Web 2.0 Tools

As promised, I'll be discussing Web 2.0 tools.

I wasn't sure myself what Web 2.0 tools were until we discussed them in class. For those of you that are also confused, I will explain to the best of my knowledge from I am learning.

Web 2.0 tools are internet tools that can be used for free. Some examples of Web 2.0 tools are twitter, picnik, animoto, glogster, etc. These are tools that everyone can have access to and are free to use (some of these allow membership for better options, but for the most part, they remain free and are well enough to use without the cost of membership).

While I find that some of tools are okay for use, I take a bit of a personal issue with use of some these tools, such as picnik. They give the illusion that anyone can become an instant artist based on the simple use of tools for photos they may or may not have taken. It can offer some basic insight to photo editing though, so it's not entirely bad in that regard.

Aside from that, the others tools can seem to have an effect that allows you teach these items either very quickly, or just give a brief introduction to these tools, and let the students learn by exploring the tools for themselves, which could have positive and negative effects (obviously, it'd be hard to get support for the use of twitter in the classroom, but it has been done).

That's all I really have to say on the use of Web 2.0 tools, and if you're interested, I encourage you to do some research and play time with the tools yourself.