Web 2.0 – hundreds of open source (free) tools everywhere. The .com craze of the 90s has morphed into ”zillions” of Web 2.0 .com startups. Pedagogically speaking, these things are awesome, allowing easy, agile content creation and interaction, for instructor and learners alike. It takes very little time to put up a YouTube or UStreamTV video, create a threaded voice discussion with VoiceThread, or put up widgets on your course home page or blog. You’re the driver, instant control, and for free! Does it get any better than this?
However, with the tools being easily accessed by everyone, concerns abound, from intellectual property rights to personal safety and privacy, to network security issues (new worms exploiting AJAX frameworks). I cannot wait to see what the next decade brings. Will there be more or less proliferation of these tools? What will the cultural anthropologists have to say about them?
In the meantime, check these out:
- Shirley Williams’ blog: “Review of “Web 2.0 for Content for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education”
- Webtrend map of Web 2.0 tools
- TechCrunch Blog: 2007: Web 2.0 Companies I Couldn’t Live Without
Videos:
Web 2.0 Remixed (Insight on Web 2.0 from CEOs of Web 2.0 Startups)
Are You Blogging This?
Yes, David, I am blogging this! 
