So what happens now ?

The progression from Web 1.0 through Web 2.0 and onwards through Web 3.0 is exponential. From docs to blogs, pods, wikis and beyond, children, students and learners of all types are using the growing power at their fingertips to develop their ideas in exciting, stimulating and creative ways.

They are collaborating, creating, digesting, reworking, demanding, focusing, inventing and re-inventing!

They use their own internet connected devices and want to use them everywhere ... quite rightly and institutions need to consider how they can help and facilitate this.

The 'read/write' aspects that excited us with passion last year have sprinted forward giving new meanings to both parts… read and write.

Each day we find institutions besieged by the advances made, which they seemingly have little or no control over and today‘s person wants control! What price is a three to five year development plan when change is so fast?

How do we match this in a world where earthquakes and the global 'crunch' have the capacity to change peoples' lives forever? How do we manage all of the information we now have? What effect does it have on us and ours? Who are the owners? Who are the buyers and who the sellers?

… So what happens now … let‘s explore the opportunities and take the risk of finding out

'The future is already here - its just not evenly distributed' William Gibson

We have seen it coming, we have used many elements of it and we all call it different things.

Is it ‘social software’? Is it Web2.0? Is it ‘New Generation’? The title matters not, but the operation is the difference between ‘push’ and ‘pull’. In our own social and professional lives as mainly digital immigrants (see the work of Marc Prensky) we have begun to embrace a new form of ‘living’. We have returned to older ways of finding out; we ask to know. But our asking is wider and involves interaction and debate. We have begun to embrace the technology to help us with this but its exponential change leaves us gasping at what we can now do and who we can talk to and, best of all, what we can say.

There is real power here for our own professional development that we have only just begun to tap into. We need to make a personal move from ‘immigrant’ to ‘native’. The latest generation of social software is evolving. That is part of its power and its excitement. In our schools we are dealing with digital natives (although, in his latest writing Marc is himself re-phrasing this).

This is their world and they have never known one that is different. If we do not make use of the power of their native technology in our work with them as educators then there is a high chance that they will want to bypass our system. The very essence of schooling as we know it is at stake here. Up until now the questions and the answers have been applied to older students working in our secondary schools but now the message is coming down the age range. Older brother and sisters have younger brothers and sisters who want to know.

They watch their older siblings deal with ‘MySpace’, ‘Facebook’ and ‘Bebo’; they use ‘Flickr’, ‘del.ic.ious’ and ‘Diigo’; the write on ‘Zoho’; they communicate on ‘Skype','Twitter' and ‘MSN’; and they ‘Google’ everything from calculations to maps and beyond.

They already know how to do it and they bring their skills and knowledge with them to the school education party.

What, if anything at all, are schools doing about making the best, most efficient use of this power to enhance teaching and learning? What are the strengths that we can latch on to and work with? Where are the weaknesses and the problems? Where will we find best practice? Have a quick glimpse into the future before you start ... we all could do with 2020 vision.

Written in 2003 in the time of 'Web 1.0' does it excite or ...?

The age group is falling and falling for the use of social software and we must all be aware and beware of that. It is our job to educate and support our young people in the educational and social use of the tools that they have available ... the distinction between the two aspects is, after all, our not theirs.