smart" phones to post and read posts throughout the day.
There is a great deal of interest in the use of the read-write web in instruction. It is this interest that Fox Run Technologies wants to support. Contact us today to see how we can help.
