To use Web 2.0 tools, that is the question... or not!

Teresa Almeida d'Eça

23 May 2009

I joined the Webheads in Action over 7 years ago and my life has never been the same. What an active, non-stop and exciting 8 weeks we had at the beginning of 2002! What an amazing amount of knowledge and hands-on practice we gained in 2 months! And what "special lifelong bonds" we created and have strenghtened along the way!

This third Convergence is proof that those bonds are as strong as ever. That we've been practicing what we've preached all these years. That we embraced Lifelong Learning. That we have been in an ongoing process of Connecting Facilitators. That we are always Transcending Borders. And that we have won worldwide recognition. Thank you, Vance, for launching this wonderful community and keeping it alive! And thank you, Webheads, for everything we've done and achieved over the years!

My presentation this morning is inspired on two presentations I gave very recently on this topic: one to the APPI Conference in Lisbon, Portugal (30Apr), the other as the Keynote Online Speaker to a one-day Workshop in Romania (May8), coordinated by BaWer 2009, Anisoara Pop. It will show how much I've learned with the Webheads over the years, but it will also show the creativity that sparked or surfaced in me (I don't really know which) when I joined this community of like-minded, caring and sharing colleagues spanning the globe and was confronted with new challenges and exciting tools, first Web 1.0, then Web 2.0 tools.

The transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 was seamless, or so it seems at a distance. But I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to show uses of Web 2.0 tools that I've used with young learners and teacher trainees.

What are Web 2.0 tools? They're dynamic and interactive tools that enable the user to create, participate, collaborate and share in the production and publishing process. They're user-oriented tools that allow users to socialize, an essential element in our professional and personal lives. They're also known as social media or social tools.

There are many different Web 2.0 tools out there. So let's put the show on the road so that "you", my audience, can later decide whether Web 2.0 tools are worth using in the blended classroom.

Let's start with voice tools.