Week 2 Reading Response

January 24th, 2008
Lindsey Griggs
EDT 457/458
Week #2 Reading Response

A Day in the Life of Web 2.0 (Warlick 2006) was eye opening for me. I just couldn’t imagine my site or district being that organized to be successful with communicating in such a virtual way. I think it is absolutely wonderful because it allows teachers, parents, and administrators to work together to teach students and inform parents as well as collaborating more in-depth about what is being taught.

The Top 100 Alternate Sites article was confusing yet intriguing at the same time. It is difficult to understand all the savvy internet language used, however, I obtained from the article that there are a lot of search engines that are great besides the well-known “Google” site. I didn’t even realize that “Google” was the top search engine! I have always used yahoo and am now starting to use “Google” more. I guess it really made me feel like I have a lot to learn about what is new in the online world and that the internet is a fast-paced ever-changing media, where one can just be consumed by all the different tools and knowledge that the internet has to offer. I need to step outside of the box and start challenging myself to use different sites and explore more.

The other articles that interested me off of RWW were: Semantic Web: What is the Killer, Top 100 Alternate Sites, 2008 Web Predictions, and A Big List of Sites that teach You How to Do Something. The last site I mentioned was fascinating to me. I checked out the links Instructables and VideoJug, which are considered the world’s largest show and tell and tutorials sites for general things from food and how to make a cake, to the steps on building a deck etc. To be honest, I didn’t know these kind of sites existed, or at least to this extent. The videos where easy to follow, see, and quite user friendly. I would definitely go back and use these web 2.0 tools.

I would like to know more about the Semantic Web: What is the killer. The article left me questioning really what it is means. Does it relate to a simple language that the computer can understand easier to solve more complex problems?