Web 2.0 Technologies

"Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS feeds have been dubbed "social software" because they are perceived as being especially connected, allowing users to develop Web content collaboratively and open to the public" (Alexander 2006 cited in Parker and Chao 2007) Question: Does anyone over 40 years of age (not working in IT or media) have a clue what any of those words mean? If these are just things that kids and computer programmers play with when they should be getting some fresh air - can't we just ignore it? From an academic perspective is collaboratively designed web content such a good idea? How many times have you written "don't use wikipedia" when marking a student essay? What's the real fear? Is it that we lecturers are losing control of the information flow? Or is it that we don't trust students to develop their own ideas? Lars Aronsson, a data systems specialist, summarizes the controversy as follows: "Most people, when they first learn about the wiki concept, assume that a website that can be edited by anybody would soon be rendered useless by destructive input. It sounds like offering free spray cans next to a grey concrete wall. The only likely outcome would be ugly graffiti and simple tagging, and many artistic efforts would not be long lived. Still, it seems to work very well.(Heigl, Richard; Glaser, Markus; Ebersbach Anja (2006): Wiki: web collaboration. Springer, ISBN 3540229396) Just thinking about that grey wall .... Either way we can't ignore these technologies, we have to work out how to use them to everyone's benefit - learner and teacher. "talk to junior staff in any organisation and they'll be the ones doing this stuff. Obviously I'm not suggesting you give the office junior a fat load of bandwidth and let them play all day but consider how these digital natives are going to change the way you structure your business" (Ranger, S 2007) Enough chat - what are these tools and how can we use them in HE? Wikis Blogs Social Networking Sites ...........Facebook ...........delic.io.us ...........Second Life