Web 2.0 30
creating a more open atmosphere where students are expected to stay engaged and participate in the discussions and
learning that is taking place around them. In fact, there are many ways for educators to use Web 2.0 technologies in
their classrooms.
"Weblogs are not built on static chunks of content. Instead they are comprised of reflections and conversations that
in many cases are updated every day [...] They demand interaction."[42] Will Richardson's observation of the essence
of weblogs speaks directly to why blogs are so well suited to discussion based classrooms. Weblogs give students a
public space to interact with one another and the content of the class. As long as the students are invested in the
project, the need to see the blog progress acts as motivation as the blog itself becomes an entity that can demand
interaction.
For example, Laura Rochette implemented the use of blogs in her American History class and noted that in addition
to an overall improvement in quality, the use of the blogs as an assignment demonstrated synthesis level activity
from her students. In her experience, asking students to conduct their learning in the digital world meant asking
students "to write, upload images, and articulate the relationship between these images and the broader concepts of
the course, [in turn] demonstrating that they can be thoughtful about the world around them."[44] Jennifer Hunt, an
8th grade language arts teacher of pre-Advanced Placement students shares a similar story. She used the WANDA
project and asked students to make personal connections to the texts they read and to describe and discuss the issues
raised in literature selections through social discourse. They engaged in the discussion via wikis and other Web 2.0
tools, which they used to organize, discuss, and present their responses to the texts and to collaborate with others in
their classroom and beyond.
The research shows that students are already using these technological tools, but they still are expected to go to a
school where using these tools is frowned upon or even punished. If educators are able to harness the power of the
Web 2.0 technologies students are using, it could be expected that the amount of participation and classroom
discussion would increase. It may be that how participation and discussion is produced is very different from the
traditional classroom, but nevertheless it does increase.Web 2.0 and philanthropy
The spread of participatory information-sharing over the internet, combined with recent improvements in low-cost
internet access in developing countries, has opened up new possibilities for peer-to-peer charities, which allow
individuals to contribute small amounts to charitable projects for other individuals. Websites such as Donors Choose
and Global Giving now allow small-scale donors to direct funds to individual projects of their choice.
A popular twist on internet-based philanthropy is the use of peer-to-peer lending for charitable purposes. Kiva
pioneered this concept in 2005, offering the first web-based service to publish individual loan profiles for funding.
Kiva raises funds for local intermediary microfinance organizations which post stories and updates on behalf of the
borrowers. Lenders can contribute as little as $25 to loans of their choice, and receive their money back as borrowers
repay. Kiva falls short of being a pure peer-to-peer charity, in that loans are disbursed before being funded by lenders
and borrowers do not communicate with lenders themselves.[45][46] However, the recent spread of cheap internet
access in developing countries has made genuine peer-to-peer connections increasingly feasible. In 2009 the
US-based nonprofit Zidisha tapped into this trend to offer the first peer-to-peer microlending platform to link lenders
and borrowers across international borders without local intermediaries. Inspired by interactive websites such as
Facebook and eBay, Zidisha's microlending platform facilitates direct dialogue between lenders and borrowers and a
performance rating system for borrowers. Web users worldwide can fund loans for as little as a dollar.[47]