Why Web 2.0 is critical

The following are notes from a presentation by Steve Hargadon from Discovery Educators Network. He has also created a wiki that discusses this topic.
The topic started with this thought. Currently only 10% of web users contribute to Wikipedia. As the web continues to grow, the amount of contributors will continue to climb. already we have way more content that we know what to do with. Some reasons why?
1. New Publishing Revolution

2. Tidal Wave of Information

3. Everything is participative i.e. book reviews on Amazon

4. A society of Pro ( producer) sumers ( consumers)

5. The Age of Collaborator - probably unparalleled for looking at a topic. ( Wikipedia)

6. Explosion in Innovations -How Breakthroughs Happen ( published by his brother) talks about how we now utilize regularly the ability to transfer information from one area to another

7. World Gets Even Flatter & Faster - i.e. Skype, Twitter, Open Professional Development

8. Social Learning Moves to Center Stage - study groups versus lecture hall. Oftentimes the learning occurs in the hallways after class, during discussions, versus actually IN the classroom.
now we have open courseware and apprenticeship models that are moving towards becoming the primary model. The idea of student as expert is growing.

9. The Long Tail - this term was developed by Chris Anderson and he discusses it in his book which carries the subtitle "Why the Future of Business is doing Less with More" We currently have access to resources we couldn't access in the past. Information from experts is readily available,we can watch videotaped surgeries

10. Social Networking is Opening up the Party. Love his analogies. blogging is like walking on stilts, a wiki is like juggling, and My Space is like the bedroom wall without the parent supervision piece. As of February, 2008, at any given time, 300,000 people are on My Space, 375,000 new clients sign up daily, and their 300,000,000 subscribers qualify them to be the 3rd largest country in the world.

Mr. Hargadon has created a school 2.0 wiki that list a plethora of sites, podcasts,etc. with information about the classrooms of the future.
The second part of his presentation agree pretty much with a lot of the idea that Jamie McKenzie also proposes regarding the fact that, regardless of the technologies of the future, these "digital natives" still need to be trained in real thinking skills. His wiki lists the 6 things that You can do as a teacher to help.

The bombshell, in his words, ? Web 2.o is the future of teaching.