Monthly Archives: April 2009

Higher Education – What is the role of Web 2.0 in learning?

I resonate with the views on this Higher Education 2.0.

There are also different perspectives from educators, where we could see a “spectrum” of ideas ranging from the teacher-centred approach to the student-centred approach, with blended learning, technology mediated learning, on-line learning and distance learning all in bags of choices for educators and learners to mix and match, and mashup to their needs and expectations.

In Why is Web 2.0 Important to Higher Education by Trent Batson.

Culturally speaking, with the advent of Web 2.0, the “traditional classroom” with one speaker and many listeners is now an oddity, a throwback, a form that should represent 15 percent of undergraduate interaction with faculty, not 85 percent as it does now. With so many ways to create knowledge now very rapidly and collaboratively, we are freed from the necessity of a singular approach to teaching. It no longer makes sense. If you are a faculty member and you are still walking into the classroom with a lecture in mind and “the points to cover,” as I did for many years, you are living in the past, a past that is now obsolete. Granted, your job is easier and the students love it if you just talk, but do you feel right about what you are doing?

So, will education be virtual?

Are you teaching for it?

I think we have come to a convergence when education means learning, and it will be virtual. 

Learning is the creation of knowledge and information, individually and over the networks.  And education is a life-long and life-wide process where learning takes on different landscapes and technological platforms, and is morphing in an emergence manner throughout our life. 

How far do you think we are approaching a Web 2.0 teaching and learning paradigm in our Higher Education?  I wonder!

 

 

E-learning, faculty training

Tony writes in his E-learning, faculty training and the value of subscription journals

“I agree completely. But let’s go back to what drives academics, and that is research rather than teaching. The fact that academics in Faculties of Education are rewarded for publishing in a journal that is not easily accessible to practising teachers says it all. Currently, the Ph.D. is a training in research, not teaching …… Virtually every occupation that requires people to use technology in their work requires training in the use of that technology – except for post-secondary teaching.”

I agree.

I don’t see much emphasis in the pure training in teaching to doctorate level, and even Doctor of Education is based on research in education. Research has long been hailed as the creation of knowledge, not the teaching I suppose. But I would think that nowadays, every teacher (professor) and learner are either creating the knowledge or co-creating or facilitating the creation of knowledge using Web 2.0 tools – via blogs, wikis, Nings etc. Such research and learning creation are happening in billions ways under an adaptive complex learning ecology.

The heuristics are complex, and to a great extent the learning is based on the learner centred principles, especially for adults.  These form the basis of learning under a social environment – the social learning, where people interact not only with resources, but people and artifacts.  These also form the basis of Education Networks, Social Networks and Communities of Practice, where learning is not confined to any single individual, but is embraced by “networks”, “groups” and “teams”, and in certain circumstances mediated by information and communication technology and education technology. 

 They are ephemeral. They are ubiquitous.

Learning and research is multi-faceted, and has become an emergence phenomena.