Web 2.0 both excites and frustrates me. First of all, regardless of how I feel about it, I am certain that it is the present reality for most people my age or younger and that it will continue to evolve more rapidly than I can learn to use it. I strongly believe in the power of collaboration and I can readily see how Web 2.0 supports and promotes collaboration. I agree with my colleague, Matt Thompson, who writes in his Moonlight through the Pines blog that Web 2.0 can serve as “a kind of proxy community that has been lost.” Web 2.0 is engaging, stimulating and appealing on many levels. However, I wonder about privacy and anonymity.
I have begun to use Web 2.0 tools in my professional practice. Within the past few years I stuck my toes in the water of social bookmarking, social calendaring, document sharing and most recently blogging. These tools and my limited and sometimes floundering use of them have already helped me better organize my work and better communicate with others. It does become frustrating to try to use Web 2.0 tools when all users are not at the same level of familiarity with the tool. This creates dual work for me as I try to move into the 21st Century with some of my colleague using Web 2.0 tools while are the same time not leaving other colleagues who are less technologically savvy behind. However, I have begun to see a glimmer of hope in the future. If my mother-in-law can learn to use Facebook all will be well for those unsure about technology. Another frustration that I have is the learning curve that I have in learning to use Web 2.0 tools. The ones that I can see an immediate use for in my professional practice are the ones that I can learn to use fastest. I am still struggling to learn those for which I still have no clear idea how to use in my present circumstances. Finally, some of the Web 2.0 tools that I would like to use require hand held internet devices which cost money. Money is something that is not readily available at the present time.
I can see a variety of ways that I can use Web 2.0 tools to engage the stakeholders with whom I work. One of the reasons that I wanted to start the H1N1 Update blog was to be able to reach as large an audience as possible without having to personally manage a list of email addresses. I also wanted to be able to keep those stakeholders who were most curious about the current situation engaged with information and links to reliable sources without causing others to ignore the information that they needed to know about due to information overload. In the future I can see the benefit of using wikis and perhaps other collaboration tools in place of some committee meetings. I am also hopeful to use Web 2.0 tools such as podcasts to provide training that stakeholders can refer back to as needed.
I want to learn more about and use Web 2.0 tools because in my position I must work smarter. I am already working as hard and as long as I can possibly work. Moving forward I need to be able to work more efficiently, and even more collaboratively than ever before in order to simply keep up. I feel very much like a novice with Web 2.0. There are some many things that I do not know but one thing that I know for sure I need to get on board with Web 2.0 before it passes me by.
I am trying out a new Web 2.0 tool in this blog. It is Writeboard and my post is linked below:
Thing 1 - B
Earlier in my blog I expressed concern over privacy and anonymity. I will explain some of my concerns with these issues as I practice Writeboarding.
Privacy
In my limited use of social sites such as Facebook I have encountered situations that make me nervous about privacy. By nature I am a private person and like keeping my life and consequently information about me highly segregated. My family gets the most personal view of my life. Close friends next access to information about my thoughts and fears, dreams and aspirations that I don’t share with other people. One of my first profile pictures on Facebook was a picture of me slouching on the couch in shorts and a t-shirt with a bird on my head and one of our other pets in my lap. It was a playful picture that I wouldn’t mind my family or close friends seeing but not really something that I would want an employer looking viewing. I am nervous that I cannot control my privacy as much as I would like when I use many of the Web 2.0 social sites.
Anonymity
In terms of anonymity, I have found that people will say and do things under cover of anonymity that they would not do otherwise. For example, we have one parent in particular that makes all sorts of false accusations against the school system on the sound off sections of local newspapers using very threatening language that I do not believe this person would use except for the anonymity of that is provided. In some cases such as the one stated above the world seems to have become less civil because of it.
http://123.writeboard.com/1ebd6a9560463c931
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This particular quote of yours really resonated with me:
ReplyDelete"It does become frustrating to try to use Web 2.0 tools when all users are not at the same level of familiarity with the tool. This creates dual work for me as I try to move into the 21st Century with some of my colleague using Web 2.0 tools while are the same time not leaving other colleagues who are less technologically savvy behind."
First of all, welcome to my world!! Just wait until you talk to someone about Web 2.0 (using that term) and get a blank stare. There are so many out there who are still in the dark regarding these tools. I'm not really surprised by it any longer, but as you point out, it doesn't make it any less frustrating when trying to work with those who haven't "gotten" it yet. I imagine a time when those "have nots" will eventually become a minority, and they'll have no choice but to climb on board. I think that's been one positive side benefit of this course is that those who have taken it are beginning to expand the conversation and spread the word.
I have to agree with you that anonymity does tend to give people a sense of bravado to say whatever they wish. It's a bit sad all things considered, especially in the case of this parent. Why not simply work with the school's administration directly to see if things can change instead of attacking? People with a face, even online, get more results than those who speak anonymously.
Personally, I decided from the beginning to be transparent and consistent across the different networks that make my up PLN (Personal Learning Networks). I want people to not only know who I am and what I do, but to also be able to recognize me from one to another. By establishing consistency and transparency, my online colleagues "know" me even if I haven't met 98% of them face-to-face. We've developed a rapport that will transfer easily over to "real life" once we do meet, which I look forward to happening at the next national conference I attend.
Great blog post Ken!