Web 2.0: What it is, How we got here, Where we're going

Web 2.0: What it is, How we got here, What's next.

by Dallas McPheeters <dallasm12@gmail.com> Purpose Educators are being increasingly funneled online in their normal course of teaching. However the online world is vastly different than that to which teachers 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 teacher to 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 to be, 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 For more of Dallas’ verbose ambiguities about the future of education, visit DallasMcPheeters.com

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 race against 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 organizing folders 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 For more of Dallasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; verbose ambiguities about the future of education, visit DallasMcPheeters.com

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-revisingresending-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, themed viewing 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 forever breached.

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.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a brave new world out there. The control has been taken away from the corporate, 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 produce new 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 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or at least, For more of Dallasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; verbose ambiguities about the future of education, visit DallasMcPheeters.com

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 learning platforms 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’s available. 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 risk that 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 crowdsource 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 crowdsourced 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 phone with 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 For more of Dallas’ verbose ambiguities about the future of education, visit DallasMcPheeters.com

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 becoming a 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. In short, 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.

For more of Dallas’ verbose ambiguities about the future of education, visit DallasMcPheeters.com