Thursday, May 22, 2014

Constant Motion: The Never-Ending Evolution of Internet and its Application in the Field of Education

The Internet since its introduction as a public tool for information or media, it has not stopped evolving.  I remember when I was in school, I had to wait for my mom to hang up the phone and connect my PC into the phone plug; now, 13 years after I’m always connected to the internet almost everywhere, either on my laptop or my smartphones. But, to get to the place where we are on this day and age we must get back to the start. Internet started using Web 1.0, you guys all wondering “what’s web 1.0?” well basically Web 1.0 was the first period of the Internet that ran from 1994 until 1997. What were the characteristic of Web 1.0? The main features of Web 1.0 is the use of static pages, one great example of the pages used in that era were the Terra.com, Cheatcc.com, and many others. Other feature those Web 1.0 web pages were static, meaning that the information posted is exactly the one that it was stored on the webmaster’s computer. This feature also meant that the content of the pages was only administered by the webmaster, without letting the interaction between users. Even though Web 1.0 is somewhat outdated, it still has it uses; news webpages like CNN.com, Globovision.com and others still use a Web 1.0 format, where the reporters post the news or information needed to keep the page dated and fresh. 


Example of web 1.0 webpage (quite new, huh?)

Now, let’s head back up to more recent times, specifically to 2003, where Web 2.0 was promoted. Web 2.0 is the type of web that we still use nowadays in examples such as social networks, wikis, blogs, and other sites. The main attractive of Web 2.0 is that the flow of information is uninterrupted, letting users and webmasters create, share and modify the information that is feeding the page, letting users participate in the development of the webpage itself, something that was impossible back in the Web 1.0 days. An example of Web 2.0 is on a wiki, someone something regarding a specific topic, the person posts it, then the user or users can share that information or they can modify it to make it look even better. Another advantage that web 2.0 have permitted its users, is the inclusion of free software, why? Because it permits people from around the world to create software for educational, scientific or research purposes that can facilitates the needs of other without having to wait for a developer to create it. An important step for web 2.0 is its connectivity, by that I mean that it let us communicate with others at anytime, anywhere. Thirteen years ago was difficult to communicate because e-mail was the only available option, and it still is one of the tools that we use, but, nowadays we have Skype, Twitter or Facebook that let us know new people from other parts of the world, we can share our creations to other people (by using clouds or other services), in the case of musicians (I’m a musician myself), we can show our songs and albums to people from other countries without the necessity of a producer or a record company. 



The difference between 1.0 and 2.0

As I said before, Internet is in constant motion, evolving without ending, right now users from around the world are using web 2.0 pages or applications all around the world, but we are reaching the next step: Web 3.0, 3.0 will be the next step in information technology that will allow us to immerse into virtual worlds, a good example is the Project Occulus Rift (see the video below)


Besides its connectivity, web 3.0 will allow us not only to share or create information, but also to look up on information, rather than using keywords or phrases in order to get it. In here I post another video about web 3.0 and the inclussion of semantic webs.



But how web 2.0, 1.0 or 3.0 can affect Education? well, the answer is simple, the new generation is adapting more and more to technology, whether they use smartphones, tablets, Internet, laptops, etc. and we as a teachers must adapt to this coming era. With educational platforms like Moodle, Edmodo, Blogster we can adapt our teaching to this new pages and gadgets making our day to day work easily. Imagine the possibilities, we can create chat rooms, or forums in which our students can debate on a certain topic letting teacher evaluate their writing of use of grammar, or put a video and make questions about it, letting the teacher evaluate their listening comprehension. Heres a video about the uses of web 2.0 for education.



Before I go, Internet and the web are useful tools that can allow us to improve our teachings and we as teachers, professors or reseachers must adapt and gain this opportunity to open the student's door to knowledge. Over and out. 

2 comments:

  1. Good job, Giacomo. Remember that the web search button is usually placed at the top, preferably on the right side. You still have lots of space remaining for gadgets and widgets. (calendars, dictionaries, useful links, etc.)

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  2. Great post Giacomo! It is really friendly, precise, and informative. Wonderful work. Congratulations!

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