viernes, 22 de noviembre de 2013

Web 2.0

This is an experiment, yes, that's what we're doing, we're investigating how to apply new technologies to teaching. We are experimenting with wikis, blogs, Secon Life, Facebook, Skype... even Twitter can become a useful tool too. But, Is there something else out there we are missing? Are these all we can use? Certainly there must be many other sites, services and applications we could be using.




According to Wikipedia (a Wiki site, by the way, as we are experimenting with these tools it seems suitable that we use them too) Web 2.0 services are based on the following characteristics.

Search
Finding information through keyword search.
Links
Connects information together into a meaningful information ecosystem using the model of the Web, and provides low-barrier social tools.
Authoring
The ability to create and update content leads to the collaborative work of many rather than just a few web authors. In wikis, users may extend, undo and redo each other's work. In blogs, posts and the comments of individuals build up over time.
Tags
Categorization of content by users adding "tags"—short, usually one-word descriptions—to facilitate searching, without dependence on pre-made categories. Collections of tags created by many users within a single system may be referred to as "folksonomies" (i.e., folk taxonomies).
Extensions
Software that makes the Web an application platform as well as a document server. These include software like Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash player, Microsoft Silverlight, ActiveX, Oracle Java, QuickTime, Windows Media, etc.
Signals
The use of syndication technology such as RSS to notify users of content changes.

From this information we can easily define Web 2.0 services as web sites based on an exchange of information between 'authors', which would be the 'teachers' in our experiment and the 'receivers', that is, the 'students'. In order to make this exchange of information easier, there are searching devices to look for the information based on tags and it can be enhanced through the use of links to other sites that may contain more information related to the topic at hand. They require certain software in order to support different kinds of files and sometimes they also have a feed system to notify the users when new contents are published.

With all these characteristics, who could argue that Web 2.0 services, and therefore CSCL, is not a good teaching or learning method?

7 comentarios:

  1. Roberto, could you please make your picture bigger? I cannot see it :S

    ResponderEliminar
  2. By the way, I think your entry is quite good since you have provided us with general information about Web 2.0 (I also mentioned this system in my entry very briefly). However, what do you think about developping it and including some information about wikis and blogs? In this way, we could see the advantages and drawbacks as well as your opinion of these two systems. :)

    ResponderEliminar
  3. I believe you worked so hand on your entry, Robert! :)
    However, as Azu said, maybe you could tell us your personal opinion about blogs and wikis and the difficulties you had to deal with :)

    ResponderEliminar
  4. I don'tthink I can make the pic bigger, Azu, but still I can try; anyway, if you click on it you can see it better.
    Abaut what you both mentioned, commenting on personal opinion, problems, impressions... I believe we still have to work with them more so that we can talk about that, I don't like giving my opinion about a topic I don't know about or in which I haven't done a thorough research, but as soon as I believe I have enough information to do it I'll write another entry talking about it, maybe here, maybe on the wiki... who knows, we have so many possibilities...

    ResponderEliminar
  5. Ok, thank you! :)

    That's true, we haven't tried blogs and wikis so much but I would say we can explain our first impressions or even commen the problems we have. Indeed, I think this is one of the points of writing the entry: present the differences and similarities between blogs and wikis. :)

    ResponderEliminar
  6. Yes, of course we are not experts because we've been using all these webs for a short time, but still I think we ALL can express our first impressions, right? Also, we've read many articles, so from my point of view we are perfectly capable of providing our readers with our opinions and some usuful ideas :)

    ResponderEliminar
  7. Definitely yes! Roberto, you can tell us your opinion about them. In fact, we are almost finishing our course, so I think you have had time enough to employ both of them, haven't you? :)

    ResponderEliminar