Web 2 Applications

Tony asked us to look into Web 2 applications a few weeks ago. At that time I didn’t even know what they were! I now find that we are surrounded by these amazing applications some of which I had come across, and even used. Most of my experiences with Web 2 technologies had been influenced or mediated by my teenager.

Last year as the first cases of swine flu were being reported in New Zealand, my teenager, who had friends traveling in America followed Twitter. The reports on Twitter were better than the radio or TV reports and more up-to-date than most of news sites we were tracking. As events unfolded that first evening, when the high school students were suspected of having the flu, we could follow them as they unfolded. Admittedly, many of the tweets had to be treated with caution – it was impossible to verify the reliability of the information. By the next morning we knew as much as was being reported on the news, and more.

This Web 2 technology enabled people to participate in this unfolding event, they owned the information, and pooled their collective knowledge. The contributors and audience were not at the mercy of the big media guys, waiting to hear their spin on events, or even just waiting to hear anything. People involved in the unfolding events were tweeting, others could add to the comments providing a rich source of information.

This Web 2 technology experience showed me that individuals can be part of a community online, where individual experiences and information are valued and shared. Web 2 technology allows people to create, share, collaborate and communicate but without needing to know about web design or publishing skills to participate, making it easy for people to create and publish or communicate their work, ideas or thoughts to small groups or to the world. The information content is dynamic in nature, giving individuals the freedom to create, share and collaborate over events in our communities and all over the world.

In one article I have read about Web 2 technologies by Paul Anderson, Tim O’Reilly, is attributed with inventing the term Web 2, it was about collaboration, contribution and community. Anderson states that the six key ideas behind Web 2. technology are:

1. Individual production and User Generated Content
2. Harness the power of the crowd
3. Data on an epic scale
4. Architecture of Participation
5. Network Effects
6. Openness

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/techwatch/tsw0701b.pdf

The potential for using this technology is education seems obvious, especially if we are in the business of educating the ‘net generation’. Why not use the media that many of these students are already using socially, to enhance education? It would seem to have a lot of potential for students to write and sharing information, and I am interested in how my classmates are using these technologies in their teaching.


I am currently investigating a Web 2 application called PeerWise, for use in the tertiary environment, which seems to have incorporated the six key ideas of Web 2 technology.