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 R Brown (2009) “Public Relations and the Social Web How to use Social Media and Web 2.0 in Communication” Kogan Page Ltd London UK

“We are in the midst of a communications upheaval more significant than the introduction of the printing press” R Brown (2009) P1

“Web 2.0 has a variety of definitions. It can be described simply as the version of the web that is open to ordinary users and where they can add their content. It refers to the sites and spaces on the internet where users can put, words, pictures, sounds and video. It is a very simple idea in theory. In practice, it signifies the transfer of control of the internet and ultimately the central platform for communication, from the few to the many. It is the democratisation of the internet” R Brown (2009) P2

What has changed “is the way that people have started to view the internet. The way that the internet has changed is a reflection of a much wider change in society. For a number of years politicians and social commentators have been taking about the “end of deference” R Brown (2009) P3

This is what is happening in a real way you no longer have to ask permission to publish something to a World Wide Audience, you are in effect your own publish house. If people like what they read you will be read if not then you won’t. The gatekeepers are gone.

“Communications is undergoing a radical change information is feeling the impact of the technological revolution” R Brown (2009) P4

“Changes are taking place in the way we use the media channels and totally new communication channels are emerging” R Brown (2009) P4

The internet in its current form “is far richer and more complex than any of the traditional media channels.” R Brown (2009) P4

“The social web is a place or a series of virtual places where others like them: Sharing content rather than simply consuming it, talking, swapping ideas and interests, recommending things for their friends to watch or read and consuming a variety of media on the recommendations of their peers” R Brown (2009) P13

Relinquishing Control

“It the content that people (teachers and students) are engaging with is content that they are contributing to, if the media that they are consuming allows them to participate, it becomes clear that the rules of engagement have change” R Brown (2009) P16 this in no more true than within the educational setting. Web 2.0 is constructivism inaction. It represents not only a dialogue with teachers but with text, video, audio, and images from the real world and it can facilitate communication with real people in real time whenever and wherever you are.

Students “are no longer passive but active participants in the conversation. This does not only mean that we should converse with them but it also means that we have to give their views and opinions due respect.” R Brown (2009) P23 This change signals the end of deference in the classroom, especially for adult learner who can now actively seek out learning for themselves.

“The internet is a network that is able to carry and support most of the other media” R Brown (2009) P23 From this it can be reasonably be argued that many of the benefits of the internet in terms of pedagogy have been researched and tested for a long time i.e. the authentic uses of audio, video, text and images both for linguist and cultural learning have been well documented. The internet simply gives quicker, greater and more far reaching access to these resources.

“If we take, for example, social networking we might start with Facebook. Within Facebook there is a plethora of applications and ways of drawing in content from other Web 2.0 applications” R Brown (2009) P25

“For those of us that wish to engage with bloggers we need to bear in mind that the explosion in the sheer number of blogs means that most of them will seldom, if ever, be read. At the time of writing (2009) Technorarti was tracking 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media and typing the word “blog” into Google produced 3.2 billion results” R Brown (2009) P25

This volume of data can be over whelming and could give rise that the complaint that quantity outweighs quality. Another argument is that searching the web is like searching of needles in a haystack. Teaching our students how to search the internet is one issue we as teachers need to address if we want to make the most of Web 2.0 for ELT. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is one way that this can be done.

“In many ways a blog is similar to a website but a generally held to have some defining characteristics. Bogs have a title, they usually have a date stamp and they almost always allow comments to be attached.” R Brown (2009) P26

“For many blogging is simply about the pleasure and excitement of being able to self-publish” R Brown (2009) P28 It is this pleasure and excitement that can really be harnessed within the educational context. All people take satisfaction in producing something real and tangible.

“By far and away the easiest way to get started is to use an online blogging platform, and it is very easy, is to use Blogger or Word press. Both of these services are free to use, and you can get started on your blog very easily, with a minimum of set-up.” R Brown (2009) P30

One of the feelings I get from talking to fellow teachers is that they believe that building a website, Wiki or writing a blog is a complex task beyond their capabilities. What I know from running teacher training sessions on using ICT for ELT including a basic introduction to web design is that everyone is surprised at how easy this is nowadays. It is in my opinion that it is this misconception that inhibits many teachers form integrating ICT into their own teaching.

“The ease with which we can blog means that a key element is often forgotten- that of quality. One of the most important things that distinguish a blog from other forms of written published content is the absence of and editor or a publisher to select, moderate or adapt the content. There is no quality threshold that the blog has to pass through in order to be published. We can publish anything we like.” R Brown (2009) P31

This is a double edged sword, on the one hand students can write, experience and experiment with publishing their own work. On the other hand students can be exposed to language of a dubious quality and content. This means as teachers we need to vet, guide and control what our students are engaging with online. Also we need to educate them how to evaluate things for themselves a tough job especially in a foreign language.

“A Wiki has come to be understood as series of WebPages designed to enable anyone who accesses the site to add content or modify the content that is already there.” R Brown (2009) P39