Thing #19

Thing #19: Web 2.0 Awards List

I perused quite a few of the winners and runners-up on the list. I regularly use one or two of the more common ones, like YouTube, Last.fm and Google Maps, but my interaction with many of the others (Flickr, Del.icio.us) has been entirely though the 23 Things Project. For which I'm grateful! My horizons have expanded already!

Though YouTube has been a source of vaguely educational fun for my class every year, the winner that I'm most taken with is Lulu. I've never used it before, but have heard about it. Yes, it's vanity press made accessible and easy, but it seems to me that the classroom potential is great. Books can be customized for lessons, schools, even specific classes (repairing my shattered dreams of being a children's book author). And of course content created by the students themselves can be published, which gets kids involved in the entire creative process and boosts self-esteem.

I guess in the end I find Lulu to be the most inspiring Web 2.0 tool because like the others it demands a commitment to creativity but, unlike most of the others, promises to transform your work into a physical artifact. Perhaps I'm just stuck in the old Life 1.0 mode of thinking.