Web 2.0 personalizes e-learning!

It seems each week our professor knows what the news is going to be for the next week as if he had some mystical power; however, I think its those RSS feeds ;)

ASCD had a special report or should I say re-report on the Web 2.0 from London's Guardian Unlimited. The British scholar, Stephen O'Hear states that blogging on Web 2.0 removes the technical aspects for the novices (which I agree with) as well as offers a place for collaboration for both teachers and students. This last aspect is certainly emerging skill for myself as an educator.

O'Hear states:

If the early version of the web took a "top-down" approach to content, web 2.0 takes a more "bottom-up" approach - where web services and applications allow users to publish content without the need to write code..

The author also states that collaboration allows for collective intelligence which I equate to as 'two heads are better than one'. Certainly collaboration permits reinforcment of ideas and theories as well as criticisms of thoughts and suggestions.

A new vocabulary has emerged with Web 2.0. For example, the author points out that the collective intelligence of the masses have been able to influence the vocabulary evolution and keyword linking. The term folksonomy evolved from taxonomy which:

refers to the collaborative way in which information is being categorised on the web. Users are encouraged to assign freely chosen keywords to pieces of information or data, a process known as tagging. Web 2.0 services that use tagging include those designed to allow users to publish and share various media.

O'Hear also states that MP3 devices are allowing classrooms to be able to share creations; of course, I want to know as a future administrator how will this all impact acheivement. I have been really reflecting and debating with my colleagues at my school on the study that was mentioned in the September/October issue of Orion where it was discussed that the use of technology was not impacting student achievement.

I do agree with O'Hear that Web 2.0 with the use of RSS feeds through bloglines allows all of us, not just techies and educators, to get the most update information at our fingertips. Through our blogs or wikis, we have a medium to reflect, accept, or reject information that is coming through to us at the speed of light.