Web 2.0: Good for Education?
Trent Batson
Trent Batson summarizes what Web 2.0 means for higher education:
- More interaction between knowers and learners occurs online rather than in a room
- More continuity between learning meetings during a course of study and after the course is over
- More active learning opportunities are available
- The need for certification of all formal learning is called into question
- A shift in the fundamental perception of learning from content delivery to a guided learning process
- More recognition of and scaffolding on what students already know
- Collection of evidence of student learning online that is owned by the student
- The learning process is associated with the learner
- A deluge of unfiltered information without mature consensus methodologies to handle the deluge
- Transience of knowledge as opinion-producers gain currency more quickly each day than ever before
- Gap between institutions that are able to adapt to Web 2.0 trends and the rest of higher education
- The education enterprise is merely reactive to industry developments; it must instead lead; and educators by and large are resistant; they must instead find opportunities for positive change