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Web 2.0: What it is, How we got here, What's next.
by Dallas McPheeters <[email protected]>
Purpose
Educators are being increasingly funneled online in their normal course of
teaching. However the online world is vastly different than that to whichteachers have been accustomed; the face-to-face classroom. For one thing,
the Internet[worked] world is devoid of the traditional space-time
boundaries understood by instructional designers and taken for granted by
both instructors and learners alike. Educational institutions have been trying
to bridge this barrier-free chasm for the nearly five decades the Internet has
been with us. However mindsets are tougher to change than machines. Old
think prevails over tech innovation. Hence, this chapter is written to explain
some of these differences between the original Web and where we are
today. What is the nature of the Web 2.0 platform? How should instructional
design be addressed for the new social web phenomenon? What’s a teacherto do in order to adapt, adopt, and integrate cutting edge tools in the
education process?
Keywords
web2.0, socialweb, read write web, web1.0, internet, technology, education,
teaching, classroom integration, curriculum design, distance education,
distributed learning, personal learning communities, web3.0
Overview
Web 2.0 is a popularized buzzword
repeatedly heard across all
domains. Yet if you ask people
what it means, you will get as
many opinions as there are blogs
in the blogosphere. The purpose of
this chapter is to give the reader a
brief overview and clear picture of
what Web 2.0 is, how it came tobe, and what we can expect as
new technologies emerge in the
future.
A big concern – perhaps even a
fear – among many teachers is the
shocking speed at which computer
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innovations appear on the scene today. The understandable reason for
stress is the inevitable conclusion that we just can't keep up; that the
changes will continue to occur faster and broader until we are deluged by a
tidal wave of computerization we cannot understand.
This chapter should dispel such fears altogether. Humans are not in a raceagainst technology. Rather, we are on a collision course. Therefore we need
not worry about the increasing rate of change, beating us to the finish line.
Instead, the changes will introduce a cyber-rich world in which it becomes
easier to adopt and simpler to adapt. Computer-based interactions will
become increasingly spontaneous and their interfaces will become more
intuitive and user-friendly. The flattening world ahead is reducing the
traditionally steep learning curve associated with techno-change.
What is Web 2.0 anyway?
Web 2.0 is an unofficial and broadly used buzzword that has come into
vogue when describing the interactive web. It would help to step back to
Web 1.0 (also an unofficial buzzword) and recall what the Web was for us in
its beginning.
How we got here: Web 1.0
Web 1.0 was a static universe of electronic documents. It has been called
the read-only Web. For a brief visual history of the internet, visit here.Suffice it to say that Web 1.0 was a great innovation in its day, much like
the first automobile. And just as times have changed with regard to
transportation today compared to the Model T Ford, so also has Web 1.0
evolved into a more robust vehicle for communication than what was first
envisioned.
Just consider your own experience with the 20th century Web. You basically
accomplished three things using the Internet. You used a Web browser to
surf hyperlinked text. You bookmarked and stored Web address URLs
(Uniform Resource Locater). And you most likely engaged in organizingfolders for the ever-increasing email client.
Your experience was very much computer based and individual. The way we
shared our Web treasures with others was typically by email and
compatibility of personal computing platforms and software versions was
always an issue. Our Web world consisted of surfing, bookmarking, and
organizing. However the data pools kept filling and managing all that
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information continued to pressure new developments. How could we search,
sort, organize, archive, retrieve, and share the influx of our virally expanding
knowledge-base? Even more, how could we collaborate more efficiently and
effectively beyond the over-burdened email platform of sending-revising-
resending-etc, etc.
Web 2.0: What it is
But with the advent of increased bandwidth, more powerful microprocessors,
and innovative communication software platforms, Web 2.0 was born. No
longer a repository of static documents to download, the new read-write web
allowed us to comment, post, blog, podcast, and collaborate. Compatibility
was no longer based on computing platform or software version because the
user-generated content resided on the Web itself.
Web browsers became more versatile, allowing for tabbed browsing, themedviewing and plugin interaction. Storing bookmarks became a web-based and
shareable commodity (and part of the measurable data in the Cloud). Email
became Cloud-based and thereby more easily archivable and searchable.
And best of all, these new Web-based services made junk-mail manageable.
But this is not the end of the new Web 2.0 multi-dimensional possibilities.
Sharing, following, commenting, blogging, podcasting, recommending,
ranking, tweeting, and re-tweeting have opened up new channels of
cooperation and collaboration. These Web 2.0 tools have created entirely
new communities because the space-time barriers of old have been foreverbreached.
Web 2.0 has produced a social web phenomenon that was not anticipated.
Did we imagine a Facebook of 350 million users? If we had, it would have
been created by a corporate giant rather than some college dude who just
wanted to improve the Web experience for himself and his friends. And more
such startups are even easier to achieve because of the Web 2.0 tools
available for open source collaboration.
It’s a brave new world out there. The control has been taken away from thecorporate, and the individual has been empowered to create. This is the
effect Web 2.0 tools have had so far. Imagine how they could empower
teachers and students! For a simple tech integration lesson plan, click here.
Web 2.0: What it Does
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Web 2.0 has introduced an entirely new, turbo-charged arsenal of tools for
web-based interaction. These are the new power-tools of the 21st Century.
They are as different from Web 1.0 browsers and email clients as pneumatic
hammers are to the traditional hand-held models.
When tools change radically, practices follow suit. New practices producenew models. These new models provide new platforms for human
interaction. Just as the change from an Agrarian society to an Industrial
society produced a revolution; and just as the change from Industrial to
Technological has accomplished the same; in the same way, Web 2.0 has
radically changed our practices and models of interaction and created an
entirely new p[f]latform on which the globe spins.
And while business struggles to adapt to the new paradigm, education is
poised to adapt much more easily. Teachers are by nature – or at least,
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should be – change agents. For an excellent article and argument on this
topic, read here.
Web 2.0 Offers Constructivist and Connectivist-based Learning
There’s good news for teachers. Web 2.0 offers the same type of learningplatforms already pursued in the classrooms of today. Group interactives,
informal idea-exchange, and project collaboration are already embedded in
the Web 2.0 platform. It’s a user controlled platform for user-generated and
user-created content. Web 2.0 is designed for and around groups and
communities. It’s the social platform for sharing and it’s perfectly suited to
all forms of presentation.
If we think of Web 2.0 as a collection of tools, we may suffer cognitive
overload simply due to the vast array of tools offered. Visit http://
www.go2web20.net for a panoramic (and mind-boggling) vista of what’savailable. I prefer to look at Web 2.0 as a platform that developed as a
result of a grass-roots attitude. It’s the perfect platform for educators who
themselves, share resources horizontally rather than via some corporate,
hierarchical, top-down approach.
When teachers connect using Web 2.0 tools, they are not so much
empowered by the tool, as they are the platform that empowers their
natural propensity for sharing and creativity. Teachers make great
collaborators which is why Web 2.0 offers what Web 1.0 couldn’t; a
playground for interaction and learning.
Students today are growing up in barrier-reduced world with multiple
channels of input and output as the norm. Web 2.0 is a playground that
reflects their world best. Read the research about this change here. My
recommendation to teachers is, get involved, explore, connect,
communicate, create and share online. Discover the power of a connected
intellectual community. For a brief presentation on best practices for
applying technology resources to empower diverse learners, click here.
Web 3.0: What’s Next
The buzzwords for the next big ideas are: Cloud computing, Real-time Web,
the Internet of things, and the Semantic Web. It’s important to understand
what these terms mean in order to anticipate the inevitable changes coming
our way.
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Cloud computing is the evolved outcome of computer-based computing.
Crazy, huh? The term Cloud simply means the data is stored in cyberspace
rather than on your personal hard-drive. There are risks, yes, but many
benefits as well.
The risk is that hackers might steal sensitive data. But hey, there was a riskthat your own hard-drive would get hacked or catch a virus and you would
lose all that data anyway. And storing sensitive data in cyberspace allows for
some pretty sophisticated malware protection that you and I couldn’t afford
individually.
The benefits of having data accessible in the cloud is that it becomes
available for collection and analysis 24/7. Open source communities can
create little applications designed to interact with the data in the Cloud and
mash it up for creative outputs (think of the 85,000 iPhone Apps).
Real-time web is changing the way we view data. In the past, data was
gathered, stored, retrieved, analyzed, and with the results, we extrapolated
meaning for the present. However, real-time Web apps enable us to crowd-
source information right now. When you listen to a song online, who else
likes that song? How many are listening right now? How many are in your
zip code? How about viewing a map showing where they are and linking to
their online profile? Sound futuristic? It’s already here. In fact, there are
over 300 real-time web startups working on innovative apps as I right this
chapter.
Google just released real-time search. Try it here. Notice the results are
feeding into the search window as they update. I just searched “mlearning”
which is an abbreviated form of mobile learning (the next big development).
I can see the results populate and update dynamically. It’s real-time. I’m
connected to real time data feeds! It’s like having a stethoscope for crowd-
sourced trends.
Another trend becoming reality is the Internet of things. Think of the smart
appliance. The refrigerator that has microchips sensing what food you have
and how much so when you are at the store, it updates your smart phonewith the items you need. These types of smart appliance applications are
well underway. In fact, HP has an ambitious plan to “chip” the whole earth
for a global sensor network. They call it CENSE which stands for Central
Nervous System for the Earth. You can read about it here.
Finally, semantic web is a necessary evolution that requires rethinking how
computer languages see objects. Right now, computer languages require a
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programmer to direct the computer toward objects it must observe,
calculate, store, retrieve, analyze, etc. And even so, the computer doesn’t
see objects as we do. Computers see pixels, bits, 1’s and 0’s. But what if a
computer language could recognize objects as the human brain does? A
tree, a house, a car, a baseball? The power of computing and the ease of
reporting would be magnified exponentially. The learning curve for becominga computer programmer would essentially be flattened. For more details on
the ramifications of a flatter earth as it concerns educational technology,
review this presentation.
Conclusion
In summary, we could say it this way: Web 1.0 was about accessing
information. Web 2.0 is about interactive communication. Web 3.0 (another
ambiguously speculative term) will be about real-time, virtually augmented
connection in a semantically smart metaverse of inter-networked things. Inshort, Web 1.0 was like taking a beautiful park setting and turning it into a
museum for preservation and admiration. Web 2.0 was taking that same
park and turning it into a playground (think 'virtual reality'). Web 3.0 will be
the ability of individuals to customize on the fly, the same playground with
equipment they enjoy. In fact, the playground (sensing we have arrived)
may just customize itself automatically according to our personal taste
profile gleaned from the cloud of data gathered and analyzed from all our
previous activity.
The best recommendation for teachers is to form or join a community of learners who can share resources, discoveries, ideas, and new learning, in
order to impact stakeholders as well as stay current with emerging trends.
For a handy road-map to professional development in digital literacy, click
here.
Resources
Readings referenced in this chapter may be located online here: http://
delicious.com/dallasm12/bookchapter
The images used herein are screenshots of copyrighted television programs,station IDs, and/or publication covers. As such, the copyright for them is
most likely owned by the company or corporation that produced them.
It is believed that the use of a limited number of web-resolution screenshots
for identification and critical commentary, hosted on servers in the Unites
states for non-profit, presentation purposes, qualifies as fair use under
United State copyright law.
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