In order to place web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies within the realm of constructivist learning, it is necessary to first establish what exactly is meant by each of those terms.
In the begining, websites were static; created by experts in their fields and designed to convey information and data. Later, websites began to offer users the opportunity to interact both with each other and with the website. Users were now creators as well as consumers. This was known as web 2.o. A further development in web technology saw the technology trying to understand the intention of the user and act to facilitate the task they are trying to achieve. An example of this is semantic searching, or “Did you mean…”, “People also ask…”, “Displaying results for…”. Machines try to understand and react to natural speech and information needs. They tailor search and information results to the individual user with the idea that this will be more likely to suit their needs. This is web 3.0. The next generation, web 4.0, suggests Spivack (2007), will involve distributed searching and intelligent personal agents. The introduction of Artificial Intelligence that can act as an online personal assistant is a direction in which Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant have already travelled. The danger of allowing technology to tailor responses to our usual needs is that we may miss out on unexpected results when we attempt to find information or complete tasks that are not within our usual paradigm. Searching for information showing an alternate point of view becomes more difficult. Students who engage significantly with this technology through social media may be led to believe that opinions and world views that are different or opposing to their own simply don’t exist. A dangerous position indeed for a constructivist. A constructivist learner makes their own meaning by gathering information and evidence from their own experiences. If technology that is designed to increase our access to information is actually acting to limit easy access to information that agrees with that which we have already engaged with, we, as learners and teachers, need to be purposefully engaged in seeking information and perspectives of others in order to widen our world view. This is not an easy task, and one that many students, at least in my experience, resist. Here in lies one of the most important jobs of the teacher librarian. Exposure to information and stories about the experiences of others, teaching students to search for, find and analyse other perspectives is our bread and butter, our schtick, our reason for being.
Spivack, N. (2007, October 4). Web 3.0: The best official definition imaginable.
