Web 2.0 ~ An exact definition of Web 2.0 has been debated since the term was first coined in 2003 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2), however for this inquiry, Web 2.0 is the collection of tools that allow students to collaborate and share information and ideas with others.
Flat World ~ The concept of a “flat world” is taken from author Thomas L. Friedman’s concept on how advances in technology allow people all over the globe to communicate and collaborate with each other.
Blog ~ Short for web log, this is a journal posted on the web. In a classroom setting, this can be the work of the teacher, providing information to students, or a collaborative tool for the entire class. Many blogs use multimedia including pictures, sounds and video. Blogs can be public or private (require passwords). Here is an excellent slideshow presentation on types of blogs: http://blog.ogilvypr.com/?p=157
Wiki ~ This is a web-site to which anyone can add and edit content. Wikis can be public or private (require passwords). Most wikis allow pictures and many also allow sounds, video and other multimedia. Most wikis have a history or edit changes page so that teachers can track student participation.
RSS Feed ~ RSS stands for “really simple syndication.” Synonyms are “feed”, “web feed” and “channel.” Users can request that news sites and blogs send updates to the user’s specified reader or aggregator, a specialized program that collects all the updates. These updates usually consist of short descriptions of the latest news or blog entry, together with a link to the full content. RSS feeds can be very useful to students who are studying a topic and want to be sent updates on a regular basis without spending extra time to hunt down the information. A very good video explaining RRS feeds in plain English can be found here: http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
Tag ~ Tags are labels or keywords used to index or classify information. Tags can be used to label images, blogs, social bookmarks and other information posted on-line. The image of the Mona Lisa, for example, may be tagged with: Leonardo, da Vinci, Mona Lisa, Italy, Renaissance, perspective, oil and others. This type of classification is also called folksonomy.
Cloud Tag ~ A tag cloud is a visual representation of different tags being used on a web-site. The popular terms are usually depicted in larger text. Clicking on a cloud tag can lead to another cloud of related terms, related images or other information.
Social Network ~ This is a web of individuals connected to each other in some way. On the internet, it is usually groups of people who have joined an on-line community. Often, there these communities have a common interest, for example, Education. Examples of social networks are MySpace and Facebook.
Social Bookmarking ~ These are systems for storing and classifying bookmarks of favourite web-sites, which can then be shared with others. Some sites are subject-specific. On certain sites, bookmarks are ranked by popularity. One example is del.icio.us
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Shayne Train, Education, Educational Technology, Computer Literacy, Web Tools