Web 2.0: Helping Reinvent Education http://thejournal.com/articles/21907_2

Web 2.0 is a "perceived" second-generation edition of the world wide web. "Perceived" because the celebrated features attributed exclusively to Web 2.0 are based on ideas that were present in the development of the web from the beginning. It just took this long for the proliferation of computer access and some modest technological advances to make these features attainable. Web 2.0 in its most ideal form refers to any web communities that "facilitate creativity, collaboration and sharing." Blogs, wikis, and podcasts are all examples of these kinds of sites. The article identifies a resultant paradigm shift in peoples' thinking process. The participatory and collaborative nature of Web 2.0 assures that "knowledge is gained through bottom up, individual methods, rather than top down, traditional forms." The article goes on to correctly(I think) conclude that new forms of knowledge and learning demand new ways of teaching. It's time to retool our education system so that it compliments the new knowledge acquisition technique of our next generation learners.