For those who would get a lot more out of looking over a diagram that explains Web 2.0 rather than pages of text, here’s something that may be useful to you:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/popoever/234877734/

I’ve personally never imagined the difference between 45 million and 1 billion +.

Trawling through the RSS feeds today and catching up on the news from blogs here and there, I came across a very simple comparison of the Internet as we knew it (I suppose, in hindsight, Web 1.0) and Web 2.0/read-write web/whatever you want to call it (maybe Internet’s still a perfectly reasonable name?).  This comes courtesy of MartinsWiki:

Web 1.0 was about them, Web 2.0 is about us
Web 1.0 was about reading, Web 2.0 is about writing
Web 1.0 was about companies, Web 2.0 is about communities
Web 1.0 was about advertising, Web 2.0 is about word of mouth
Web 1.0 was about portals, Web 2.0 is about RSS
Web 1.0 was about taxonomy, Web 2.0 is about folksonomy
Web 1.0 was about home pages, Web 2.0 is about blogs
Web 1.0 was information, Web 2.0 is opinion
Web 1.0 was an encyclopedia, Web 2.0 is Wikipedia

It serves a useful purpose to get thought started and provide a very concise overview, but perhaps reading some more (like the research on the same page) could be helpful as well.

Maybe they’re not so much statements as questions?  Perhaps they can serve to spark our discussion around Web 2.0?  If Web 2.0 tools give power to the user, then perhaps what Web 2.0 cannot be concretely defined, because it depends (to a certain extent, at least) on what is shaped by the user?

Maybe Web 2.0 leaves us with more questions asked than answered?

Yesterday I spent the day at the Catholic Education Commission NSW Learning With Web 2.0 Forum.  It follows last year’s successful forum, Learning in an Online World.

Like last year, the forum included a keynote (this year given by Gary Putland, General Manager of education.au), followed by a day of workshop opportunities across a range of topics.  The great advantage to these is that they are presented by staff from dioceses across NSW, so you get to see real examples of classroom and system practice.  Several workshops were presented by staff from our own Catholic Education Office.

As time goes on, I’ll share a little more with you from this day.  Look forward to some Technoblog posts and podcasts, including our segment The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, to contribute to your own professional learning over the holidays.

Dear Colleagues,

The Learning Technology team invite you over the next two terms to participate in our exciting discovery program, Learning 2.0.

Learning 2.0 is a simple and fun way to discover more about the wide array of Web 2.0 or “read-write web” tools now available on the Internet. Don’t know what Web 2.0 tools are? No idea how to use them? Then Learning 2.0 is for you.

As a special incentive, St. Michael’s staff who complete all ten activities in Learning 2.0 will earn for their class an mp3 player with built-in
voice recorder. This also applies to non-teaching staff - teachers’ aides,
for example, could still make use of one in their work with children.

Learning 2.0 officially launches next Monday, 30 April. Take the time from Monday onwards to look at the first activity, then get started on Activity 2 when it’s up and running and get yourself registered. Remember that you have two whole terms to complete ten simple activities, so you have plenty of time to get involved and complete the activities.

Go to the Learning 2.0 website and find out more: http://stmbtech.pbwiki.com/Learning-2

This term, Multimedia Monday sessions will be open-library sessions. The library will be open, and Robert and Judy will be on hand to provide support to people who need advice with their Learning 2.0 activity, wherever they’re up to.

We invite you to participate in Learning 2.0, and use the library computers on Monday afternoons to complete your activities. That way, you also have your colleagues around to share ideas and ask questions.

The library will be open for Learning 2.0 business on the following Multimedia Mondays:

30 April (Week 2) - take this chance to learn about Learning 2.0 and complete Activity 1

7 May (Week 3)

21 May (Week 5)

28 May (Week 6)

Week 4 is not included as it is a Staff Development Day.

 
We look forward to you joining us on the Learning 2.0 journey.