14. Facilitator Notes

13. Other Web 2.0 Applications and Ideas

Although new Web 2.0 applications seem to arise daily, there are some important systems and ideas that cut across many of the applications and can empower teachers and students. RSS feeds are one such system.

RSS Feeds and Readers
RSS is an acronym with many translations, but a common one is Really Simple Syndication, where syndication refers to something like a syndicated, or regular, columnist. An RSS feed is a regular posting of news to your computer much like a stock ticker or display of current news headlines (but thankfully, they don't move!). The following short YouTube video explains the concept of RSS in simple English and diagram:

12. Copyright Issues and Creative Commons

11. Concerns with Web 2.0 in School

Teenagers find Web 2.0's high level of interactivity with real friends and the real world to be compellingly attractive. Adults are often unaware and uniformed about the Web 2.0 sites that their children and students frequent. As a result, otherwise responsible teachers, administrators and parents don't have a realistic understanding of the potential dangers or benefits of Web 2.0, and they are not in a position to provide meaningful guidance to teens or pre-teens. Below is a discussion of some of the Web 2.0 issues that schools and homes should understand and address:


The video above focuses on reasons why schools need to be wary of social networking sites. Teachers and students in the video below acknowledge potential dangers, but they emphasize the educational and social value that they, as users, experience.

10. Digg and Crowdsourcing

Everybody likes to express their opinion, but it so often appears that no one cares, and that our opinions don't really matter. Several Web 2.0 applications actually build their readers' opinions into the site as a way to add value to their information. Here's an example from Wired.com where users can change the ranking of corporate privacy villains, moving them to places of prominence on top of the page or to oblivion off the bottom. Scroll down the page to see the up and down arrow buttons and the number of ratings readers have shared by clicking on them.
* Ranking example from Wired.com
Wikipedia article on Wisdom of Crowds
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_of_crowds

Crowdsourcing Examples:
Wikipedia corrections of Britannica
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Errors_in_the_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica_that_have_been_corrected_in_Wikipedia

9. Audio and Video Web 2.0 Websites

Web 2.0 users want to interact not only with text and images, but also with audio and video, and by now most Internet users have heard of iTunes, podcasting and YouTube. These sites and ideas are not only attractive to users but also to big business. For example, in 2007, Google purchased YouTube for 1.6 billion dollars. Google clearly sees a strong future for user-created and shared video on the Internet.

Podcasting

• Education Podcast Network

8. Web Applications like Google Docs