Day 3    
                                         

After talking the typical learning management system ‘Blackboard’ yesterday, I notice the significance, in-depth analyses of the relationship between Web 2.0 technology and learning. The web as platform which provides access to information and today we view the internet as the online library, instantly accessible.

Category 2: Web 2.0 is not only well suited for learning but also for research on learning and communication

As an artist, research is an important part involved in work and often regarded as a skill. Internet, the information universe and is the first place I frequently turn to for information before considering the library. According to the article web 2.0 and learning, these new, Web 2.0, applications take full advantage of the network nature of the web: they encourage participation and create communications. Statistically, these applications are very attractive for teachers and learners. Wikis, blogs, and social bookmarking are now commonly used in learning. Studying O’Reilly’s developed ‘meme’ of web 2.0, the diagram shows concepts, ideas and process and particularly identify the communication and interactive process. As mentioned in my last diary, Blackboard has been used as platform for learning and research at educational institutions.  After reading the essential readings in the reader, I’ve realized that these technologies, web 2.0, we use today is not only constructed for learning but also for research on learning.

Blogs: This participatory network is very new for me and I am not familiar with its usage. I’ve never had the habit of writing blogs until I joined the BAPP programme. I then started to push myself on diaries, in other words to get used to blog. As a fresh blogger, I think this web technology has been used as a social network for people who seek for information, who need to share ideas, exchange views and communicate various topics. When I do researches for my make-up and styling projects at university, most of the time I choose to go and look at some well-known make-up artists or stylists’ blogs or some fashion week live blogs for inspiration purposes (eg http://www.jaymanuel.com/blog/ a well know American make-up artist and he works as the art director in the American’s next top model show) Seeing those blogs, from words to work, I can see the updates, the ideas, the designs and the trends widely and internationally. It is interesting to view the comments from different participants, some of them are from the same field and some are just amateurs. Those comments, views can guide me into a process of analyzing what / where my research is going to start with and what my work theme, title and design etc are going to be….. there are so many questions come to my mind afterwards. Personally, I found being a participant in this network is to find what you look for and to know what you have learnt from. In comparison to the conventional ways eg. books, magazines and other sources, I rather prefer doing it online and exchange ideas with others. (I am not going to explain the reasons right now; I will leave them in my later diaries with more specific topics.) According to one of O’Reilly’s core competencies ‘Architecture of participation’, ‘Web 2.0 as a tool of networking and communication encourages and enables participation’. I accept, being a student, a practitioner, I realize communicating with tutors, colleagues and clients are important and this can give you ideas and confidence for improvement. Being able to participate in the social network such as mentioned earlier, ‘blogging’, “it is taking part in something as well as creating it”, said from O’Reilly. Every time when I go and look at other’s blogs, there has always been an interacting culture there and this atmosphere can bring me to another world with different new information, some you are already familiar with and some you are the first time to know, so you are not only a reader you are also a creator.