Web 2.0: Technologies and Education

What is Web 2.0?

• What is Web 2.0 ?!?

Web 2.0

• Web 2.0, a phrase coined by Dale Dougherty in 2003

• made famous in a paper called What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software by Tim O’Reilly

• it is not a set technological standard or protocol• it is a term to describe the movement/revolution

about the social connection and interaction of the web and services and technologies that sponsor and promote it. – the “second phase” of the internet– 2006 Time Person of the Year: You

Web 2.0

• the meaning varies– Dave Winer [a software developer and entrepreneur]

says: “Web 2.0 is a marketing concept used by venture capitalists and conference promoters to try to call another bubble into existence.”

– Om Malik [a technology writer] says: “Web 2.0 as a collection of technologies - be it VoIP, Digital Media, XML, RSS, Google Maps… whatever … that leverage the power of always on, high speed connections and treat broadband as a platform, and not just a pipe to connect.”

• kind of a buzz word

What was Web 1.0?• Web 1.0 was about reading, Web 2.0 is about writing • Web 1.0 was about companies, Web 2.0 is about communities • Web 1.0 was about client-server, Web 2.0 is about peer to peer • Web 1.0 was about HTML, Web 2.0 is about XML • Web 1.0 was about home pages, Web 2.0 is about blogs • Web 1.0 was about lectures, Web 2.0 is about conversation • Web 1.0 was about advertising, Web 2.0 is about word of mouth • Web 1.0 was about services sold over the web, Web 2.0 is about

web services

• From Darren Barefoot, a technology writer

• modern vs. post-modern ways of thinking

Examples of Web 2.0

• Blogs

• Wikis

• Tagging

• Multimedia Sharing

• RSS

• Podcasting

• Second Life

BLOGS

• blog or weblog• simple webpage consisting of brief postings of

opinion, information, etc.• blogosphere

– a collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections

• chronologically ordered• exchange of ideas from single author to

unlimited readers• real time not journal time (ie. daily or weekly)• has links and comment fields

BLOGS

• Examples of Blogs:– http://www.insidethecbc.com/– http://www.engadget.com/

• Examples of Blog Sevices:– Blogger/Blogspot

• https://www.blogger.com/start• http://canuckshockey.blogspot.com/

– BlogsCanada• http://www.blogscanada.ca/

WIKIS

• a webpage or set of webpages that can be easily edited by anyone with access

• collaborative tool– now available as an option in major software

packages

• has a history function to view previous versions• ease of use vs. malicious editing and vandalism

– though things can be quickly corrected

WIKIS

• Wikipedia – the most well-known wiki– accuracy is comparable to a regular encyclopedia

• disputed though

– http://www.wikipedia.org/

• SFU related wikis:– SFU Cognitive Science

• http://www.zanyt.com/cogs_wiki/index.php?title=Welcome

– LIDC• http://wiki.lidc.sfu.ca/HomePage

TAGGING

• a tag is a keyword attached to a digital object

• very often used in searches– eg. Flickr and YouTube

TAGGING

• searching Flickr for “fat” and “cat” tags will give results showing a overweight cats or other things called “fat cat”, such as the “Fat Cat” pub…

MULTIMEDIA SHARING

• areas and services that facilitate the sharing and storage of digital media

• eg. Flickr, YouTube, etc.

• distribution on a massive scale

• productions are high quality, but on low cost digital media technology

RSS

• RSS = Really Simple Syndication • allows a user to subscribe to a “feed” and gain

content thru a subscription• RSS icon

• up-to-date information from websites, blogs, etc. without having to go to the original source– common in news websites or other websites that are

continually updated with information

RSS

• The RSS icon will appear in the address field of most modern web-browsers to indicate that the website has an RSS feed

• Click on it to subscribe to the feed– in this case, the CNN.com feed for all the updates to

CNN.com

PODCASTING

• a podcast is an audio file uploaded to a host server and subscribed to via RSS– easy to get new, updated content

• will run on more than just iTunes– eg. Odeo.com, MyPodcast.com, etc.

• lots of potential for educational purposes

• more on this later…

Second Life

• a popular, virtual 3D world where a user can construct an avatar and other 3D environments and explore them

• looks like a game, but not really a game…– venue for socializing and interacting

• various agencies and entities have a presence in Second Life– including SFU and the VPD

Second Life

THE SIX BIG IDEAS BEHIND WEB 2.0

• from What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education by Paul Anderson

• Individual production and User Generated Content

• Harness the power of the crowd• Data on an epic scale• Architecture of Participation• Network Effects• Openness

1. Individual production and User Generated Content

• content added very easily to media sites– eg. MySpace, YouTube, etc.

• content can be searched with tags• people writing blogs and contributing to wikis• user generated content

– also called content self-publishing, personal publishing, self-expression.• new, cheap, accessible and quality tools lower entry bar

– eg. digital cameras, mobile phones with devices, video cameras, etc.

• similar to computers, printers and paper desktop publishing in early 80s– “everybody can do it, but not anybody can do it”– talent still distinguishes

1. Individual production and User Generated Content

• existing/traditional media sources are threatened and are adapting – shows now have podcasts or can be downloaded from iTunes

store– RadioHead, NIN, etc. now giving away music

• redefinition/reinterpretation of audience– more authors than readers

• blogs that are never read…– contributors are driven by attention rather than

financial motives• threats to structure and authority

– traditional media sources are structured, edited and sources verified

– not like the internet…

2. Harness the power of the crowd

• collective intelligence– information = intelligence (?)

• as group can be collectively more intelligent than a single individual– eg. ask the audience on who wants to be a millionaire

• hazards:– “groupthink”, lack of a deep level critical thinking, etc.

• “crowd sourcing” “was coined by Wired journalist Jeff Howe to conceptualize a process of Web-based out-sourcing for the procurement of media content, small tasks, even solutions to scientific problems from the crowd gathered on the Internet.”– eg. websites with stock materials, like shutterstock.com, istockphoto,

etc.– threat to existing photographic professionals– content not good, but good enough– eg. websites like Innocentive match scientists with R&D clients

2. Harness the power of the crowd

• Folksonomy:– “Folksonomy is the result of personal free tagging of information

and objects (anything with a URL) for one's own retrieval. The tagging is done in a social environment (shared and open to others). The act of tagging is done by the person consuming the information.” VanderWal, 2005, blog entry.

– tags are meant to connect, not categorize

• tags are created in a social context with people using their own vocabulary and meanings (relative to a community)

• tags are not created in formal taxonomy nor have standard meanings– remember the search for “fat” and “cat”…?

2. Harness the power of the crowd

• example:– consider a search on YouTube.com for “evan”

• this can mean:– A trailer for the movie “Evan Almighty”– The “Evan” from the movie “SuperBad”– And many more “evan”s…

• each person adding a video to YouTube.com puts an “evan” tag with it…(among other tags)

• YouTube.com does not control or categorize the content to have a standard meaning for “evan”

3. Data on an epic scale

• information, data, etc. generated is staggering in its quantity with multiple sources and contributors– ‘datafication’ of the world

• services exist to collect and manage this data– eg. Google

• the use of these services makes these services smarter– data mining techniques– eg. the monitoring of collective buying habits to make

suggestions to individual users• eg. Netflix, Amazon, etc.

• data becomes a resource– privacy issues and implications– who owns this data?

4. Architecture of Participation

• how a website is designed affects the participation– eg. pay vs. free– eg. classmates.com vs. facebook.com– -eg. amount of steps to register with website

• a website can get better the more a person uses it– it adapts to the person

• eg. recommendations from a website, or a website connecting likeminded people

• open-source software– ie. the sharing of ideas and content for reuse and new

combinations

5. Network Effects

• “The Network Effect is a general economic term used to describe the increase in value to the existing users of a service in which there is some form of interaction with others, as more and more people start to use it”– eg. FaceBook

• not all users have the same value– some are more valuable to user than other– eg. family, friends, acquaintances, co-workers, strangers, etc.

• the flipside: the lock-in to technology– as more people use a certain product or service, it becomes difficult to

switch to another product or service (that may be better) because there a few people to share with

• eg. VHS vs. Beta• eg. Blu-ray vs HD-DVD

• it shows the needs for interoperability

5. Network Effects

• many things on the internet are unequal • there are artificial barriers that make it easier for

some and extremely difficult for others– ie. popularity, promotion, position on search engine,

placement on webpage, etc.

• there is a counter-movement to with the “democratization of the tools of production” as amateurs are able to flood the internet with content

6. Openness

• “The development of the Web has seen a wide range of legal, regulatory, political and cultural developments surrounding the control, access and rights of digital content.”– you don’t have to pay for stuff now!

• eg. music, movies, software…

• web 2.0 stresses openness– open standards, open-source software, free data

• eg. the push for Open Document Format (or ODF) – all to be used and reused freely for the common goal

of open innovation• eg. FireFox and its plug-ins

EDUCATIONAL AND INSTRUCTIONAL ISSUES:

• “In these scenarios, education is more like a conversation and learning content is something you perform some kind of operation on rather than ‘just’ reading it.“

• Problems:– users are in a 24/7 environment– economic divide among user’s home resources– differing skill levels– privacy and plagiarism issues of online collaborations– shared authorship and assessments

• the lack of understanding about student learning modes and social aspect of the software

EDUCATIONAL AND INSTRUCTIONAL ISSUES:

• the redefinition of the teacher/student structure– from teacher-centered instruction to student-

centered learning/creating

• how does education deal with the traditional hierarchies of knowledge and the new web 2.0 reality?