Elearning - February/March 2008 - (Page 24) usingweb2.0tools concepts, students use many Web 2.0 applications throughout the semester. They share ideas on a blog and post class notes on a wiki. They track friends and social circles on Facebook. They vote on popular news articles by “digging” them at digg.com, where the stories that receive the largest number of “diggs” (votes) appear on the site’s front page. Such a process democratizes the Web, as now users can offer their opinions of the day’s top stories or the usefulness of articles on other topics. INVESTIGATE HTML (hypertext markup language) is used to display information on Web pages. However, XML (extensible markup language) is a structured format for sharing videos, photographs, blog posts and news headlines on Websites different from where they originated. Orange RSS icons (really simple syndication) as shown in Figure 2 appear on many Websites to indicate that their content can be broadcast to users interested in subscribing to it. This content is represented internally in XML. After subscribing to nals. Unlike a traditional Web page that requires knowledge of HTML coding in order to post information, updating a blog is as simple as completing an online form. Blogs have become a forum for individual creative expression — and have generated a number of “citizen journalists.” Many bloggers have developed large followings. Blogger.com and Wordpress.com are two popular blogging providers. A course blog may augment or replace a traditional course management system. Both teacher and students can post content about a class session, make comments and ask questions. Communication is not limited to the written word. Audio and video podcasts are a useful tool to record course lectures or summarize course concepts. Having students, rather than the teacher, create the media empowers them to not only share their course knowledge, but also master podcasting skills. Apple’s iTunes is a popular aggregator for downloading podcasts and managing the associated multimedia files. Above: Figure 1. Teaching Information Technology through the Lens of Web 2.0 Right: Figure 2. An RSS Icon an RSS feed from a blog or news site, you can use an aggregator program to check periodically to see if new content has been posted and download if it is found. COMMUNICATE Blogs (short for Web logs) are online jour- Possible Web 2.0 problems: E-learning Acceptance, and Security Concerns Yet enterprises that embrace Web 2.0 elearning tools should have no difficulty integrating them into the workplace, according to Richard Buck, Eluma’s CEO. “The efficiencies that an enterprise can reap are extremely great,” he notes. “When enterprises find out that users can do it themselves, they can pick up Web 2.0 technologies the next day. They don’t bury it for two years — it just gets done.” Because the domestic economy and workforce are becoming more knowledgebased, the market for Web 2.0 applications is enormous. “A couple of dynamics are working to accelerate the rate that organizations are B Y J E R RY R O C H E “The e-learning and knowledge segments are lagging some of the other segments in terms of Web 2.0 tools and technology becoming mainstream,” says Joe Lichtenberg, vice president of business development for Eluma, an emerging Web 2.0 developer and marketer. “In the past, a lot of the tools for knowledge management were more structured, rigid and hierarchical than the Web 2.0 technologies, which are just begging for engagement. E-learning enterprises are ripe for reaping the benefits to be gained from Web 2.0 technologies.” looking at Web 2.0 tools,” says Lichtenberg. “One is that knowledge workers are more pervasive in all industries. Knowledge workers need better, more efficient, more seamless ways to capture their research as an integral part of their daily activities, not as an additional set of steps that will slow them down — especially in a collaborative environment. There’s also been an influx of Gen-Y workers who are used to working with Web 2.0, so bringing those kinds of tools to the workplace is a no-brainer.” WEB 2.0’S FUTURE GROWTH WILL BE IN MORE EFFICIENT TOOLS. “We’ve been in the Internet space, the knowledge management space and around software for 25 years each, so the daily explosion of Internet technologies and Web 2.0 services is clear to us,” says Lichtenberg. “What strikes us is lack of productivity tools.” Adds Buck: “A huge amount of Web 2.0’s future growth will be in allowing workers to share their normal, everyday work instead of forcing them to become 24 February/March 2008 Elearning! http://Blogger.com http://Wordpress.com
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