Web 2.0

The article “Time’s Person of the Year: You” by Lev Grossman, made me realize about a time of revolution we are living right now because of Web 2.0. It is amazing how people around the world, including myself, are connected and able to interact and share ideas by just sitting behind a simple computer screen. As Grossman affirms, “The new Web is a very different thing. It’s a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter.” This tool is the one that can let people “drowned in obscurity” to express themselves by either having a blog, a Facebook account or contributing with their knowledge in the so famous Wikipedia. Web 2.0 is the new era revolution for all of us.

Another interesting article is “What to Know about Web 2.0”; published in BizEd’s 6th volume, which also enhances the topic of how the “Internet has become a prominent medium for personal interaction.” The article describes how Andrew McAfee, an associate professor at Harvard, conducted an study about the Web 2.0 phenomena and the impact it has on students. McAfee affirms that “younger students have become reflexive users of social networking sites and will expect to use these tools to facilitate their interaction with faculty and employers.” Schools that don’t prohibit or don’t embrace this technology, make students feel isolated from technology and the world. Web 2.0 is an important tool that binds people together and can be even useful in educational institutions.

Personally I believe that this new social revolution caused by Web 2.0 is positively influencing the world. People can learn about different cultures and societies and teach also about their own. They are able to interact and contribute with ideas and knowledge to create wider concepts and information. But, maybe in the future, Web 2.0 can become a problem because people may exceed their limits by invading privacy or posting erroneous ideas. We must conduce this important revolution in a straight path in order to avoid future problems with this useful tool.

Belen Vinueza

My Word Experience

My Microsoft Word experience started a couple of years ago when for the first time I needed to use it for some school assignment. Since then, I've been discovering different commands, tools and other features this program offers. The version I have used the most until now is Microsoft Word 2003. Now that I have the opportunity to learn and use Microsoft Word 2007 I expect to learn a lot more. I am glad that I have this chance because I believe that after this course I will be able to make my word documents look professional. I really want to learn new commands and tools I haven't experimented with.