Journal 4

“Storytelling in the Web 2.0 Era” by Glen Bull
Learning & Leading with Technology, February 2008

This article is about four emerging trends resulting from the increased technological possibilities of the internet including the ability by users to add to content that is already available. The four areas highlighted are:

1. Web as a Platform, e.g. the possibility to develop lightweight applications used within a Web browser
2. User-generated Content, i.e. lowered barriers to authorship has encouraged greater production of user-generated content as one might see as text (Blogger), with photos (Flickr), as audio (podcasts), in video sharing (YouTube), and with social spaces (MySpace)
3. Sharing and Re-mixing, i.e. the linking, quoting, referring, and embedding among blogs, audio, images, and video to create a new work
4. Economic and Educational Value, e.g. the exchange of user-generated content for use of applications and inexpensive storage space

The benefits are far reaching, providing new advances socially, commercially, politically, and educationally. With regard to education, instead of relying solely on computer-based software to create a lesson, teachers can use web-based applications to offer students a greater variety of project-based learning opportunities. With the proliferation of Web-based tools (a story of ‘Dominoe the Dalmation’ told with 50 different Web 2.0 storytelling tools is featured in this article at http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools), ease of use, combined with the virtually free cost, Web 2.0 storytelling has created more educational opportunities than ever.

What is the greatest advantage to education of the Web 2.0 tools now available?

Without a doubt, the no cost to school feature is the greatest advantage. Teachers can create Web-based projects for free, and because the applications are available on the Web, students can continue to work on their projects at school (classroom, computer lab, or library), home or at the public library.

How would these trends in technology benefit every student?

As soon as you have a look at all the audio and visual possibilities of storytelling in the Dominoe example, there is no doubt that every student would have a method of portraying a story. If a student preferred or needed to rely on photos rather than words, there would be a slide show option for him, or if a student preferred to use fun, short, bits of information instead of a narrative format, she could use a comic strip to tell her story. There is a method of communication for virtually everyone!