My thoughts on Web 2.0.... hmmmm. Well, they vary in the extreme. After watching those first couple of videos I really hated it. My first reaction on that Writeboard thing (or whatever it's called) was something along the lines of this....
"Gosh golly, when I contemplate this brave new web world, where no one will ever again read a book or think in a coherent, linear fashion or have an actual conversation with a teacher..... I just want to put a bullet through my frickin' head! Nobody would look up long enough to notice, though. They'd all be too busy blogging and linking and texting and wiki-ing and god knows what else. It seems to me that, instead of trying to battle attention deficit disorder, we've surrendered to it. Everything from now on will be a series of fleeting, electronic, thought chunks, which will quickly link to others, and none of it will ever add up to anything but confusion. Because god forbid anyone should slow down, think, turn off the computer, and try to get any of this to make sense...."
You get the idea. I could've ranted on and on.
On the other hand, sure, a lot of this is cool. I love, for example, that I can have a class website or wiki or whatever (I'm still not sure which is better) and I have lots of ideas how I could use it (although I might need a year off to make them all happen). Lately I've realized that I can post lots of history pix and material on there as a back-up for my history lectures. (Yes, I still lecture. No doubt a felony at this point.) And there are also sorts of guidelines and quizzes and what-not that I could post on there. I definitely hope to start using more of this.
I guess I just resist the implication of these breathless videos and articles that nothing but scattered, disjointed, web-based learning will make any sense for the future. There is still a lot to be said for a teacher and students in a room together, talking about things -- not talking while also looking at computer screens, but talking and looking at each other. And for reading books -- actual books, with covers and pages you can touch.
