Web 2.0 and Distance Education: Tools and Techniques

Web 2.0 is now a commonly heard buzzword in the world of instructional technology. While this word is often used, it is rarely defined. Unlike the impression it extends, there is no new version of the Internet or the Wide World Web. Instead this term refers to the new way in which these items are used. Prior to the dot-com crash the web was a place where experts and webmasters posted information, and users read it; the read-web (RW). After the dot-com crash, the use of the web began to change dramatically and to become more userfriendly, with interactive applications, tools, software, and sites popping up everywhere. Now it is the users who contribute, control, rate and utilize the content on the web; very different from 8 or 10 years ago and many now call it the read/write-web (RWW). This new interactivity and perspective on web use is popularly coin phrased as Web version 2.0 (Bell, 2009; Richardson, 2009; Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009; Smaldino, Lowther, & Russell, 2008; Solomon & Schrum, 2007).

Rogers (2003) defines the main factors of adoption of new innovations as: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity (simplicity), trialability, and observability. For a new innovation to be adopted both widely and quickly, it must positively correlate with these attributes. That is to say that adopters must: (1) see a good relative advantage to using it, (2) feel the innovation is compatible with their views, culture, needs, and lives, (3) the innovation must be simple in its use, thus easy to learn, (4) the innovation must be available for testing prior to full adoption, and (5) one must be able to observe the innovation, or talk to others who are using it, before they have to adopt it (Rogers, 2003). Web 2.0 applications offer all of these factors in overflow, and none of them in limitation. For this reason Web 2.0 applications have quickly become popular with users all over the world.

The interactive and socially generated Web 2.0 tools are supported by social movements that open up copyright and proprietary policies, and they include (but are not necessarily limited to), (1) RSS feeds, (2) weblogs (blogs), (3) microblogging, (4) wikis, (5) social graphics sites, (6) social connection sites, and (7) podcasting or videocasting (video production). There are also virtual worlds, but that will not be covered here. A quick review of the former listed tools and some of their uses in education are outlined in this article. A final discussion about the implications and responsibilities of these tools will conclude the article.

Several recent social movements have contributed to the success of the Web 2.0. One is the new Open Source Initiative (OSI) (2009), which proposes that software code and applications should be open source and free to anyone to copy, edit, and improve. Today there are many new open source freeware projects run by communities of people that corroboratively create code and programs online where anybody may download and use them. Another movement important to the success of the Web 2.0 is the Creative Commons (CC) (2009) project. CC items are published under relaxed copyrights and often allow use as long as credit is given to the creator. CC media can include music, video, and photography and can form an important part of student projects.

RSS feeds are a powerful way to collect specific articles and Internet content into one location. RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, and it allows people to collect information from the web without having to continually go to those websites (Bell, 2009; Richardson, 2009). It is a very powerful tool for both teachers and students.

Teachers can collect the RSS feeds for websites that publish content on the topic they teach, and then offer those to the students who can use them. If the instructor has a blog or class website they can post those feeds and their updates on a page at their site. There are many different kinds of RSS feeds, including not only podcast feeds, but feeds that search for specific terms, or tags, in articles online. There is absolutely no easier way to stay on top of current events and news in a given area than through RSS feeds (Bell, 2009; Richardson, 2009).

A web log, or blog, is the new expressyourself innovation. They are interactive in that readers can comment on and share the posts with others, or sign up for the blog's RSS feed so that readers get regular updates automatically (Bell, 2009; Richardson, 2009; Solomon & Schrum, 2007; Simonson et al., 2009). A blog can be easily created through sites such as Blogger, Typepad, and Wordpress. One can also download the open source freeware Wordpress and install it on their personal server to host their own blog.

There are many uses of blogs in classrooms for deepening learning. It can be used by the teacher as a class portal to publish information, links, updates, events, and articles. Any course with a writing component can utilize a blog very effectively for student essays or as course journals. Blogs can be used as a space for students to turn in their work, to reflect on their learning, to write about a class trip with photos, or to share their own updates on the topics being studied. Blogs can also be an easily created e-portfolio of student work, or a collaborative space for student projects. Students who may be too shy to speak up in class might find more courage in sharing their ideas, thoughts, experiences, and perspectives on a blog, thus attending to different learning styles. Students who know how to create, manage, and maintain a blog are learning an important skill in the new information society. Finally, a teacher in one class may contact a teacher in another state, or another country, and then their students could collaborate and interact together online through the use of blogs, offering multinational or cultural learning potential as well (Bell, 2009; Deng & Yuen, 2009; Richardson, 2009).

Bell (2009) explains how RSS feeds make blogs in the classroom a very effective tool. Students and the teacher can subscribe to each others’ RSS feeds and get immediate updates when someone posts new information. Blogs also have tags, or keywords, associated with different posts, making it easier to search for specific information among the millions of blog posts worldwide.

Writers outlining the benefits of blogging in education also mention some of the drawbacks, such as student safety (Bell, 2009; Deng & Yuen, 2009; Richardson, 2009). Students can submit harassing comments to each other, or post inappropriate and even illegal content. It is important that teachers closely monitor the work and sites of students, and discuss with them what a credible source is. Solomon and Schrum (2007) describe sites available just for teachers and classes that want to integrate blogs into their curriculum, and that mandate teacher supervision over all student blogging, such as EduBlogger or ClassBlogMeister.

Twitter is the new rage. Its adaptability to a wide range of uses and one’s ability to be truly narcissistic has probably contributed to its quick popularity. It is called microblogging, as only a very short snippet of information, updates, or links are given with each entry. Richardson (2009) says, “While the concept of Twitter seems a bit mundane, the implementation by online educators as a powerful professional development and communications tool is anything but” (p. 86).

Twitter allows regular updating on any given topic, as well as a way to stay in touch with others. There have been concerns over irresponsible use of Twitter as well. If people do not subscribe to credible news agencies, then they will get secondhand information from the uniformed. There was a recent scare created among Twitter users concerning the swine flu, and this episode made it clear that not everyone uses Twitter responsibly (Sutter, 2009).

On the other hand, it is a very fast way to spread important information to students. One can also create groups, called Twibes, in which all the students in a class could share updates on a given topic they are studying. Richardson (2009) outlines how Dale Baer, a physics teacher, has his students send Twitter updates using their mobile phones while on a field trip. This way, students who could not attend the trip are able to “follow” what is going on and what they are learning via the Tweet updates from classmates on the trip. The European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN) had a special account for the 2009 conference so that those not attending could still follow what was going on. These are just a few of the ways that Twitter can be used in education and information sharing.

There is not likely a person in the developed world who has not heard of Wikipedia. Some rave about its social implications for a society that collaboratively contributes massive amounts of information collectively and democratically. Others, usually online instructors, will complain about the problems it creates in education when students use it as a source in papers, or even directly plagiarize from it. There are both benefits and drawbacks to wikis.

“A wiki is an online writing space designed to be created and edited by groups of persons. The term derives from the Hawaiian work wiki, which means ‘quick’” (Simonson et al., 2009, p. 245). “And the key word here is ‘easy,’ because, plainly put, a wiki is a website where anyone can edit anything anytime they want” (Richardson, 2009, p. 55).

One of the main criticisms of sites like Wikipedia is that anybody can publish and edit content. For a collaborative business project, this could be just the right tool. For an encyclopedia, this gives the impression that the information there can never be trusted since anyone, experts or not, may edit it. Richardson (2009) argues, though, that Wikipedia is one of the largest peerreviewed and regulated sources of information available in the world, and that tests of deliberate attempts to insert errors were corrected within two hours. While it is not credible enough for research papers, it is an excellent source of quick information on many topics, and it shows the power of democratic and multinational collaboration on the Internet (Bell, 2009; Richardson, 2009).

Educators and organizations around the world are creating wikis for their classes and projects. A wiki can be a great class or school initiative to which students contribute, year after year. For example, wikis are used by cultures worldwide to host their cultural and natural heritage, which is useful not only to them as a repository of their indigenous traditional knowledge, but also a great source of learning for students from other countries. Wikis are also being used by professionals as a career source. Wiki-Educator, hosted by the Commonwealth of Learning, is a perfect example of a great OSI Wiki initiative. It is a wiki of educational resources that are contributed by people all over the world, and meant to be an open copyright source for instructors everywhere. In effect, wikis show the power of cross-national democratic social collaboration.

Photo and video sharing sites such as Flickr, Google Video, YouTube, iStock, or Photobucket, just to name a few, allow for uploading and sharing of photos and videos. There are endless possibilities for use in education.

Students can create multimedia video or photojournalistic projects on a course subject and then add them to these sites. Then people from all over the world can comment and give feedback on them (Richardson, 2009). Or, students can research topics they are studying at YouTube and Google video, looking up multinational perspectives. Finally, students can download royalty free and inexpensive stock photography for projects from sites like iStock. Furthermore, Flickr has a very large CC area where people allow their images to be used under relaxed copyright policies.

It is easy to search for photos and video on a given topic at all these sites, as there are tags (keywords) associated with each user entry. CC and royalty-free media are a very valuable resource for students doing blogs and other classroom projects. One must not forget audio sharing too, such as Jamendo, where students can get open source copyright free music and audio for their video projects. Students can also contribute to this endeavor by adding their own media in order create more open and free content on the web. Together, all of these media types offer a wide-range of powerful learning options for teachers.

Social networking sites, such as Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIN attract millions of users due to the easy way in which people can connect, share information, and create groups. While not as powerful to the classroom as some of the previously mentioned tools, these social connection sites still offer many advantages to education. Websites such as Myspace and Facebook can also be used as classroom blogs on the learning topics, or as journalistic photography showcases for students and teachers. For example, a class may create their own page at Facebook, and then photo galleries and blog entries about a field trip or class project. They can create a group and connect with class websites on the same or similar topics in other schools both nationally and internationally, and then comment on each other’s work.

There are other integrated uses as well. Subapplications within these social sites let one add their Flickr photos or list their Twitter updates. Professional connection sites such as LinkedIn also allow for group formation, which can be very useful to graduate students seeking integration into professional organizations. For example, through LinkedIn’s Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) group, or the Sloan-C group, members receive regular updates and news links on topics relevant to their careers. These are just a few of the uses these social connection sites can offer. Creativity is the only limit.

“With more than 10 billion pages of information on the Web already and millions more being added each year, it’s no wonder people are starting to feel overwhelmed by the Internet” (Richardson, 2009, p. 88). When looking for cool, fun, relevant, and credible sites on any given topic, where does one start to look? The answer is social bookmarking sites.

Sites such as del.icio.us, where people can share their Internet bookmarks with others, are increasing in popularity and in educational use. At these bookmarking sites, people enter in a link with an annotation and tags, or keywords, about it. These tags are searchable and used to find links connected to a given topic (Richardson, 2009). This allows for powerful searching when trying to find the best sites on one topic, and these come as recommendations by the users submitting them. It is the power of community resources at one’s fingertips.

Podcasts are digital files that can be subscribed to online, and then are downloaded automatically and regularly to one’s music player through podcastenabled RSS feeds and subscriptions (Bell, 2009; Richardson, 2009; Simonson et al., 2009; Solomon & Schrum, 2007). Now that newer music players also have video capabilities, there are a lot of people creating videocasts as well.

Podcasts can be a powerful way to promote school and classroom news, updates, activities, and information. Many teachers use them to create course audio lectures or to have interviews with guest speakers, and students may download and listen to them at home. Students with the equipment and skills may do class projects or work as podcasts that other students can then download. Language courses can utilize the millions of different language podcast shows online in an effort to help students work on listening comprehension, or music teachers can record recitals or snippets of music that students can listen to and mimic in practice at home (Bell, 2009; Richardson, 2009; Simonson et al., 2009; Solomon & Schrum, 2007). Finally, credible news agencies such as NPR create educational and newsworthy podcasts on many topics that teachers can get easy permission to use in the classroom.

Freeware audio editing tools, such as Audacity for PCs, or GarageBand for Macs, are easy to use and allow even novices to begin creating their own podcasts. Podcast shows can be hosted at a teacher's blog or school website, or can be uploaded to accounts created at sites such as iTunes or Podcast Alley.

A downside to podcasts is the lack of regulation, as in some there can be inappropriate content for some ages. The teacher should check all outside created podcasts or videocasts used in a course before giving them to students (Bell, 2009).

Web 2.0 offers a vast array of tools and applications that can be used by teachers in both online and face-to-face learning. They can all be integrated and used together, or separately, and through creativity offer new venues for student learning, and new venues that can interact on a national and global scale with others allowing for multicultural perspectives.

One downside to Web 2.0 is that a teacher must learn how to use these tools, and if there are no professional development programs in their school setting, then a busy teacher may not have time. Another downside is that a school and the students must have access to the technology necessary to utilize these tools, either at home or in a school computer lab. There are also safety concerns. Not all information provided through many of these Web 2.0 tools is appropriate for all ages. A teacher must carefully examine all outside videos, podcasts, RSS feeds, and blogs prior to using them in a classroom setting. A teacher must also closely monitor the work submitted by students to classroom projects and Web 2.0 accounts to make sure it does not include any inappropriate content and does not breech any copyright laws. Finally, a teacher must spend time explaining what credible vs. unreliable sources of information are as pertains to reading blogs and other such tools.

All in all, the drawbacks to Web 2.0 use in education are far surpassed by the benefits available. While these tools may not be appropriate in all contexts and learning environments, there are many cases in which they offer exciting new collaborative, connection and multicultural learning tools. In effect, the Internet and its socially constructed tools offer a million ways for students to interact, not only with each other and the teacher, but with students and people from all over the world. The Internet is here to stay, and in the new information society students must learn how to navigate it successfully. Many students are already using Web 2.0 tools, so now the teacher can offer students a responsible and valuable way to use them as well.