First the bad news: This blog was hacked earlier this week. The good news: I lost everything. The bestest news: There wasn’t much to lose, being only three weeks into Open Storytelling class I’m in over at the University of Mary Washington.

This week’s study topic was Web 2.0: what it is and how to run with it wearing storytelling shoes. My takeaways from both is that Web 2.0 is all about connections of the hyperlink kind and connections of the corporeal kind. The former represents the best of the Internet from back in the day while the latter is everyone that takes a thoughtful moment to say something about whatever and then post it online.

My interest in taking this course is driven by my desire to create better learning experiences for the people I support in my instructional design work. Anyway I came across a link (Web 1.0 thingie) pointing to a presentation (a form of storytelling) on Dale’s Cone of Learning (Web 2.0 artifact). The thing about storytelling is that I believe stories can create a more immersive learning experience: shoe-string realism on the desktop. Feeling giddy at the prospect of using Web 2.0 and a plethora of corporeal contributions from people all over creation I was brought back to reality by this passage in Michael Molenda’s 2003 paper Cone of Experience.

Somewhat deflated at this point, I felt my spirits soar to new heights by another corporeal contribution: this one from an article by Annie Murphy Paul in Time titled Why Morning Routines Are Creativity Killers. Her take on creativity, or at least my take on her take, is that I need to be a little this side of befuddled when I do literature reviews.

Where am I (on the subject of Web 2.0) now? That it has a significant place in my work and research. I need to remember to do the thinking parts early, with the sleep still in my eyes, and save the more pragmatic pieces for later in the day.

Web 2.0 brings people together in rich and immersive ways. The more we as corporeal purveyors of perspective continue to contribute the more knowledge and efficacy grows. I think that using media, another Web 2.0 paradigm, the deeper our ability to communicate with each other will be.

Anyway, it’s a puzzling mix of theory put into practice, ‘fer sure.