After hearing the term Web 2.0 for a little while now, I hadn’t actually understood what the concept enmbodied. Bryan Alexander’s article “Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning” did a great job defining the term as no one single new development but rather the culmination of continuous improvement in a whole range of areas. The concepts, projects and practices that are included in the scope of Web 2.0 are divers. From social software, networking and sharing to weblogs and wikis, podcasting to RSS and aggregation. While all of the concepts have been around for a little while now, it’s the direction they’re heading within the education scope that it is important here. With some Web 2.0 metaservices heading towards being mobile, the ability to learn wherever, whenever and however is increasing with access being readily available for a wider audience. The collaborative nature of social writing platforms enhances the ability of group learning and also allowing peer editing and review and discussion. The ability for Web 2.0 to have an impact on teaching and learning is far greater now than it has ever been and the potential for further impact is great.
Web based applications I’m familiar with include weblogs and wikis, though only ever in a learning context, web conferencing in a work context and social networking in a personal social context. In the future I would be interestedin further exploring how RSS and aggregation and podcasting can contribute to learning. One thing however I am not at all interested in is virtual worlds. While I understand the concept and can see it’s scope, I think access and interest wise it is far more limiting in reaching the majority of people, and learners.
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