Web 2.0 a personal learning journey

As it has been over a week since alt-c 2007, I think it is about time I put some reflections down.
First off, I was very impressed by the 2nd keynote from Dylan Williams about technology for formative assessment. If I had heard him speak 10 years ago I might have been pursuaded to stay in secondary education. I often sense a big gap between the tertiary and secondary sectors. I think we have much to learn from each other but often don’t.
Anyway, getting back to web2 stuff. IT was reassuring to note that others were struggling with the same issues related to wikis. Technology just mediates human interaction and as long as it is not too difficult to use then the same issues about people working together come across.
I did not see anything particularly new and innovative at the conference but I think that can be a good thing. Being too ‘out there’ will only serve to put the majority of staff off.
Other interesting points made during the conference:
Subscription versus downloading of things such as podcasts, video etc. We (including students) still seem to be strongly wedded to the download model and have not embraced subscription services. I think this partly comes from organisational skills. I don’t think the majority are not that organised in their online activity, I know I am not.
Digital natives seem to be a myth – or at least are not as au fait with the technology as we are led to believe. They often do not see the technology in the same way as the digital immigrants but thy still often have the same difficulties and are no more knowledgable about web2.
Using web2 in institutions – The speakers from Sheffiled Hallam seemed pretty upbeat about using freely avaialable web2 tools in institutions. I wish I could be so upbeat about mine. It always comes down to IT saying they can’t support it. However, the argument is why should we support it? These tools come with their own help, they are usually simple and easy to use as they serve a specific purpose rather than being the catch-all behemoths of VLEs. Can’t we try it without IT support and see how it goes. If it fails then it fails but at least we know rather than endlessly speculating.