Using Web 2.0 applications in the classroom: #1 Introduction

What is Web 2.0?

"Web 2.0" is a catchphrase coined by web gurus at O'Reilly's to describe the revolution in web technologies that arose around the mid-00s. Essentially it is about the arrival of the read/write web - websites that weren't just about disseminating media to the user (eg: portals), but actively required the user to participate in the process of creating the information on those sites (eg: blogs, wikis, social networking, social bookmarking). This has coincided with greater intergration of audio and video media with the web. Therefore a site like YouTube is not just about videos, but is actually a Web 2.0 site in which the users upload and share video with one another.

Here is some further information that will provide an audio-visual introduction to what Web 2.0 is and it's significance.



Social Networking in Plain English (by Lee LeFever, Common Craft Show)


Social Media in Plain English (by Lee LeFever, Common Craft Show)


The Machine is Us/ing Us. (Michael Wesch, Kansas State University)



How is Web 2.0 relevant to education?

For a whole lot of reasons. Here are some:

1. Nearly all students are already using Web 2.0 applications and are frequently more knowledgeable than their teachers. Kids intuitively understand and accept that the Web is an integral part of their lives and can see how it is useful to them. They cannot understand why teachers and the education system in general don't get this point. (Read this article and this article for reports on student usage of the Web.)
2. The workforce of 10 years from now - which we are supposed to be preparing students for - will be even more reliant upon web technologies than today. To deprive students of the information literacy associated with our intellectual disciplines is to inherently disable students. Students may be using the Web, but this does not mean they are using it well or are capable of identifying reliable sources, etc.
3. By not utilizing the resources and services available on the Web we are depriving our classes of some very rich resources and teaching tools - nearly all of which are available for no cost.
4. As we enter the Information Age teaching will move away from being about locating and reproducing scarce information resources to dealing with an overabundance of information resources and identifying the most reliable and useful of these. For this we will be required to teach information literacy skills, including search strategies, identifying reliable sources, producing outputs (eg: essays, slide presentations, graphics, films) utilizing web applications and colloborative online networks.

The necessity of developing information literacy (identification of reliable information, processes, organizing, storing, retrieving and synthesizing in an online environment) brings us to the point where we need to get started. One of the best places to get started is with the next post which introduces social bookmarking in the classroom. Go to

Using Web 2.0 applications in the classroom: #2 Social Bookmarking to organize and share resources