Week 4- Rise of the Participation Culture

Introduction - the world wide web has opened up new ways for people to communicate in real time with email, instant messaging and networking services like MySpace and FaceBook. This has also given the consumer a variety of choices to use while connecting with others. As I read on in the article I became aware of the overwhelming amount of sites that are available for social networking. Now, with a generation that is "growing up digital" - not knowing a time without computers, mobile phones, digital cameras and other devices can lead one to believe being connected means to live a better, more efficient life.

Week 3 - More on Web 2.0

Wow, it is exciting how the web has changed the way we can communicate with others, through email, blogs, wikis, voice threads and many other ways. If you have enough time to spend with the tutorials to help you get started you can find you way through the web with these tools. MySpace has created an opportunity for people of all ages to show themselves to the world in their own way. It will be interesting to see how we in education will begin to incorporate the variety of tools on the web into our learning environment. Hopefully, to keep kids informed and engaged in their learning.

Week 2: Web 2.0 reading response

This is truly an exciting way to be able to communicate with others in your building and also from around the world. Giving us the opportunity to share what is happening in our classroom through a blog with just our students and their families. I appreciate the way that we can open an account and set it up to allow only those we invite to see the blog to be able to read and make comments. This gives us some peace of mind concerning the safety of our students and having them work online.

I enjoyed the comparison of the internet from 10 years ago (cyberspace) to what is now happening with the internet (web 2.0) today. Youtube, MySpace, Flickr are not places to go, butthings to do, ways to express yourself, a means to connect with others and extedn your own horizons. Cyberspace was somewhere else. The Web is where we live.(Newsweek Mag)