Friday, May 05, 2006

More Web 2.0 discussion and resources

In the new free publication "Coming of Age: An Introduction to the NEW World Wide Web", Terry Freedman (Ed) describes Web 2.0 as:

"A cynical response might be, "just another label"! In fact, whereas until recently the world wide web has been seen pretty much as a publishing medium, and therefore a fairly on-sided affair in many respects, it is now regarded more as a partcipatory platform. That's what blogs, wikis and so on are really all about: not merely another way in which "ordinary" people can publish their views, but a means whereby just about anyone can contribute to an ongoing "conversation" in which knowledge is both discovered and constructed as it goes on."

The purpose of the Coming of Age booklet is to provide an introduction to Web 2.0 tools and resources. Many of the current Web 2.0 users and pioneers have representative articles and there is information about blogging, wikis, podcasting and more! Authors include a mixed international such as David Warlick, Alan November, Peter Ford and Ewan McIntosh. As a 'taster' publication I fully recommend educators and others to read and explore the Web 2.0 ideas with the view to using them personally or in a social constructivist mode with students and classes etc.

Another great resource for Web 2.0 tools is Chris Smith's website Shambles and the Web 2.0 link. Chris provides a detailed list of tools for online authoring, sharing and collaboration. I was pleasantly surprised to see such a variety of applications for file sharing, online collaborative work, multimedia hosting, music and more.

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