Web 2.0

Roll on the NBN. I’ve just viewed the YouTube clip Web 2.0 The Machine is Us/ing Us, which stopped to reload every fifteen to thirty seconds or so. I was a bit overwhelmed by the html xml section, concerned that I may have to know these terms. Then I realized that the message was exactly the opposite. Now, I don’t need to know a programming language to create with a computer. It’s a bit like the old Word .rtf versus .doc or even the difference between DOS and the Mac GUI interface. As Apple said in their Macintosh ads at the time, the PC had been sent to school to think like a human. No special accolades for Apple here. They have long bought, borrowed or stolen some of the best ideas and marketed them effectively. However, there is an interesting corollary in Web 2.0, which I learnt from the clip. It is that, indeed, computers are learning from us and from the links we forge between different material.

I also appreciated the reminder that Web 2.0 isn’t just about blogs and wikis. Using Diigo to prepare, annotate and share web pages for my students is Web 2.0 in practice. I have always thought of the computer as a tool rather than a recreation source or a form of social media. If it allows me to do something more efficiently, effectively, or both, then it is worth using. If it adds time to a task or requires more understanding on my part or that of my students then it is possibly not the better alternative. This may just have to do with my limited knowledge, my age, learning style or possibly the limited time I have to play around with things and the capacity of the web to use up all the time that you can give it.