share share share.

The Internet can sometimes be deemed an overwhelming source of knowledge. With the endless access to information, people often feel intimidated and uneasy with the quantity of content accessible. This information overload however serves to emphasize the endless possibilities that come with the Internet. Whilst yes it can be overwhelming, the possibilities and resources that are available at the click of your mouse provide you, the teachers and your students with copious amounts of information that no textbook could ever store. The world is quite literally at our fingertips. Logging online has the potential to answer any of our student’s questions, anywhere, anytime, therefore with this great source of knowledge comes a need for teachers to create learning environments that utilize such a tool.

"Young people say to me, “when I need to know something at the point when I need to know it, I will find it in five minutes. So why are you wasting my time in class?” We must have a good answer."

Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology, Newcastle University

We all know the content of information available via the web is dramatically more than any physical library could ever hold; however with that comes the daunting prospect of filtering content, deciphering relevance and credibility. Hope is not lost, thanks to the introduction of folksonomies or otherwise known as social bookmarking, we have a way of creating our own individual libraries online. When we think about web 2.0 we associate terms such as sharing, collaborative learning, anywhere, anytime, therefore it's no wonder that with web 2.0 comes this concept. Social bookmarking is fast achieving a dominant presence online and its potential benefits within the classroom are clearly evident.

Delicious is the most notable source for social bookmarking, giving you the opportunity to “save all your bookmarks online, share them with other people, and see what other people are bookmarking,” (Delicious, 2011) the ultimate way to keep track of your online findings. So sure this is a great resource for any individual out there but how can it benefit our growing technological classrooms? Well that’s just it, technology like these are made for teaching. They offer a great way of filtering content for students, deciphering credibility and allowing students to create their own online libraries that are of relevance to them.

Similarly RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds seem to be essentially made for the classroom. By customizing the content in your feed, you’re able to receive a collective intelligence on the topic of your choice. How convenient would it be to follow a particular news feed as a class, on the topic that you’re studying? Or perhaps follow a group of particular people who have experience and expertise in the field you’re studying? Not only would this engage the students (let’s be honest, anything online has a degree of engagement) but it would also give them the opportunity to hear from experts, other students and people from around the world, broadening what could’ve otherwise been a one dimensional topic study in the classroom. By adding these dimensions students can eagerly arrive into the classroom and instantly be privy to detailed information on the class topic. As previously stated web 2.0 is about sharing, collaboratively working together across the globe to achieve more in-depth and further thinking from our students, therefore these technologies are a stepping stone in creating worldly and universal children that ultimately are the future.

The most profound influence on life in the 21st century may turn out to be the Internet. The Internet links us to the greatest repository of information in the history of civilization. It also provides multiple modes of communication. Finally, it is the most efficient system in our history for delivering new technologies to read, write, and communicate. Together, these elements permit individuals to construct new information, new knowledge, and even newer technologies. As a result, the Internet is in a continuous state of becoming, regularly transforming each one of us as we, in turn, transform it.
Donald Leu et al, New Literacies Research Lab, University of Connecticut