LEARNING IN WEB2.0
Exploring the implications for ubiquitous learning
Defining Web2.0
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Introduced in 2004 as the name of an O’Reilly
conference, specifically focused on business
They define it as “A set of economic, social and
technology trends that collectively form the basis for the
next generation of the Internet – a more mature,
distinctive medium characterized by user participation,
openness, and network effects” (Musser 2006)
The word is used to refer to a time period, a social
movement, as adjective, as a technology and more
Keyword associations with Del.icio.us
A new stage in the information revolution! (?)
O’Reilly’s 8 Core Trends
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Harnessing Collective Intelligence: Sometimes described as the core pattern of Web 2.0, this describes
architectures of participation that embraces the effective use of network effects and feedback loops to
create systems that get better the more that people use them.
Data is the Next "Intel Inside": A phrase that captures the fact that information has become as
important, or more important, than software, which has become relentlessly commoditized.
Innovation in Assembly: The Web has become a massive source of small pieces of data and services,
loosely joined, increasing the recombinant possibilities and unintended uses of systems and information.
Rich User Experiences: The Web page has evolved to become far more than HTML markup and now
embodies full software experiences that enable interaction and immersion in innovative new ways.
Software Above the Level of a Single Device: Software like the horizontally federated blogosphere
(hundreds of blog platforms and aggregators) or the vertically integrated iTunes (server farm + online
store + iTunes client + iPods) are changing our software landscape.
Perpetual Beta: Software releases are disappearing and continuous change is becoming the norm.
(“What version is Google?”)
Leveraging the Long Tail: The mass servicing of micromarkets cost effectively via the Web is one of the
primary "killer business models" made possible by the Internet in its present form.
Lightweight Software/Business Models and Cost Effective Scalability: Everything from Amazon's S3,
to RSS, to Ruby on Rails are changing the economics of online software development fundamentally,
providing new players powerful new weapons against established players and even entire industries.
Characteristics of Web2.0
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Structural (analysis issues) (Cormode and Krishnamurthy 2008)
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Technological (Cormode and Krishnamurthy 2008)
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Publish/subscribe
Platform
Underlying technologies (AJAX, Flash, XML)
Measurement issues (Cormode and Krishnamurthy 2008)
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Interactivity, dynamic pages (graphs!), boundaries?
New links (friends, navigation, relationships)
Traffic measurement (not just clicks)
Crawling is difficult (due to interactivity)
Speed and performance
Social! (Participatory Culture, Jenkins et al. 2006)
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Affiliations (memberships, formal and informal, virtual identity!)
Expressions (production of new creative forms – more than multimedia?)
Collaborative Problem-solving (wiki-wiki-wikipeeeedia, gaming, hackers/Linux)
Circulations (flow of information – blogs, p2p, FB newsfeed)
Stuff Jeff Associates with Web2.0
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Social Networking Sites – Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn,
Cyworld, Xanga, Live Journal Orkut, StudiVZ, Mixi, QQ,
Hi5, Xiaonei.com, etc…
Wikipedia.
Multimedia Sharing – YouTube, Flickr, DeviantArt
Mapping – Google Maps/Earth, Open Street Map, Platial
Social Bookmarking – Del.icio.us, Digg, feeds/podcasts
Websites – Wordpress, Drupal, Google Sites, Wikis
Google Suite – Docs, Calendar, groups, more
Commerce – Ebay, Craigslist, Amazon
I made a funny presentation about these : Web2.0
Resources and the Digital Divide: The Good, The Bad, and
the Ugly
Visualize it!
Visualize it!
Enter Ubiquitous Learning
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Well, what is learning?
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Acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, preferences or
understandings
Processing information, may be termed ‘education’ or ‘personal
development’
Conscious and unconscious, habitual and through play, structured
or unstructured
Predicated on Ubiquitous Computing (network effects;
population-specific)
New opportunities for leaning
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New environments (altered place; distance)
New teachers (direction of information; authority)
New timelines (a-synchronous, in-demand)
So What Have We?
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Information Access in a
Networked World
 Appropriation
 Osmosis
 Distributed
 Pull
 Push
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Digital Literacy
 Play
 Performance
 Simulation
 Multitasking
Cognition
 Collective Intelligence
 Judgment
 Transmedia Navigation
 Networking
 Negotiation
Implications (Challenges!)
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Pedagogies
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What new things can we learn
on/with/through these websites?
How to structure learning
experience? Websites as
classrooms?
Compounded challenges for
measurement…
Teaching how to think… with the
internet! (technologies change)
Institutions
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How do educational institutions make
use of Web2.0?
Web2.0 sites as institutions;
knowledge producing communities
Where are the boundaries??
Adapt old methodologies to new
mediums on the web?
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Technologies
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Information interfaces as a (almost)
new form of structure
Technologies that adapt to us? Viceversa? Balance…
Critical access! Who gets to make
the tech toys?
Social Transformations
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Renegotiating the role of teacher
Workplace, home, play, classroom,
virtual space
New identities, new inequalities;
participation
How we meet other people; how we
become introduced to an idea; how
we remember…
Wesch + Lessig! (socialization)
An example… with videos!
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http://mediatedcultures.net
The Machine is Us/ing Us
Information R/evolution
YouTube Digital Ethnography
An anthropological introduction to YouTube
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Did You Know 2.0
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References
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boyd, danah. (2007). "Information Access in a Networked World." Talk presented
to Pearson Publishing, Palo Alto, California, 2 Nov 2007.
Cormode, Graham and Balachander Krishnamurthy. (2008). Key differences
between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. First Monday, 13(6), 2 June 2008.
http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/212
5/1972
Hinchcliffe, Dion. (2006). “Web 2.0 definition updated and Enterprise 2.0 emerges.”
ZDNet, 5 Nov 2006. http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=71
Jenkins, H. (with Clinton, K., Purushotma, R. Robinson, A. J., & Weigel, M.) (2006).
“Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st
Century.” Chicago, IL: MacArthur Foundation. http://illinois.edu/goto/jenkins_dl
McDonald, Fritz. (2008). “Web 2.0: What It Means, How It Works, And How To Use
It To Your Advantage.” Stamats, 24 Apr 2008.
Musser, John. (2006). “Web 2.0 Principles and Best Practices.” An O’Reilly Radar
Report, Nov 2006.
http://radar.oreilly.com/research/web2-report.html