bugsii

These days I throw around the term Web 2.0 with reckless abandon, sometimes forgetting that when I got to OSU, I had heard it, but did not know what it meant.  So, I thought I would take a few minutes to explain what it is, if not for you, dear reader, than for my own personal clarity.

Let’s start with Web 1.0.  Of course, it was never called Web 1.0 until there was a Web 2.0 (sort of like Guido, Sr.).  But anyway, Web 1.0 was the first version of the internet.  It was sort of a simple move from print to screen.  The same barriers to authorship still applied.  Only those who knew programming could publish and the rest of us sheep were happy to consume whatever was presented to us.  Oh yes, there were the occasional message boards or chat rooms, but these were few and far between and much less a part of the culture than they are today.  I like to think of this version of the internet as a dictatorship.  Those with the power controlled the information and the readers, well, they really had no say whatsoever.  They just had to do as they were told and poke around on really terrible websites.

Then came the democratization of the internet (cue the Hallelujah Chorus), also known as Web 2.0.  Slowly and steadily, interaction between creator of site and consumer of site increased until gradually, that line blurred so that it was hard to tell who was a “creator” and who a “consumer.”  Take facebook for example.  Sure, I didn’t make the framework, but I am not a passive consumer of information.  I created my own page and I contribute to the pages of others by my constant messaging and updating.  My blog is another good example.  I didn’t create wordpress, but I certainly designed this site (okay, Dan helped), fill it up with my own gobbledy-gook and sometimes other people even fill in some of the space on here.  No longer do I have to read the misinformation of the lone tech geek; now I can create my own misinformation!  Viva Web 2.0!

All jokes aside, this form of interactivity has serious implications for education (formal and informal).  It is truly a constructivist approach and something that classroom teachers have been attempting for more than a few years now…. how to be the guide on the side rather than the sage on the stage.  Rather than lecturing to the class (so Web 1.0), teachers are asking students to work in groups to construct knowledge together.  And now, with the opening up of the internet, students are able to construct knowledge with an even larger community with even more knowledge.  Knowledge, that, I would argue is a little more nebulous, but certainly more democratic.  Take wikipedia.  A few articles we read in my tech class (can’t find them right now) found about the same amount of errors in a regular print encyclopedia as in wikipedia.  This is kind of exciting.  Anyone can edit on wikipedia, which means the average Joe who knows a lot about Astronomy has equal importance to the Astronomy professor and together they apparently make wonderful music.  The idea is that the collective is smarter than any one individual.  So, why pay the Astronomy professor to write an informational book when internet users as a collective will do it for free in their own time.  The benefits of this sort of digital conversion?  The information, if wrong or changes, can be fixed immediately.  New encyclopedia volumes must be reprinted and redistributed, hanging around for years to recirculate that misinformation.  Wikipedia is also free and available to anyone with an internet connection.  No need to buy a book or go to the library and hope it’s in.

This same sort of learning (a dialogue, a community) can also happen in the classroom.  A teacher can easily start her own wiki for free and students can populate it with information on rocks or grammar or fraction.  They can work together to create this piece of knowledge, they can correct themselves and each other and they also get to have a wider audience with which to interact.  Students can even go beyond the classroom and find their own communities to join and participate in.  Maybe they find a writing community where they get to share their stories and get comments by other young people who love to write and who do it for fun, even when it’s not an assignment.  Right now, there is a community for virtually every activity you can think of.  People are out there learning.  Maybe not school learning, but real, authentic learning.  People are participating in a process driven by their own interest and the possibilities of the internet. Could this change how we think of school?  Could this change how we “do” school?

So, the state finally came to a concensus (sort of) on the budget.  Here’s the latest from the Dayton Daily News:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/proposed-state-budget-could-lay-off-thousands-203190.html

I don’t want to be a party pooper, but please note that the title of the article is “Proposed State Budget Could Lay Off Thousands.”  Hmm.  I wonder what will happen to the intern?  Hopefully everyone will forget about her.

So, I’m walking to work this morning, listening to NPR on my iPod and I spy a suspicious looking character on a bench a ways up.  Not so suspicious that I was nervous, just suspicious enough that I thought I should take note. You know, like one of those guys that mutters to himself, but is relatively harmless?

I’m listening to a puzzle show with Will Short and they are presenting puzzles to a guest who gets to answer them.  They are asking for a list of things in a certain category that include words that start with the letters in BEACH.  Don’t ask me why, but it was fun.  They had him list presidents that started with each letter, then breakfast foods, and then they asked for keyboard symbols that started with each letter.  This one was a challenge for him.  He starts by  skipping b and e because he can’t think of them.  I immediately think… Backslash!  Exclamation point! He goes on to a, apostrophe, and c, colon and h… he had to think.  I had nothing.  “Hyphen!” he finally said.  Then he goes back to b… can’t think of it. Backslash! Back to E, “Escape?” he says.  They give it to him even though it’s not a symbol (they wanted equal sign or exclamation point).  B… he’s still thinking… thinking.  Backslash!  Backslash!

I suddenly realize that I am no longer thinking the word backslash, I am instead whispering it loudly.  And, remember that strange character on the bench?  He is now staring at me and probably thinking he better make note of me.  Ah well…

Today was a good day.  I got my haircut, I went shopping, and then we had Ben, Matt and the other Murphy kids over for some UFC.  While waiting for UFC to start, we ate pizza, played bananagrams, catchphrase, apples to apples and then took a walk to get ice cream.  Now, we’re all huddled in the living room watching some good fights.  I’m just glad GSP kicked some butt.  Uh oh, Lesnar just won.  Boo.

I’m so tired, gotta get some sleep.

Have you ever been reading a regular book or magazine and you want to find something specific and you think about hitting ctrl+F, but then you realize you are reading a book on actual paper and that you can’t?  I hate when that happens.  As much as I like the feel of a book or magazine, the functionality of reading on screen can be a lot more efficient and interactive.

Yesterday I went to Border’s to pick up the 7th Harry Potter in paperback (finally!) and I decided to stay and get some work done for school.  I couldn’t get internet there, which I thought was a good thing until I started reading and writing like I usually do now and was sort of stopped cold.  The first thing I noticed was that there was a word I didn’t know.  Usually, I would just open up a tab on Firefox and quickly reference the definition on one of several online dictionaries.  Then, when I was writing something, I was trying to choose the right word and needed the online dictionary again to make sure it really was the right word.  Then, I came across a reference in a journal article to another article that I thought I should look up, download, and save for later, but I couldn’t.  Then, in that same article a different topic was mentioned, and I remembered that I wanted to read a blog entry on that.  I went to open up another tab on Firefox again, but then I remembered, no internet.  I started taking notes on how many times this happened (on paper no less).  It also happened when I realized that I should check my library due dates online, found a reference to a website I wanted to look up (classroom 2.0), wanted to twitter a new word I learned, and just wanted a break to check facebook.  This all might sound a little bit schizophrenic, but I’d like to think that it’s more… connected maybe.

See, I used to think reading on my computer was the same as reading on paper, just a change of venues so to speak.  But, now I see it as a qualitatively different process.  Scholars call this idea “new literacy” (like Livingstone, Leu et al. and others) and argue that the notion of literacy should be expanded to include these interactions that take place when reading and writing online.  They also argue that these skills are important for students to learn.  I think I agree, and I didn’t fully realize it until I was trying to do my work the way I am used to and was confronted by the lack of a now integral component to my reading and writing… the internet.  I feel like having internet access when I read and write makes my writing better, more well-rounded and more relevant to me.  The computer (with internet access) goes everywhere with me now.  Sometimes I get so in the zone when I working in this way that I almost forget in the real world.  The professor in one of the classes I am TAing for right now was talking about students today and how sometimes you don’t know where the student ends and the computer begins, sort of like cyborgs.  They are that fluent.

So, what do you think?  Are you a cyborg yet?  Has the computer and the internet become an essential part of the way you read, write and interact with the world?  Is it coming?

Finally!

My new macbook is awesome!  This is my first post on the neato backlit keyboard. 

Dan and his dad have been working on making custom joysticks for Street Fighter type games.  Dan made a website to show them off called Angelone Arcade.  He needed a logo to put on them (or I thought he did), so I came up with this and I think we need some feedback.

Get it?

I think he should burn this into the stick (they are made of wood).  Is it too plain?  Does it make sense?  Help me out, yo.

This morning in yoga class, it was “balance day.”  That meant that for most of the class all of us were either shaking, while we tried to balance, or falling, when we lost our balance.  It was pretty hilarious.  Hard, but hilarious.

The weather today was perfect.  It was warm, not windy, and sunny.  I could have sat in the shade and read for hours, if I had the time.  When I checked the weather on my iPhone, it was 75 degrees.  So, I declare 75 degrees, sunny with no wind, the perfect weather.  Yes, I do.

Class was good tonight.  I really like teaching future teachers about technology.  It’s a lot of fun.

Probably the best part of the day, was getting to go to Northstar for dinner with Dan.  I used my gift certificates I got from Ben, so it was close to free!  Woo hoo!  And I’m “off” tomorrow, just have a paper to work on…

I feel like my blogs are going downhill.  Hopefully, when I’m done teaching in a few weeks the quality will improve.  My apologies for the time being.

So, I have big news.  I’m doing little study on female blogging doctoral students (I know that’s quite the small group), but I just found out that one of my participants (of 3 so far) is going to be danah boyd!!  This is good news because she’s a pretty well known researcher.  For her dissertation at Berkeley she did a long study of teens using facebook and she is sort of the social networking guru.  Having her in my study will definitely at least get a few glances if not more.  I’m psyched!

The best news of the day is that I got 8 hours of sleep last night.   That was pretty amazing.  Then, I had a super challenging yoga class, which felt great.  Then (maybe this is the best news), I finished my paper submission for the American Educational Research Association.  I probably shouldn’t tell everyone, since I’ll be embarassed if my paper gets rejected, but whatever.  It felt good to finish.  Next year, the conference is in Denver and I really hope that this paper gets accepted so that I can get my trip partially paid for.

Tonight, I had class and it went well.  Then, I got to talk to Marcy for awhile (maybe that was the best part of the day).  Now, I’m watching some TV waiting for Dan to get home from Cincinnati.  That’s it, dudes.  I wish I was more exciting.  Or maybe I don’t.