Web 2.0 is about a lot more interactivity and breaking down of power
structure. Some of what was potential in the Web 1.x has become reality in 2
Blogging makes is easy for anyone to have a voice online. While 'anyone'
could have built a webpage, and changed it as often as they wanted, the
reality was it was a multi-step process, involving multiple types of
software and usually involved some outlay of cash. While there are ways
to simplify the process, it was/ is still too complicated to entice the
average web user to join in .
Part of the attraction of blogging is connecting with others. Linking to
someone else's output and adding your POV or opinion or just sharing it
in a slightly different circle. Letting the orig poster know you
discussed their post is a one-click (trackback) acknowledgment.
Wikis and to a large extent CMS let all of a similar mind join in and
share their input for a common good. The social group can be huge
(Wikipedia), or small (a wiki for working on 7th grade SS curriculum).
In either case, not only the members, but the general public can use /
read the data. Somewhere in there is the 'long-tail' phenomenon; Sally
talks about something, I add to it, someone else points to mine (linked
to Sally's), a parent grabs it and sends it to their group, and
somewhere along the way Sally winds up with another new subscriber. In
Listserv land, it takes a concentrated effort to find out what everyone
is thinking about some new title or censoring effort. Think about how
little crosstalk there is between LM-Net, YALSA, your state LM org,
technology lists (like say, Follett-Talk), and LMS students, or even our
own students. And how often someone says 'I looked in the archives, but...'.
Actually, the closest old web component that is '2.0' are the public
bookmarks like ikeepbookmarks. They tend to be more like personal, but
sharable directories. The new versions (Del.icio.us, Technorati, Furl,
etc) make the sharing automatic. We can blog, then use either the
categories (built into blog software) or tags to label the topics. These
tags are automatically shared by the software. You label a site
'curriculum' and it is automatically added to the pool of everyone
else's sites labeled curriculum. And then there are multiple ways for
other readers to get updated on any new sites tagged as curriculum.
Which brings up RSS and the readers like bloglines or the addins that
work in email: Any blog and some wikis, any category or tag or new
article or change in an article, you get notified. And it doesn't have
to be a blog to add RSS; news sites, our online databases, forums, even
listservs have that feature built in.
So, imagine this- School Content Management Software that can notify the
kids (maybe even in their m*sp*c* account or via cell) automatically
when you have added something to your site like a list of new books, an
updated summer reading list, a new resource guide. Or imagine that kind
of connectivity for your teachers and parents. Book reviews, grades,
assignments, homework help, running out of lunch money, letters from the
principal.
Also, the nature of the beast that is Listserv is that it is monolithic.
I (and three others) moderate Edtech <h-net.org/~edweb/> Listserv -
Now, 99%+ we just check for formatting and pass it through, however, we
have our hot button topics, just as LM-Net does. And then we talk with
the poster to make it fit our institution and our list's guidelines. We
can also cut off the conversation when it wanders off those guidelines.
However, many of our frequent posters, just as here at LM-Net, have
educational interests beyond the scope of those lists. Or opinions that
irritate. With a blog, they / we can extend the conversation started,
further the thoughts, expand the debate with those who want. Also, each
of their blogs/sites can focus on their specific interests, anyone can
join the conversation or subscribe, or find by searching through many
regular engines. Also, where does the group go if Peter or the
sponsoring organization couldn't continue?
My blog gets about 300 hits a day, though through RSS you don't even
have to go to the site to read it. The hits are often through other
blogs that note something I said and link back, through email list
conversations, and through search engines. When I get geeky, the weblog
shows me where they came from, how long, what else they looked at, and
what link they clicked on their way out. Lots of college students, lots
of hits through Del.icio.us and Technorati, many from search engine hit
lists, many from a post here, a few from the archives.
Before listserv, there was Usenet, Compuserv - compared to writing
papers or letters, great interconnectivity. But really would be hard
pressed to call them web 2.0.
Remember that tagline: 'Technology will never replace teachers; but
those who use technology will replace those who do not'. Just as there
are many librarians not on this list (and probably some who 'don't do
email'), there are many librarians who don't do RSS, read blogs or
wikis. Now. But remember those hits through college servers?
Robert Eiffert
Librarian, Pacific MS Vancouver WA
pac.egreen.wednet.edu/library beiffert@egreen.wednet.edu
Librarian in the Middle Blog: www.beiffert.net robert@beiffert.net
"The state can't give you free speech, and the state can't take it away. You're
born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then
you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the
degree to which you are free..." - Utah Phillips
>Deborah Stafford said:
>it occurred to me that our own LM_NET,
>while "old technology" was/is ahead of it's time. I am thinking that
>LM_NET
>is actually very Web 2.0.
>
>
>
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