Week Three: Web technology, 2.0 web applications and copyright laws

This week, we looked up several different 2.0 web applications and chose three to discuss in more detail. The three that I chose were rummble, wizi and thounds. Rummble was a cool application that is very helpful when you're traveling. You just type in your location and it will tell you what there is to do in a certain place and provides you with pictures and recommendations of places and sites. Wisi is another application that has to do with travel. You post your current location and you can send it to your friends so that they can see where you are while you're travelling. It also tells you what the best routes to take are, and gives traffic updates. Thounds is a music application. It allows you to post a song that you have written and then others from around the world can add to it until you have a complete song with singing and a bunch of different instruments!


This is an example of what you can do with the Thounds application. It looks really cool!

Thounds application

We also learned about web 2.0 tools and how the internet as evolved. With web 1.0, people could read information online, but only those who knew the special terms and language of the computer could write. Now, with web 2.0, anyone with very limited knowledge can read and then write online. Web 2.0 has 3 features: user- initiated information, social sharing options that can be controlled to only allow certain people to see what is written, and social networking options where entire internet communities can be built around a specific topic.

There are also different sites such as Ofoto and Flickr that allow people to make photo albums, share pictures and meet people with similar interests. Web blogs are another development that have made it easier to communicate with more people at one time. It's simple to start a blog and people are able to comment on other people's posts. Not only are blogs used with teenagers, but also in the business world between employees and their clients. Also, teachers are starting to use blogs for their students which encourage discussion and allow students to comment on other students' work. Wikis are another useful invention. Wikis are tools such as Wikipedia, where information can be added, edited or deleted by anyone. These changes can still be seen though and people can compare current information to the info that was changed.

Blogs and wikis are very useful in classrooms. As a teacher, I will be able to set up blogs and have students collaborate on projects and discuss topics taught in the classroom. Blogs make it easier to track progress of students and help engage students in learning. While most children nowadays are internet savy, not all use the internet the same way, and some children from poor socioeconomic families may not even have access to computers. This is important to keep in mind because teachers should realize that not everyone will learn best from blogs or know how to use them.