My blog for graduate school

Web 2.0 and the Network Effect

Personally, after reviewing our previous discussion posts, I have decided to focus on web 2.0 and content authoring by Kathe Conrad (originally posted back on 2/9).  Kathe’s discussion between her peers highlighted two important points for me.  First, Kathe discussed that Dabbagh and Reo (2011) had identified that web 2.0 inception occurred around the same time-frame of the dot com crisis back in 2000. Personally, after reflecting on the previous statement, this lead one to hypothesize that due to worldwide internet business decline (worldwide) it lead directly or indirectly to increased user-generated content.  Currently, it is evident that increased user generated content has had a “network effect” and this is apparent in how most of us learn today; through the use of wikis, blogs, and image blogs at home, at work and in graduate school.  A great example of the network effect is Wikipedia and how learners can make reasonable contributions on a given subject and collaborate with others while authoring a living document.

Secondly, I strongly agree with the statement made by Downes (2005) that “web 2.0 is not a technical revolution, it is a social revolution” and this is why I believe that Wikipedia has taken over as one of the leading resources on the internet.  Personally, I believe that web 2.0 has facilitated a social learning experience for its users and this is why I believe it has changed the way our society learns.  However, Boshra’s post identified that not all those in academia agree with this modality of e-learning and personally, I believe that all learners can benefit from both traditional and non-traditional learning methods.

3 comments Posted in  Uncategorized March 3, 2011

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3 comments Posted in  Uncategorized February 11, 2011