Five Socio-Technology Trends that Change Everything in Learning and Teaching

I'm pretty tired of talking about social networking, but it is pretty amazing how social production has become such a prominent aspect of the Internet. I've never thought about how much of the Internet really is created or expanded by "amateurs"- why shouldn't students who do that get credit for what they contribute? They are gathering, analyzing, synthesizing, applying, commenting on, and collaborating with the information- all the same things we strive to teach them in class, just with information the teacher picked out ahead of time. There must be a place for truly relevant and real-world Web production in the modern curriculum. At the very least, I plan to include it in my classroom (so to speak).

The Semantic Web and media grids ideas still confuse me a tad, but that is understandable given my somewhat archaic approach to the Internet. I will say that what I've gathered about these new technologies gives me the smallest glimmer of hope for navigating the Internet. I have severely limited research skills, and I've become concerned about facilitating research for my students. How can I instill skills that I don't have myself? But, it seems that the Internet "developers" are catching on to my dilemmas with sifting through the vastness of information by identifying each piece of it as it goes onto the Internet. An appropriate ID will make searching for something so much easier and....faster! I may not have to hate research after all! Modern learning is so not a cathedral- we all really are in a lively, interactive bazaar.