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INTRODUCTION
Web 2.0 is now a commonly heard buzzword in the world of instructional technology. While this word is often used, it is rarely defined. Unlike the impression it extends, there is no new version of the Internet or the Wide World Web. Instead this term refers to the new way in which these items are used. Prior to the dot-com crash the web was a place where experts and webmasters posted information, and users read it; the read- web (RW). After the dot-com crash, the use of the web began to change dramatically and to become more userfriendly, with interactive applications, tools, software, and sites popping up everywhere. Now it is the users who contribute, control, rate and utilize the content on the web; very different from 8 or 10 years ago and many now call it the read/ write- web (RWW). This new interactivity and perspective on web use is popularly coin phrased as Web version 2.0 (Bell, 2009; Richardson, 2009; Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009; Smaldino, Lowther, & Russell, 2008; Solomon & Schrum, 2007).
Rogers (2003) defines the main factors of adoption of new innovations as: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity (simplicity), trialability, and observability. For a new innovation to be adopted both widely and quickly, it must positively correlate with these attributes. That is to say that adopters must: (1) see a good relative advantage to using it, (2) feel the innovation is compatible with their views, culture, needs, and lives, (3) the innovation must be simple in its use, thus easy to learn, (4) the innovation must be available for testing prior to full adoption, and (5) one must be able to observe the innovation, or talk to others who are using it, before they have to adopt it (Rogers, 2003). Web 2.0 applications offer all of these factors in overflow, and none of them in limitation. For this reason Web 2.0 applications have quickly become popular with users all over the world.
The interactive and socially generated Web 2.0 tools are supported by social movements that open up copyright and proprietary policies, and they include (but are not necessarily limited to), (1) RSS feeds, (2) weblogs (blogs), (3) microblogging, (4) wikis, (5) social graphics sites, (6) social connection...