Web 2.0

Web 2.0 applications have definitely changed the way we interact with technology. Tim O’Rielly describes web 2.0 as a platform for a host of commercial, entertainment, and learning applications (p.299). Web 2.0 affords the use of lightweight, readily accessible, and low-cost learning applications and tools (p.304). They have had a great impact in education especially in high education and e-learning settings. One example of this is this course where we have been working with web 2.0 applications through the whole semester. All these applications are very interesting to me but my favorites so far have been blogging, wikis, Zoho,  screencating, and Google docs.

Perhaps my favorite is blogging because is tool that allows people to be creative and share with other their ideas. Terry Anderson says that “web 2.0 applications generally sit outside the confines of institutionally protected spaces, thus allowing input, purview, critique, and comment by others in addition to the teacher and those enrolled in the course” (p. 300). I think that one of the powerful benefits of the blog is that other people can give you feedback of your work or ideas by critiquing or makings comments in your blogs. I love the idea of using blogging with colleagues to share information that you find interesting and have their opinions and also using your blog as a platform for your classroom where you share relevant information of the course.

 The BECTA said: “web 2.0 can facilitate more collaborative ways of working, community creation, dialogue and knowledge sharing” (p.301). I think this sentence describes my other favorite application: Google doc. Google doc (Google drive) is a great tool for collaborating and save information online (clouding computing). This app is perfect for group assignments because you can work with different types of documents. You can access to it from anywhere anytime and everyone can work on a document at the same time which is very convenient. Web 2.0 tools utilize individuals and group contributions to create value (p.300).