Blog # 2 Part 1: Web 2.0 Reflection What are your feelings on using Web 2.0 applications in your classroom or in your own teaching? Good tools to create, collaborate, edit categorize, exchange, and promote information Web-based applications can be accessed from anywhere Simple applications, solve specific problems Value lies in content, not the software used to display content Data can be easily shared Network effects are encouraged The more people who contribute, the better the content Are there pitfalls to relying on Web 2.0? The hype surrounding Web 2.0 can be off-putting- and confusing. Do you trust Web 2.0 applications? Yes, Web 2.0 is all about simplicity. These apps tend to be free so should we look to these kinds of solutions before looking to purchase a product? For example, schools might spend $80 to get Microsoft on each computer, but Google Docs is free. Practically, it decouples computing from stand-alone computers- a shift that dramatically reduces software deployment and administrative costs. Part 2: The Power and Peril of Web 3.0 Which “leap” towards a semantic web do you think is the most simple? Most difficult? The semantic web is giving users the ability to manipulate, connect and associate Web resources in new and powerful ways. It’s a capability similar to that of the corporate workhorse, the relational database. (computerworld.com.au) The more difficult aspect of building the Semantic Web is the creation of ontologies. This process requires efforts by diverse communities, such as medical, insurance and finance industries, to develop common vocabularies that systems will use to recognize what’s in a Web document. (computer world.com.au) What causes of concern does this bring up for you? (Be more specific than “privacy”) With the increase of knowledge in computer usage, we don’t have privacy anymore. For example, if somebody will type my name in the search engine, they will give to anybody the details of my life in the last few years. For example, if someone will pay for a fee, the search engine will give more details about my life in the past. The internet will give my work experiences and work places that I have been, the marriage record, debt and liabilities, credit history, and some more information as requested. Something interesting I felt when reading the section on Education 3.0 and knowledge construction is what I’ve heard called the “library fallacy” that to earn your grades you must go to a library and do the research – do you think anything is lost here if all the information is aggregated for a student instead of compiling all the resources themselves? Before the researcher was going to the library to do the research. Today, internet services are bringing the library to your home or office to do the research. Nothing is lost if all the information is aggregated by a student instead of compiling all the resources themselves. Part 3: Web 2.0 Tool Overview Web 2.0 represents an important shift in the way digital information is created, shared, stored, distributed, and manipulated. In the years ahead, it will have a significant impact in the way business use both the Internet and enterprise-level IT applications. (CBS news.com)