What it all means

Although the expressed focus on the text is on education, I have been trying to assess these tools in how they could be applied in other fields, such as government, business or religion.

The text makes two points early on: that the web will continue to provide more and more content, and that this content will be generated collaboratively. And it’s not just the content that is generated collaboratively, but the availability of the content. An essay with one author still requires the collaboration of the programmers that created the wiki/blog/RSS/social bookmarking, the business people who make the application available on the web, the hardware manufacturers, etc.

It’s easy to see the sharing of information and the shift to collaboration in education; after all education is about information sharing. The shift may be slower in other fields, but I think it is happening. For example, when the Town of Brattleboro wants to add to or modify a section of the Zoning Bylaw, we search for a document we can use as a framework. Sometimes the State provides a model document, but more often we look for a Bylaw already in use by another Town. More often recently, we are finding the sample ordinance on-line. It usually isn’t exactly what we want, so it gets changed to fit the local need.

This is where the “new literacy”, the reader as writer/editor steps in. We first find the content, then evaluate it, then modify (edit) it, and finally, the new document goes full circle, and reappears on the Town website as part of the Zoning Bylaw/Town Plan/Sign Ordinance. All ready for someone else to find, evaluate, edit and publish.