I was reading through articles sent to me via my Google Alerts news feeder and was saddened to learn that Web 2.0 is about to give up the ghost, at least according to PC Magazine columnist John Dvorak. Thankfully, a quick read of his post filled me with near instant relief, as I was immediately able to see if for the uninformed account that it is. (Ok, so I had my suspicions from the beginning…)
Failing to See the Forest for the Trees…
Dvorak sees Web 2.0 as a collection of technological passing fancies doomed to relive the same mundane if not altogether forgetful fate as CD-ROMs, pad-based computing, the IBM clone wars, and of course, every company and entrepreneur who went bust or closed entire divisions trying to wage the brick and mortar vs. e-commerce battle. He positions social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and yes… even Second Life, along with their participants, as being “totally out of control” and sure contributors to the downfall of Web 2.0. YouTube and their ilk are referenced as money sucking ventures (assume he’s referencing investors here?) doomed to fail, and user-generated content (like this blog) is painted as being forgettable at best. “Ouch John, that stings!”
Next up in his banal little rant is the idea that all things mobile, especially the iPhone, signify …well….something bad (he never really says), and that ad-based searching is just simply mundane – especially as most search engines fall by the wayside anyway.
Finally, he ends with a brief mention of widgets and toolbars, for which he doesn’t hold any particular contempt. No, he just feels that they would function better if only those pesky operating systems and browsers would get their acts together and stabilize. Yes my friends, Mr. Dvorak, a man who has been writing about the technology world since the 1980s, used approximately 700 words to tell us exactly how much he doesn’t get about Web 2.0.
To whittle Web 2.0 down to a collection of frivolous technologies belies a complete inability to see its possibilities in education. Students in Florida can create content on blogs and share audio and video podcasts with classrooms all around the world! The idea of course is that the many collaborative and social networking tools we as educators have come to see as essential are only valued because they allow us to excite, enliven, and motivate our students. It’s very curious to me that Mr. Dvorak doesn’t see this. Perhaps his lack of insight into the educational uses and benefits Web 2.0 technologies bring about, despite his informed position as a technology columnist, is really just a sign that ours is a message in need of a louder voice.
Technorati Tags: dvorak, web_2.0
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