30 March 2007 - Brisbane - Mike Smith
Welcome to the first session in the second series on Web 2.0 for ESL students at the Australian College of English. These session encourage you to explore the newer parts of the Internet, practising your English language skills while having fun, learning new things, and perhaps even meeting new friends.
[Whenever you click on a link in this blog, use a 'right click - open in new window' command so you don't lose this main lesson window. If you have any problems, ask your teacher to help. ]
Introduction
The first thing we'll do is read an introduction. Please download the document by clicking here
http://www.esnips.com/doc/8e9911f0-800f-4a59-ad72-675b002ec348/ACE-Web-2-Intro-to-Series-2
or here
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddhsxgkg_2d4zzvq
You can save this file if you wish. Your teacher will give you a printed copy.
Social Networks
One exciting and fast-growing aspect of Web 2.0 is 'social communities' or 'folksonomies'. Two of the most well-known are MySpace and YouTube but there are many, many others. In Web 2.0 Series 1 we looked at MySpace more closely.
Some of these social communities are very general - for anyone to join. Others are more specific. Look at the list on Wikipedia here (remember to 'right click - open in new window').
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
You can see a long list, but even this list is not complete with more online communities starting all the time.
Task - 60 minutes
[You must do some writing for this task. Do this by adding comments to this blog. Ask your teacher to help you.]
What hobbies and interests do you have?
Write them down.
What about your partner?
Talk with your partner about your hobbies and interests. Write their interests down.
Find a social community which may be interesting for you. Show your partner what you have found.
Write a short essay (50-80 words) as a comment to this blog:
- introduce yourself
- describe your hobbies and interests
- describe the online community you have found for your hobby or interest
- give the URL (web address)
- say if you would recommend it and why
An example is given below by Jurgen.
