The Machine is Us/Using Us

I think Professor Wesch titled the video perfectly. We the people are the web. The computer is just a machine and however intelligent that pint sized robot may be, it simply cannot expand without its users. It needs us. Every time we log on, whether we create or explore along the way, we are teaching the web more about us. Web 1.0 opened doors as it created a pathway for people to connect with one another. Remembering back to the first on line chat I participated in, I felt amazed at how I could connect with other future teachers like me from all over the globe. Before I knew it I was emailing with friends and family. Then came the blog. I always loved to write and found this online journal a most wonderful way for me to be able to share my life with family and friends. This was easier and less expensive than calling them whether to ask them a simple question or just to catch up. I knew that I was slower to explore the ever changing web, but I soon found myself ordering from sites like Amazon and EBay because they were and still are trustworthy sites. Things seemed to be exploding throughout the web. I think this ties into what Wesch was saying in that each time someone used the web they continued to define the web for what it has now become, Web 2.0. Through advances like photo-sharing, blogging, pod-casts, and video sharing, we have created a whole new world out there where we have become journalists, characters, teachers and ever-learning students. We have taken the platform that has been given to us and continued to create through each new online software. As I share my input through Amazon on the latest great book that I have read and post pictures of summer events on my Facebook page, these tools have provided me with an electrifying service.