November 3, 2018
My first memories of the internet do not exist within the domains of the school, but in my family home. I think the first I remember is Windows 95
when I was in middle years. Oh yes, and good old dial-up. I will never forget that connection sound,
sitting patiently until the mating call of the phone line connecting with the computer as it called back. The phone was then off limits. No calls in, no calls out. I used to worry that my friends (who rarely called) would not be able to get a hold of me because someone was online. We would only be on the computer for an hour (or usually less) a day and only if there was an assignment to research and we couldn’t find the information in our family’s collection of Encyclopedia Britannica.
If I wasn’t researching I might only use the computer for games like “Chip’s Challenge”
or “Solitaire” or “Ski Free”
where you had to try to avoid being eaten by the abominable snow yeti at the bottom of the hill, but it never worked.
Fast forward to the early-mid 2000s when Web 2.0 came around. The article “What Does ‘Web 2.0’ Even Mean? How Web 2.0 Completely Changed Society” discusses that the web is no longer a “static web” but “interactive”. We could connect with others on the internet, no longer needing to wait for the home phone to be available. My first introduction to this was MSN messenger. I didn’t start using it till a few years after the majority of my peers had been, but once I did, I was quite intrigued that I could talk to my friends and even connect with friends that had moved away and I didn’t have their phone numbers. Now we move into an era where anybody can put anything on the web; videos, Wikipedia, blogs and more. You had to be careful about what to trust for research and also what images you put up or what comments you made on social media. There became a time where I almost feared what social media could do to my reputation as an educator that I was almost prepared to delete (believing, at the time, I could delete it completely) my social media accounts. As I educated myself on digital citizenship, I realized that it wasn’t so scary to include personal information, but I had to be cognizant of what I would share and what I would not.
As from what I understand Web 3.0, from the presentation of my fellow classmates and the articles they provided, to be is that now we have the ability to have most of our technology to be connected to the web and that these technological devices can share information with one another, data they have collected from us, and allow for us to improve and make easier the things that we need to do. All this data is gathered about myself and other users in order to make technology more efficient and more user friendly. I was quite surprised when my Iphone, on its own, marked the location of my parked car and later when I needed to walk back to it, I received a notification on my car’s location. I was at first a bit concerned about lack of privacy, but having history of always losing my car in a parking lot, I was happy that I no longer needed to use my key fob to sound the alarm or horn on my car so that I could find it again in the parking lot. The more I relied on apps such as my maps, the more it adapted to my behaviors, keeping track of the places I went and other such data, that it can sometimes predict where I need to be. I also like how it connects with my calendar and suggests when I should leave my house, while giving me traffic updates, in order to allow me to get to my destinations on time.
Since the move to Web 3.0 has affected our learners, their environments and connections with others I think of Jackie Gerstein)’s quote, “The Web, Internet, Social Media, and the evolving, emerging technologies have created a perfect storm or convergence of resources, tools, open and free information access.” I think about how Web 3.0 is changing education. It began with Web 2.0 “technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks, and virtual worlds have become popular and are gradually making their way into the classroom” (Constructivism and Web 2.0 in the Emerging Learning Era: A Global Perspective, p 18). We have given rise to the constructivist learner and acknowledge that the educator is no longer the main source of information. We can no longer, as educators, use the excuse that we do not know how to use technology as a way from keeping it out of our classrooms. It would not be beneficial to our learners because of the ever-present way that it exists within their every day lives. It would be ignorant for educators to not adapt to the changes of society. As the internet allows for greater connection to social media, to other types of education technologies and more, educators need to be able to provide the opportunities for their students to be able to learn about these devices and technologies so that they can not only educated them on how to use them in their own education and lives, but how to be safe while using them.
Of course, this means that there will be those who are more advantaged to the opportunities to learn with technology and to be able to connect with others in this manner, and those that will be disadvantaged. Technology costs money. Those schools that have the access will be able to provide these opportunities for their students, not only through the purchasing of the technology itself, but through the education of the educators who will be using it to teach their students. The second advantage would be to the students who could afford their own devices for their uses outside of school. Those who cannot will, thus, be disadvantaged. Similarly, if educators cannot afford these devices, they too will be disadvantage and most likely creating similar disadvantage to their own students because they will not have the opportunity to use it outside of the classroom. Other disadvantage that have been mentioned in the article “Constructivism and Web 2.0 in the Emerging Learning Era: A Global Perspective” include privacy issues and plagiarism. It is much easier to plagiarize since the access of information is so prevalent and easy to access. The article also mentioned that that privacy would be a disadvantage because of the openness to access that allows for anyone to read materials placed on the web. Also, teens nowadays, as Amy B has mentioned in her post, are always connected to the web with their own devices. They do not no how to disengage or possibly give themselves boundaries to how much they are on the web or use their technology. As, Dr. Alec Couros mentioned in a CTV interview discussing the videogame “Fortnite” and as Amy B. also mentions about device usage, that there need to be boundaries set and healthy limits for internet access and social media interaction not only with children, but apparently adults as well. If we as adults, parents, and educators do not show ourselves setting limits, then how should we expect our children and students to do the same? But as my fellow classmates, Adam and Kelly mention in their blog posts, it is important for educators to take risks with the technologies they use in order to find out what works best for our students and for us as educators. It is part of our responsibility as educators to discover what works best for the education of our students and we can do so through the use of the internet, Web 3.0.
The Evolution of Web 1.0, to 2.0 and 3.0.
Writing Blog 
I feel like you hit the nail on the head when it comes to access to devices (both within and outside of school). The easy answer is to throw some money at additional technology (and PD on how to use) for schools (which is, I believe, being regularly done in many places). This sometimes closes a gap in access between 9:00 and 3:30, but still leaves people disconnected after school hours.
The biggest frustration I had when trying to ‘flip’ my classroom (back when that was an emerging idea in high schools) only to find out that many of my students lived in the land of rural dial-up access and spotty cellular service… It was 2010… how was that possible?). Unfortunately, nearly a decade later, and I know that many of those students still live in the dark ages of internet access.
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I like your point about how “we have given rise to the constructivist learner and acknowledge that the educator is no longer the main source of information.” This, in turn, places pressure on teachers to adapt their practice by incorporating tech. While I wholeheartedly agree that teachers need to take their share of the responsibility when it comes to learning about the tech-of-the-day, I’d also like to see more opportunities afforded to teachers to learn about it with their colleagues. Something as simple as a school-wide Google Doc organized by grade level/subject area would be a half-decent start!
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I love the comment about losing privacy, but I also giggled at your comment about your phone knew where you parked your car! There are some weekends where my phone suggests I should be somewhere based on my previous weekend outings. The main point that you made that hit home for me was “It is part of our responsibility as educators to discover what works best for the education of our students and we can do so through the use of the internet”. We need time to figure out what works with our teaching style and how we can best use technology to support student learning/achievement. Great post!
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