New ways to use the Internet

If you have talked to me recently, you know I am exploring new ways to use the Internet in learning.

The new ways are already here. They have at least 3 names - the 'SOCIAL INTERNET', the READ/WRITE WEB, or WEB 2.0 . All names for the same thing.

How we can use the new sites that allow us to contribute, edit, share, store, comment and network, and are so easy to use?

• You can set up your own space as a blog (like this one), a personal space as in MySpace or Bebo, informative spaces such as Squidoo.
• You can store stuff - pictures, photos, images, music, voice, video, bookmarks, files.
• You can combine stuff - pictures and captions, pictures and voice, videos and voice, and much more (Useful for presentations?)
• You can tag your material so you can sort, find and share.
• You can check out what other people have on your topic.
• You can meet and chat....

What I like are the storing/sharing sites, like Flickr for pictures, Delicious for bookmarks, iTunes for music and YouTube for videoclips.

Have a look and you will see they all have 2 things:
- 'tags', which are keywords you give to help you sort and find again.
- sharing with other users and the opportunity to comment.

So, blogs, wikis, storage sites - there are SO MANY!

Sites have different purposes. MySpace and Bebo allow users to create their own site with an emphasis on communicating and networking.