Teaching and Learning Research Programme – Technology Enhanced Learning is a group out of the UK that has put out an article that looks at the uses of technology, specifically web2.0 in education to arrive at Education 2.0.
Some of the points that this report brings to the forefront are:
- it is never only a matter of “using a new tool” it is also using it in a new spirit
- this new spirit has been fueled by greater bandwidth, mobility and ubiquity of connections
- web2.0 facilitates the needs of the playful, the expressive, the reflective and the exploratory individual
- web2.0 facilitates learning on collaboration, publication, literacies and inquiry
- education2.0 meets web2.0 most directly through the co-creation of knowledge and the ways that traditional education has been shown to be systematically been unable to meet the needs/demands of the new wired society
- the traditional education system fears that traditional skills and literacies are going to be lost if web2.0 is over emphasized in addition to a lack of traditional respect as web2.0 tends to favour mob rule
- virtual worlds and social networking are areas that instructors may wish to explore, as long as they are able to discard the usual power structures within the classroom and rethink assessment
I don’t think this is new to anyone who has been looking into technology in the classroom for a year or more, but it is a very nice way to present some of the pros and cons to admins who might not be so keen to “buy in. This would also be a great resource for a PD day to revolve around.
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