I used to be a Web 1.0 teacher.

Web 1.0 = The information of the world waits at our fingertips.

Web 2.0 = Our information flows into the world through our fingertips.

Three years ago, I was stuck at “give me your email address” and “I’ll show you how to make a free web site on Geocities.com and Angelfire.com.”   Yes, those ways of using the web help capture grammar and spelling errors.  But they are passive.   It’s cumbersome to respond to a static “one-way” web site.  If I send you my latest lesson on a web link, you might click on it and then, to respond, you need to open an email account and write me a letter.





With FACEBOOK, my students click on the link, watch the video, and click below to comment.   No change of web site, instant feedback to the teacher.  

Social Networking combines photos, email and chat messages (“Oh, you’re online, what are you doing?” “Watching Aliens.  I’m hungry”). 

I used to be a Teacher 1.0 ... I used to work on one-way blasting (bulk email messages are widely interpreted as spam, but Yahoo group mail gets through).  Now I'm a Teacher 2.0  and I post items on a storage space, YouTube or Facebook, the students hear about it and can go to look at and tag the photos.   Teacher 1.0 sends 25 photos to the student’s email boxes and floods the inbox.  Teacher 2.0’s uploading automatically generates short messages
to students who have subscribed to the links on YouTube or who are “friends” in Facebook or Orkut.   Teacher 2.0 doesn’t worry about spamming or losing possible connections, because 2.0 is flying under the spam filter.   It’s no longer one-way email.  It’s a dance.  I put something up, you’re invited to comment on it.  Why not tag someone in a video or in a photo? Why not comment on a photo?


As Teacher 2.0, I am connected to a wider world.   It has pushed me to learn how to use a template called articlelive, set up by my nephew, and now I’m choosing a web structure and creating a hot web site that lists some of the great YouTube videos that I have found and want to keep in a ready index.    My favorite web sites are organized on my portal web site freeenglishlessons.com and I hope to learn from you, reader, of other web sites that I should add to my list.  That open-minded, two-way communication is also part of Teacher 2.0.  I’m writing this reflective piece because the editor of this book found my Facebook article on an ESL discussion board.  None of this would have happened if I hadn’t first found Facebook, which was the result of my using MSN Messenger, which came about because I couldn’t use Geocities and YouTube in school.  So, look for the someone in your life who pushes you to try someting new.  I wouldn't be the teacher I am if I hadn't listened to my colleague, Ken Jeffus, who told me about Web 2.0.

Has someone introduced you to a new idea or web site and you reacted by saying, “I just don’t have the time” or “That’s not really educational, is it?”

Fortunately, I listened to Ken.  I hope you listen to your Ken

Steve McCrea is a teacher at the Embassy Fort Lauderdale Study Center.  You can contact him on Facebook and Orkut by using "FreeEnglishLessons@gmail.com").  His
SKYPE account is SteveEnglishTeacher.  Find more of his articles at FreeEnglishLessons.com.