Web 2.0 For the 21st Century Learner

Web 2.0 Uses in Higher Ed

• Web 2.0 technologies are being deployed across a broad spectrum of university activities

• Deployment is in no way systematic and the drive is principally bottom up

• There is no blueprint for implementation of Web 2.0 technologies, and each is currently deciding its own path

• It feeds on professional interest and enthusiasm

Critical Issues• Immediate and Fundamental

• Ongoing Drivers to Change

• Fundamental Over Time

Immediate and Fundamental

• Digital Divide (Learning with and/or through technology)

- Ensuring access to technology for all and the development of practical skills in its use, not only for students but for faculty and staff (P.D.)

• Information Literacy (Web Awareness) -Ensuring they possess the skills and understanding to search, authenticate and critically evaluate material from the range of appropriate sources

Ongoing Drive to Change

• Tradition (building a bridge between Social Media and Learning)

• Environmental Factors ( going digital)

• Diversity (The sense of being a contributing member)

• Richer Educational Experience (active learning)

• Practice in School (PBL supported by technology)

• Open Source Materials (Free element of paid education)

• Skills Development (communication, participation, networking, sharing)

Fundamental Over Time

• Don’t lecture … facilitate ! - Renegotiating the relationship between faculty and student to bring about a situation where each recognizes and values the other’s expertise and capability and works together to capitalize on it.

Times they are a Changin’…

• Incoming students with strong sense of communities of interest linked in their own social worlds, and with a disposition to share and participate. It has also made them impatient with a preference for quick answers with a casual approach to evaluating information and deriving knowledge

• They find a world that is hierarchical, introvert, guarded, careful, precise and measured

• The two worlds are currently co-existing, but the students are driving the change