Regardless of the topic, social software, social bookmarking, or web 2.0 tools/features, the ever-present theme I picked up on was from the first week of the class: Data on an Epic Scale. Each posting and follow-up discussion appeared to further the big idea that web 2.0 and its tools has offered vast amounts of data to be generated, organized and edited by individuals. Sifting through the considerable amount of resources these tools and resources place at our fingertips.
Web 2.0 has created a system built upon sharing and communal dialogue to me. The tools that have grown out of the Web 2.0 era has been developed to sort, classify and keep track of the data produced at such an “epic scale”. Consumers are discovering, experimenting, and making mistakes. Yet with each epiphany and misstep, consumers are able to edit, manipulative and change previous thoughts and ideologies. The system has established an environment where all consumers (as well as, students and teachers) are collaborators and facilitators, rather than singular lecturers and receivers. One discussion board post impressed that “… the creation of information is now largely in the hands of individuals”. Information consumers have the freedom to discover ideas with individual, singular interest and make personal meaning out of the substantial amounts of data available. The numerous features within web 2.0 tools further allows users to collaborate free of physical and time barriers to create, provide and produce information with a common goal in mind. This border- and timeless restriction compounds the vast amount of data produced. Web 2.0 provides a platform for stimulating knowledge building through independent publication, which in turn becomes a global conversation.
Amina you are right on point with your analysis of Web 2.0 tools. Web 2.0 tools allows for us to “learn by doing”.
Your comment on ” the numerous features within web 2.0 tools further allows users to collaborate free of physical and time barriers to create, provide and produce information with a common goal in mind,” does a great job of explaining how we are using these tools to center learning around our own specific areas of interest. Before Web 2.0, we were limited in the way we were able to access and share information, but with all the applications/tools that are now available to us, the opportuntities to share and create information/learning communities are limitless.
With technology progressing so rapidly, I can’t help but wonder what technology has in store for us 10 years from now.
Excellent observation. I mentioned in a previous discussion posting that was helped hook me onto the Web was a Wired article sci-fi-sounding headline: “A Globe, Clothing Itself with a Brain.” I highly recommend it, even though it was published many years ago, to get a good glimpse of the underlying dynamic of this “thinking layer.”
Nowhere is the “epic scale” of this communication evolution more evident than in my chosen professional field of video. Take YouTube alone: More than 482 million worldwide visitors monthly (equal to the 3rd largest country in the world); and 45 hours of video uploaded every minute, adding a visual dimension to what you so aptly term the “global conversation.”