Defining the Usefulness of Web 2.0

by Bruce Umpstead, Director, Office of Educational Technology and Data Coordination, Michigan Department of Education

Web 2.0, a term being thrown around by more than just techno geeks, is defined as the ability to quickly and seamlessly transcend different information technologies—such as a browser, search engine, a text document, and email—to research, collaborate, and produce work much more rapidly than even five years ago.

Although many people disagree with the full definition of Web 2.0, the user-generated encyclopedia Web site Wikipedia.org defines the term as follows: “Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of Web sites to a full-fledged computing platform serving Web applications to end users. Ultimately, Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.”

One example of how Web 2.0 works is as follows. A person writing a short sidebar on the definition of Web 2.0 could take any “official” definition found on the Internet and paste into a document as part of a larger article. When the article is completed, it is sent to an editor for review. The editor then decides to paste it into a newsletter for printing or post it to a Web site. The ease of this process is the essence of Web 2.0. Better still, once posted on a Web site, readers can make their own comments or critiques of the side bar adding more knowledge and context to the discussion.

For teachers, the highlight of Web 2.0 is that it not only utilizes the Internet as a source of knowledge but as a place for contributing to that knowledge. In most cases, people only have to know how to locate a tool to use it, leaving programming to someone else.

For example, a teacher can create a blog post in as little time as it takes to type the information. No blog page? No problem—create a complete Web site and blog in less than ten minutes using a “wizard” (a part of a program that guides users through certain steps) without typing a single line of HTML code at places such as www.blogger.com.

Web 2.0 holds powerful promise for educators and students as one of many technologically based concepts that will help students of today become the leaders of tomorrow.