jenny

Tim Berners-Lee had a great vision for the internet when he began developing the World Wide Web in 1989. Berners-Lee wanted to make it a place were we could all meet, read and write. He wanted the web to be built by people around the globe linking data, personal experiences and talents.

1993: The Mosaic Web browser came into action and was the first part of Berners-Lee’s dream developed. 

Blogs (weblogs): During 2006 a blog tracking service listed around 25 million blog sites containing peoples personal journals etc.

20th century ended with the internet becoming an essential means of communication, connecting people from around the globe. There were text-based newsgroups created where people could share ideas, leave opinions and reviews. At the present time we are in the midst of an explosion of technologies which are happening in different areas of our lives, e.g, journalism, business and politics. “The people who will understand this best are probably only just being born” as quoted by Dan Gillmor.

There is transforamtional changes in store for teachers and students, though education has been slow to pick up on these.

The face of journalism has been changed due to the ease of being able to publish texts, pictures and videos.

Wikipedia: Is a document of information gathered together on a wiki that anyone who has access to the internet can publish and edit.

Digital Natives: are knowledegable and experienced at using computers, cellphones, weblogs etc, theses students have been born into a world of digital gadgets. Adults whom have never heard of such technologies are being out-smarted by children.

Digital Immigrants: Are those such as teachers who did not grow up surrounded by technology, they still print out their e-mails and use phone books to look up numbers.

RSS (rich site summary): is a technology thats allows teachers to subscribe to “feeds”, it reads to be an extremely useful application especially for eduaction.

Online Photo Galleries: When you place your photographs online your not only sharing then with family and friends but your also connecting to a community of photographers who share ideas and experiences.

Safety: Is about being responsible, appropriate and using your common sense. Like most things in like the web has risks yet they can be minimised by being safe, e.g, don’t go publishing your full name and address along with a photo of yourself. Teachers should do a lot of planning before allowing students to roam the internet, they should sort out specific sites which relate to the topic being studied and check that there is no bad language etc on the page.

The Web has gone from being a read only site to a read and write site connecting the world to one place a the touch of a button. Despite the newness of the web interactions such as Weblogs, Wikis, RSS and the likes many teachers and students are using them.

Jenny C 15-3-09