This is a continuation from yesterday's post and the last in my series on the technological innovations of the last decade.March 2006 was the year I first began to take an interest in Web 2.0 and social networks as potentially useful educational tools. With my colleagues Boulos and Maramba I published my first Web 2.0 article: Wikis, blogs and podcasts. 2006 saw the launch of Twitter - now one of the most popular live status update tools worldwide. Twitter is perhaps best known in the media for its many celebrity users, and their ability to attract hundreds of thousands or even millions of 'followers', but it is increasingly used as a conference backchannel, and is now finding its footing in education.
Another major player in the world of social networking was birthed the same year. In September 2006, Facebook came late to the party, but within a short time (March 2008) it overhauled Myspace as the world's favourite social networking tool. Facebook now attracts more thrid party apps than you can shake a stick at, including popular games such as Mafia Wars and FarmVille.
March 2006 was the month we bade farewell to the standard video tape as major retailers stopped selling VHS on the high street. The same month saw the Blu-Ray format being launched in the UK. Google purchased YouTube in November for an estimated 1.65 billion US Dollars, and just in time for Christmas, Nintendo launched the Wii handset.
2007 was a momentous year for touch screen technologies - in June the Apple iPhone became available and changed the way people used their mobile phones. In August of the same year, it was announced that Google had become the most used search engine on the web.
2008 saw the launch of Spotify - a peer to peer music streaming service, the purchase of Bebo by AOL for 850 million US dollars, and the start of the UK digital switchover (in the Border TV region).
The year just gone has been a relatively quiet one in terms of social networking, but behind the scenes, it is highly likely that the digirati are working away at the next generation of apps, widgets and services. In June 2009, the UK Government published its Digital Britain Report, committing the UK to a universal broadband provision by 2012.
Time will tell how many of these innovations will survive, mutate or crash and burn, but this much is clear: The way we communicate, share and access information, and consume entertainment has changed forever. The decade just passed is a significant decade in terms of technology, but it is also significant in the ways it has altered our perceptions of privacy, property, identity, copyright, commerce, relationships and society. Some shifts have been subtle, others more radical. We don't know what the next decade will bring, but we do know that change will accelerate to meet the demands of a volatile economy, uncertain future and an entirely new generation of technology users that will pass through our education institutions.
I wish you and those close to you a peaceful holiday season and a successful new year.
Image source
Another major player in the world of social networking was birthed the same year. In September 2006, Facebook came late to the party, but within a short time (March 2008) it overhauled Myspace as the world's favourite social networking tool. Facebook now attracts more thrid party apps than you can shake a stick at, including popular games such as Mafia Wars and FarmVille.
March 2006 was the month we bade farewell to the standard video tape as major retailers stopped selling VHS on the high street. The same month saw the Blu-Ray format being launched in the UK. Google purchased YouTube in November for an estimated 1.65 billion US Dollars, and just in time for Christmas, Nintendo launched the Wii handset.
2007 was a momentous year for touch screen technologies - in June the Apple iPhone became available and changed the way people used their mobile phones. In August of the same year, it was announced that Google had become the most used search engine on the web.
2008 saw the launch of Spotify - a peer to peer music streaming service, the purchase of Bebo by AOL for 850 million US dollars, and the start of the UK digital switchover (in the Border TV region).
The year just gone has been a relatively quiet one in terms of social networking, but behind the scenes, it is highly likely that the digirati are working away at the next generation of apps, widgets and services. In June 2009, the UK Government published its Digital Britain Report, committing the UK to a universal broadband provision by 2012.
Time will tell how many of these innovations will survive, mutate or crash and burn, but this much is clear: The way we communicate, share and access information, and consume entertainment has changed forever. The decade just passed is a significant decade in terms of technology, but it is also significant in the ways it has altered our perceptions of privacy, property, identity, copyright, commerce, relationships and society. Some shifts have been subtle, others more radical. We don't know what the next decade will bring, but we do know that change will accelerate to meet the demands of a volatile economy, uncertain future and an entirely new generation of technology users that will pass through our education institutions.
I wish you and those close to you a peaceful holiday season and a successful new year.
Image source
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