Web_3.0

Many commentators in the field of technology hope to be the first to recognize **Web 3.0**. Ultimately, history will decide in retrospect who had the right idea. Opinions seem to collect around two shifts that all agree have impacted the Web. The question is which is "the" defining shift.

__First__, there are those who point to the power of extremely mobile internet devices. Laptops overtook desktop computers several years ago now. Smartphones have overtaken laptops in sheer numbers of internet capable devices. (Although I do not have hard evidence to support that assertion, we do know that internet capable phones have brought the internet to population groups who could not afford computers and internet connections previously.) Now, netbooks and tablets enter the scene in a big way - still further expanding internet involvement. Programs like OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), and spinoff ideas, even have made significant inroads into some of the poorest countries with internet capabilities.

The __second__ camp of commentators, would be discoverers of Web 3.0, point to what slowly is gaining ground under the label "response" computing. These observers point to Amazon, Netflix, games like World of Warcraft, and similar sites that collect information in order to make new recommendations, or adjust the game in some way, according to what has been "learned" from data gathered about certain inputs gleaned from an account. In this way, static data output has transitioned mere ease of updating to updating based on large scale collaboration that compares a given set of input data against large quantities of similar data input.

There is little question that both mobile, "ubiquitous" computing and "response" computing have changed the internet and our society - which increasingly is built around the internet. Perhaps the real question is whether mobile computing is enough of a change to warrant a **Web 3.0** designation, or is it more of a **"Web 2.5"** because it still is collaborative computing, but in an extremely maxed out way.

If mobile computing is Web 3.0, then is response computing **Web 4.0**? Is the next step a democratization of response computing so that organizations smaller than Amazon, Netflix, etc., (even individuals!) can wield response computing power? What these shifts in functionality are named matters far less than recognizing the trends of these developments.

In the early 2000s Marc Prensky coined the terms "digital native" and "digital immigrant" to distinguish those who have grown up in a digital environment (the "digital natives") from those on whom the digital environment has evolved after they were adults (the "digital immigrants"). His point is that immigrants struggle to learn what natives learn naturally as part of growing up. As teachers we always will be immigrants to the technology world of our students who are growing up naturally in a world that has evolved rapidly since we became adults.
 * "As a teacher this is important to me, why???"**

It is only by watching the trends that we can have any hope of knowing where the flow will go. Ultimately, then, having some idea where the flow might go, is the only way we can hope to "go with the flow" - and keep up with our students. There is the story of a man standing at the crossroads who watched a crowd come to the crossroads, mill about for a few moments, then take off together in the same direction. It wasn't too long after that that a red-faced individual rushed up and asked, out of breath, did a crowd just come by this way?" "Shore 'nuff," replied the watcher at the crossroads. "You lookin' ta ketch up with 'em?" "Catch up?" gasped The Tardy One, "Why, I'm their leader. I've got to teach them the way!"

May we as teachers do our "homework" on technology to not be like The Tardy One, or even to merely go with the flow. As teachers we need to try to //show// where the //flow// should //go!//