Web 2.0 Group 2 SU 09

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This page has been created for the use of students in EPS 415 during Summer 2009. Please do not edit this page unless you are a member of the appropriate group. Thank you.

Web 2.0 Tools
Web 2.0 Tools

Contents

Using Web 2.0 Tools to Foster Student Success.

Introduction

Based on the research conducted by this group, there is compelling evidence to support the idea that it is no longer a question for educators "if" or "why" Web 2.0 tools should be implemented in classroom instruction - for students have already adopted these technologies at least to some degree, whether they are aware of it or not. Rather, the question should be how these Web 2.0 technologies should be used by educators to engage modern students.

An article entitled "Innovations in ICT Applications to Education - 2008" [1] posted on EduSpaces.net [2] sums up the benefits of employing Web 2.0 tools in the classroom:

"Through the implementation of Web 2.0 in the classroom students can: receive instant feedback and self evaluation, work at their own pace, use interactive, multi-sensory and well structured presentations, engage in new concepts within their frame of reference, and present their work in impressive and satisfying formats".

Furthermore, "The current generation of students learn and speak ICT with ease. They thrive on its functionality, portability and adaptability. They use ICT to play and live. As Web 2.0 tools in education gain wider adoption, they look less likely to be a passing fad. Teachers are using these tools to encourage collaboration and engagement with in their classrooms."

In his article, "Moving Toward Web 2.0 in K-12 Education" [3], posted on the Encyclopedia Britannica Blog [4], author Steve Hargadon expands on the benefits of Web 2.0 in education:

"Engagement. Because the engagement of Web 2.0 is in the act of content creation, and seems to exist independent of the particular program being used or even of being in a formal learning environment, this claim seems not only reasonable but compelling. Students who continue to post to their blog or to stay involved in discussion forums during their vacations exemplify the power of Web 2.0 to engage students because of the authentic nature of the work rather than being required assignments."

"Authenticity. Students today are creating on the Web for very real audiences, and their writing or production has to pass a very real test: are they communicating well? Whether it is the peer audience in school which keeps their Web 2.0 programs within the “walled garden” of the school network, or it is publishing for the world, both the work and the audience are authentic."

"Participation. That is, actually being a contributor to world’s body of knowledge. Previously, to pursue an educational interest as part of a larger part of one’s life work, that interest had to be within the relatively narrow confines of existing institutional structures in order to be worthy of publication or presentation–and was rarely available to students. Now...students (and teachers!) can find specific intellectual paths to tread where they are able to participate, say, as an historian and not as someone preparing to be an historian."

"Openness and Access to Information. Web 2.0 is making obsolete many of the restrictions on access to information that were intended to protect the rights of creators, but instead mostly inhibited learning by others. When the world’s knowledge doubles in short periods of time, the incentives or rewards for keeping information proprietary significantly diminish, and the resulting willingness to share presents great opportunities to learn and to participate. The ability to “look something up” or to learn something new has never been greater."

"Collaboration. In the world of Web 2.0, collaboration is not only king, but it can be seen and assessed–look at the history page of a wiki, for example, or the linked list of contributed comments on the personal profile page of a social network. Web 2.0 has created an unparalleled ability to build or participate in personal learning networks and communities of interest or practice."

"Creativity. A regular student can write, film, and edit a video which then can be uploaded to YouTube and potentially seen by more of an audience than some commercial films actually garner."

"Passionate Interest and Personal Expression. More than just the ability to build a profile page on MySpace, Web 2.0 actually gives both students and educators to build for themselves a online portfolio of the endeavors they are passionate about. Where the resume and the degrees have been our short-cut indicators of abilities and accomplishments, the personal body of work now contained and hopefully organized on the Web gives everyone who wants it the the opportunity for an expression of personal interest and achievement."

"Discussion. One of the great features of Web 2.0 is the discussion forum, which provides an environment for learning how to actually talk about things."

"Asynchronous Contribution. The abilty to contribute to discussions after class, or from home, provides a much broader opportunity for participation that the traditional class discussion. Students with different contribution styles, or who process information over time, are now more participative."

"Proactivity. Web 2.0 inherently rewards the proactive learner and contributor."

"Critical Thinking."

With such clearly defined benefits matched to valued educational skills, the benefits of Web 2.0 in the classroom become clear. Therefore, in an effort to promote the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in education, it is the mission of this site to offer some best practices to assist educators in making the most effective use of these technologies.

Throughout this page, there are other resources listed as "additional resources". The idea behind this is to offer readers additional links to other sources of information related to a particular topic.

Defining Web 2.0

A good place to begin is by defining the term, Web 2.0. According to Wikipedia [5], Web 2.0 is defined as the "second generation of web development and web design. It is characterised as facilitating communication, information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It has led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and web applications. Examples include social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs and folksonomies." [6] It is the notion of collaboration and participation that characterizes Web 2.0--as opposed to the early Web, which was largely comprised of static webpages to be viewed passively.

meme map
meme map
The picture at the right displays a "meme map" of Web 2.0 that was developed at a brainstorming session during a conference at O'Reilly Media. The map illustrates the many ways that users can interact with the web and some of the advantages of doing so. [7] According to O'Reilly, the concept of "Web 2.0" can be visualized as "a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core."

Some principle features\core competencies of Web 2.0 are:

  • Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
  • Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
  • Trusting users as co-developers
  • Harnessing collective intelligence
  • Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
  • Software above the level of a single device
  • Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models
  • A concept, not a location
  • 1.0 = html programming; 2.0 = anyone can contribute web content--dynamic.
  • Many tools available to manage the posting of words, music, video, images
  • Also called the Read/Write Web (1.0 would have been the Read Only web)

Another definition of Web 2.0 and how it relates to education in practical terms, is suggested by Steve Hargadon, in "Moving Toward Web 2.0 in K-12 Education" [8]:

"Web 2.0 is simply the use of the Internet as a two-way medium - that it is a platform upon which content is not only consumed but also created. For my generation, our use of the Web largely mirrored our experiences with print and broadcast media: we were the audience, and a select few were the creators (this would be Web 1.0, if you will). For my children and our students today, their use of the Web often entirely revolves around content that they and their friends have created, and within Web frameworks or scaffolding that facilitate that creativity rather than providing the content for them. They build profile pages, upload photos and videos, and interact with each other and that content through active commenting systems."

From the educational standpoint, we begin to see where the use of these tools can benefit the students. One of the principle features of Web 2.0 is the power that it has to "harness collective intelligence." Through the use of sites that allow children to create their own content and respond to the content of others, students are developing their own notions of collaboration. These children are, perhaps unknowingly, combining their knowledge on the topic at hand. In a classroom setting, these tools then can be used to encourage collaboration and shared knowledge in a way that is more engaging.

Some additional resources:

  • Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0 [9]
  • Web 2.0 is the Future of Education [10]
  • Why is Web 2.0 Important to Higher Education? [11]
  • Education 2.0 [12]

Image:Web 2.jpg

Web 2.0 Tools and Education

Blogs

Wikipedia describes a blog as, "(a contraction of the term weblog) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. 'Blog' can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog." [13]

Blogs have become increasingly popular in education for both instructors and students. In his article, e-learning 2.0 - How Web Technologies Are Shaping Education, author Steve O'Hear suggests that some of the advantages of blogs include, "the software remove(s) the technical barriers to writing and publishing online" and "the 'journal' format encourages students to keep a record of their thinking over time. Blogs also of course facilitate critical feedback, by letting readers add comments - which could be from teachers, peers or a wider audience." [14]

He goes on to add, "Students use of blogs are far ranging. A single authored blog can be used to provide a personal space online, to pose questions, publish work in progress, and link to and comment on other web sources. However a blog needn't be limited to a single author - it can mix different kinds of voices, including fellow students, teachers and mentors, or subject specialists." [15]

Blogger’s Contract

  • Acknowledging that blogging is a legitimate and authentic form of journalistic publication, student and teacher bloggers must adhere to essential principles of ethics. The free exchange and publication of information can help people in important ways. At the same time information can also harm people either intentionally or unintentionally.
  • Being a responsible participant in the great online conversation, I pledge that I will use information to:
  • Honestly and joyously express the truth, and that if challenged, I will be able to prove that what I write or say is true,
  • Always treat all people with respect. I will never use information to cause harm or appear to cause harm to any person or group of people, and
  • Respect and protect information tools and that I will neither do any harm to a computer system, network, software, or other person’s information; nor will I allow others to do harm to a computer system, network, software, or other person’s information.
  • I will always be accountable for the information that I produce and publish, willing and able to defend my information or acknowledge when I have made a mistake and fix it. Signed by Teacher and Student.

Some additional resources:

Wikis

Wikipedia (ironically), defines a wiki as "a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simplified markup language." [19] The term, "wiki", is derived from the Hawaiian word, wiki or wiki-wiki, which means "quick". [20]

According to the Western Australia Department of Education and Training website, the educational value of wikis is that they "encourage group social interaction and collaboration and support asynchronous communication allowing users to contribute at a time, and from a place that suits them. Many students find that their learning is most effective when they are actively involved in the construction of their knowledge." [21]

In a paper entitled, "Wiki: A Technology for Conversational Knowledge Management and Group Collaboration" [22], author Christian Wagner from the City University of Hong Kong, suggests that one of the benefits of wikis is "conversational knowledge", which he characterizes as having the following features:

  1. It can be economical and technology undemanding. Many on-line communities are built on little more than a listserv or a (freely available) web- based discussion forum.
  2. Conversational knowledge creation is fast, taking potentially only as long as required for one person to post a question and others to post or e-mail a response.
  3. Conversational knowledge creation is suitable for environments where the knowledge is not centralized, but resides with multiple owners who may be located far apart.

Each of these suggested benefits has a place within the educational context. Wagner goes on to list a few of the wiki design principles:

Image:Wiki_design_principles.jpg‎

Many - if not all - of these principles demonstrate the collaborative and easy-to-use nature of wikis and are therefore well-suited for the classroom environment, for both the student and instructor.

Wagner also lists several types of "knowledges" that are well-suited for wikis; two of which in particular have application in education: Dynamically changing knowledge and Incremental knowledge:

"Dynamically changing knowledge. Maintaining knowledge is exceedingly difficult when that knowledge changes rapidly. For example, in cases of a breakout of an unknown disease (such as SARS) or similar disastrous event, new pieces of knowledge need to be created, collected, and disseminated as quickly as possible to facilitate a global problem solving process. In such a situation, the technology needs to support distribution of knowledge creation activities to as many participants as possible."

"Incremental knowledge creation as question answering. Wikis combine multiple sets of knowledge gracefully. Individuals are able, and even encouraged, to begin creating knowledge content that is incomplete (or even erroneous) and then to rely on other collaborators to add content. The ability to “ask questions” by creating hyperlinks to non-existing pages distributes the effort."

When you evaluate these knowledges in the context of the classroom, it becomes clear how wikis can be useful in instruction.

One of the challenges of using wikis is vandalism, which is described as, "editing a wiki in a way that is intentionally disruptive or destructive." [23]. There are generally four types of wiki vandalism: deletion of legitimate information, insertion of nonsense or irrelevant content, addition of unwanted commercial links (spam), and policy violations specific to that wiki. [24]

The other drawback to wikis is the debate over whether or not sources like Wikipedia can be treated as a reliable and trusted source of information, since it is community-based and policed.

Some additional resources:

Media-sharing Sites

Popular media-sharing sites like YouTube [28], flickr [29], etc., offer instructors and students convenient ways to incorporate multimedia in the classroom. In an effort to maintain the education integrity of media-sharing, and filter out potentially inappropriate content, sites like TeacherTube [30] and SchoolTube [31] have been created, with educators and students in mind.

Of course, one of the main issue that surrounds the use of multimedia in education is that of copyrighted material. To assist with this, the Center for Social Media at the American University School of Communication offers a fairly exhaustive guide to best practices in fair use, which they define as, "the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances—especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant. It is a general right that applies even in situations where the law provides no specific authorization for the use in question—as it does for certain narrowly defined classroom activities." [32]

Some additional resources:

  • The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education [33]
  • Is Education Ready For YouTube? [34]

Podcasts and Vodcasts

Podcasts and Vodcasts are audio and video clips optimized for the web (compressed to the smallest size of files that will still sound and look acceptable), and the content is automatically updated for the user via RSS feeds and "podcatching" software applications like iTunes [35].

An article on Buzzle.com [36] describes the primary benefit of podcasting in education as podcasting "enables teachers to reach students through a medium that is both 'cool' and a part of their daily lives. For a technology that only requires a computer, microphone and internet connection, podcasting has the capacity of advancing a student’s education beyond the classroom. Educators need to perceive devices like iPods and other portable media devices not as distractions to learning; rather, capitalize on it and turn them into effective tools for learning."

The article goes on to include a specific benefit for parents of K-12 students: "Parents also benefit from podcasting as it allows them to take a more active role in the children’s education. By simply programming their computers to automatically capture school broadcasts, they can keep track of how their children are doing in class and get the latest school announcements."

  • Schools could use podcasts for daily bulletins
  • Could also be posting special messages from the superintendent or principal in this format
  • Could be used in speech, music classes
  • Our Multimedia class is another place that might want to explore this
  • Besides using iTunes, [37] other resources include Audacity [38] (free, open-source sound-editing software)
  • VoiceThread [39] , which is a very simple web site to use, allows one to post a photo and then record, add a text comment, or even add simple doodled drawings/annotations. Thus, this site offers visitors the opportunity to collaborate.

A number of websites have been created over the years that catalog Podcast feeds, so users can often browse by subject. Here are a few that specialize in education-related Podcasts:

Social-networking Sites

Since other groups are focusing exclusively on social networking, this section will be a brief overview.

The term "social networking" is used to describe websites like MySpace [41], Facebook [42], Twitter [43], flickr [44], LinkedIn [45], and Digg [46], that provide a forum for the creation and development of online communities (often for users with shared interests). Social networking sites offer users the opportunity to communicate, interact, and share photos, video clips, websites, and other information--either synchronously or asynchronously.

Many of these sites specialize in one particular aspect of community interaction. For example, Facebook started as a community for college students exclusively, and recently expanded to other users. LinkedIn is primarily for career minded professionals; flickr is a site for sharing photos; Twitter allows users to broadcast "tweets" of 140 characters or less and "follow" other users, receiving their updates; and Digg is a forum for sharing website URLs.

Some additional resources:

Some additional general resources for Web 2.0 in Education

  • Moving Toward Web 2.0 in K-12 Education [51]
  • Web 2.0 and You [52]
  • Web 2.0 in the Classroom Interactive Presentation: This presentation showcases student work produced using Web 2.0 tools [53]
  • UK Based Web 2.0 Site designed to provide teachers with a directory of free webtools along with some suggestions as to how they may be used in the classroom. Over 2000 websites and 295 tools all free for the classroom! [54]

The Learner Perspective and Web 2.0

How the Learner Views The Inclusion of Technology in Schools

This YouTube Video focuses on the vision of students today setting the stage for using tools that are more appropriate for today’s learner and for the world in which these learners will work and learn. This video really speaks to what we are missing as far as grasping students' attention and how use of this new technology can and will foster student success. Many teachers may think this video is a bit over the top, but it does come from the point of the view of the learner.

Michael Wesch [55], whose class created this video on YouTube, was a little apprehensive about how teachers were going to react to this perspective. But after seeing his own classroom, he realized something all teachers should be conscious of: "When I walked into my classroom for the first day of school two weeks ago, I was immediately reminded of the real problem now facing education. The problem is not just 'written on the walls.' It’s built into them." Learners of today sit back in the back of their classroom listening to their iPods and texting on their phones. Not only can this be discouraging for educators, but it can also be viewed as a cry out to the teachers of today that students need to be engaged with technology tools such as Web 2.0. Even in Michael Wesch's own classroom, he brings up a point in which speaks from many teachers, "Scanning the room my assistants also saw students cruising Facebook, instant messaging, and texting their friends. The students were undoubtedly engaged, just not with me." It also speaks to the average student who uses these tools within the privacy of their own home, but doesn't really use their applications on a day to day basis in their schooling practices.

Using Web 2.0 can definitely enhance the learner in so many ways that they really can engage with the technology. The vision of students today is definitely different than what is shown in most classrooms. Students are looking to Web 2.0 to open the doors to new possibilities that they wouldn't normally get. What about doing a Podcast instead of a PowerPoint presentation? Or writing a blog to document student experiences with a science experiment? Whether or not educators are willing to adopt these technologies, Web 2.0 will become the norm within schools and teachers need to be prepared for what is to come.

What the Learner Would Like to See in the Future with Web 2.0

The vision of students today is very different than what we show in our classrooms and the learner. Learners are emmersed with many technology tools and its important to understand the technology in their lives. Learners can be listening to their ipod, watching tv, being on the internet, and doing school work all at the same time. Schooling is still very teacher-centered, in which the teacher controls the learning in the classroom. With learners being exposed to all of this technology,specifically Web 2.0. Teachers need to be collaborative with learners, sharing and viewing Web 2.0 concepts and tools that they find that could be used to enhance teaching in the classroom.

Learners are immersed in the following technologies and show different learning styles when using Web 2.0:[56]. The idea of the online computer interface "provides access to online dictionaries, distant collaborative partners, and virtual communities of practice through the use of Internet." With computers, "You can get learners to collaborate one minute and reflect on that collaboration in the next." Learners can also be engaged through using Multi User Virtual Environment (MUVE) interfaces more in the classroom. In these MUVE's, learners' "avatars interact with computer based agents and digital artifacts in virtual contexts. Such agents might prompt learners to reflect on why they have accomplished or where they want to go or do next. They can also foster interaction and collaboration." Learners would also like to see the use of Mobile wireless devices. This Mobile devices can be used to "gain access to the virtual world." If we use these mobile devices, it will promote "hands-on learning" using devices that will "excite learners and foster their motivation to learn even more." Mobile devices also would allow learners' access all kinds of information right at their fingertips. For example, "finding people with similar interests in the community to information about the weather, stock markets, sports, comedy," that could easily be related to a concept in the classroom.Learners would also like to see teachers using "networking sites through which people are willing/able to express varied interests and aspects of their own personality" as a way to connect with others. We can also try and "test ideas in different ways and with different personas and a learner can be a quiet person in a traditional classroom and an extrovert in Second Life, or vice versa." The access to Web 2.0 Tools for learners centers upon the ability to communicate and share information within social networks. This is accomplished most easily throughout online communities that allow for individual, personalized identities that help foster collaboration and communication. Learners have been exposed to the internet and collaborating amongst internet resources in the classroom. This new era of learners wants to "focus on building event-driven experiences,rather than simply designing information silos amended with numerous hyperlinks." [57] Learners want these event-driven experiences that could be enhanced by the use of concepts of Web 2.0.

The above factors and ideas exhibit the ‘immersive’ nature of Web 2.0 so that the learners have a virtual parallel to their lives. Their involvement with the World Wide Web is complete to the extent of constructing a different reality in the virtual world. Leading a ‘second life’, working with chosen avatars, listing your profile or intended identity exhibits the personalized, constructed, and immerse nature of the Internet. The possibility to create mediated situations which may not be possible in real life is a feature of immersible learning. Now one can test out different identities, learning styles, and various ways of knowing and interacting. Constructing hypothetical situations in a real-life atmosphere creates a sense of augmented reality.For education, this means providing the ability to learn the technological skills necessary to participate in the Web 2.0 environment. In addition, providing access to the technological resources is vital for learners to be participants and successful in this environment. [58]

The Teacher Perspective and Web 2.0

Teachers of Today and Web 2.0

Many teachers are apprehensive about the use of Web 2.0 in the classroom. According to the Chronicle for Higher Education [59], teachers are unconvinced "that tools connecting students to the Web, and to one another, would help in that future classroom." However, there are many teachers that are defenders of Web 2.0, believing that Web 2.0 allows for "opportunities for students to draw information from the Internet and bring it into classroom discussions."

This video talks about what teachers should be looking for to engage the learners of today by using wikis, Podcasts, etc. (Web 2.0 tools). While it is a longer video, it does give some important statistics that most teachers should be aware of in how the students of today learn. It also looks at what kind of learners we are dealing with and how teachers need to be engaging all different kinds of learners from spacial to visual. Web 2.0 can allow for all these kinds of different learners to experience and learn in ways that engage these "digital learners". While there are so many "digital learners" , why do teachers still have a hard time accepting the digital age with their teaching practices? With "2.7 billion searches on Google each month", having students use ipods in relation to podcast, or using cellphones to access Web 2.0 tools, teachers need to be "paying attention" to the emerging technology adopted by their students and should not be ignoring the inevitable.However, there are many teachers that are encouraging the use of Web 2.0 in their classrooms. There is much research out there that supports this idea that Web 2.0 does help with "higher order thinking" skills. [60] These higher order thinking skills allow for students to think outside of the box and push the limits.

A Typical Day in the Web 2.0 Classroom

Let's imagine the 21st Century classroom.[61]. Students come to school ready to learn, having finished their homework which they checked from the teacher's Wiki. The work for the day involves contributing to a blog. Students are ready to contribute accurately and completely because the teacher has described expectations. A project that the students have been working on is due today. Their Wikis are available, and their teacher has required that all bookmarks be saved to del.icio.us. A future project involves finding and subscribing to a podcast, so students are going there to see what is available. The class discussion for the day is in the form of a VoiceThread. The teacher has uploaded a document for them all to consider and contribute their thoughts. After class is over, their teacher prepares for future projects and joins a discussion on Classroom. The teacher continues his/her own learning by checking out some of the presentations from the k12onlineconference. Their teacher also considers some Google lit trips for possible adaptation to curriculum. Next, the teacher checks out Twitter and sees what people are saying, who is following, and decides to follow more people. The teacher's Twitter main page is here and the teacher has Twitterific going on the desktop of her computer.

Non-Intimidating, Teacher-Friendly Web 2.0 Starting Tools and Tips for Use in the Classroom

Teachers continually have to change their curricula to stay current with the modern times and technology of our students. Technology can be very expensive for school districts to keep up with. The advantage of Web 2.0 tools is that most are free and easy to use. Teachers are often intimidated by these new technologies, so there are many quick and easy guides out there that help explain the basics of Web 2.0 and some of these issues teachers may face. Some examples of Web 2.0 Tools specifically geared toward teachers include, Collaborating with Web 2.0 Tools and Widgets [62], and 100 Web 2.0 Ideas for Educators (wonderful resource [63] Teachers can grade and publish grades, progress reports, and attendance reports for free with Engrade [64]. Teachers no longer have to record, average, and tabulate grades. They have the luxury of being able to submit grades in the comfort of their own home, and both parents and students can access grades at any time. There are many other grading programs that are used such as Powerteacher [65], but for a cost.Instead of using PowerPoint alone, students can combine PowerPoint and a Podcast into an interactive presentation in a free Web 2.0 program called Slidecasting [66]. Slidecasting is the ability to synchronize slides with media. The creative possibilities are endless, allowing students to let their imaginations roam. There are all sorts of slide shows available (look on SlideShare), and audio files can incorporate just about anything: songs, musicals, recorded talks, voice narrations, instrumental music, talk shows, podcast interviews, news bulletins, speeches, advertising jingles, et al. With all these options, users can create a wide variety of Slidecasts.

Some other suggested uses for technology in the classroom include: a talk recorded with a portable mp3 player (or cellphone) synchronized to PowerPoint slides, nursery rhymes synchronized to a picture slideshow for kindergarten students, a podcast interview as a voice over with some slides for school announcements to put on the school web page, a wiki or blog of class announcements, projects, and assignments for students to access, a Skype[67] video conference with students from another school discussing similar subjects and themes.

Quick Examples of Uses and Applications of Web 2.0 Tools by Teachers

Context of Globalization and Web 2.0

The emergence of Web 2.0 technologies that values user participation, collaboration, community, and interaction has enabled that collaboration to take place across the globe. In fact, new organizational models such as Enterprise 2.0, University 2.0 and Education 2.0 are all driven by this influence of Web 2.0 technologies in a global scale. With these phenomena being combined, what can be foreseen is that the world becomes “flat.”

In this section, we want to focus on examining how the force of globalization catalyzes new educational reforms all over the world. Coupled with advances in Web 2.0 technologies have resulted in schools exploring Web 2.0 in the education context. Web 2.0 technologies, such as blogs, blogs, podcasts, social networking, and even gaming –are now being widely used to enhance traditional education approaches. Thus emerged “Education 2.0”

Recently, Dr. Roumen Nikolov in his paper entitled "The Emerging Global Campus Model", which analyses trends including the Emerging Global Model of universities, the tendency of building global educational alliances, the Open Educational Resources movement and the emergence of global campus model. Undoubtedly, these trends in the higher education space lately are fueling Education 2.0 as well. According to Nikolov, some arguments that the ultimate result of the ICT driven transformation in the world could make the whole world to become a Global Campus in the next few decades.

The Emerging Global Model

Universities, which are key institutions for social and economic development within each country, are becoming more international. Physically, we can see more and more universities are establishing its campuses beyond their home shores. For example: Rochester Institute of Technology, one of the premier engineering schools in the U.S., has opened a branch campus in Croatia. Singapore has successfully recruited Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of Munich to establish branch campuses. In fact, by 2012 Singapore hopes to attract an additional 150,000 students to the city-state to receive technical degrees. “Knowledge Centers” are also being built across countries. One good example is the Qatar's Education City includes outposts of Carnegie Mellon University, Weill Cornell Medical College, Georgetown School of Foreign Service, and Texas A&M.

This reflects a new phenomenon, defined as the Emerging Global Model (EGM) of the 21st century research university. The EGM universities are basically a group of institutions that embrace the forces of globalization. With their international nature, these universities are characterized by an intensity of research that far exceeds past experience. They are engaged in worldwide competition for students, faculty, staff, and funding and they operate in an environment in which traditional political, linguistic, and access boundaries are increasingly losing their traditional roles. In fact, students nowadays are anxious to broaden their education by venturing across borders. According to Newsweek, the number of students studying abroad has grown at an annual rate of 3.9 percent, from 800,000 in 1975 to 2.5 million in 2004. Foreign students earn 30 percent of doctoral degrees in the U.S. and 38 percent in the U.K. Universities are encouraging this trend as well. In Europe, more than 140,000 students participate in the Erasmus program each year, taking courses for credit from 2,200 participating institutions. The European mobility programs are seeking to create a sense of transnational Europeanness, which is probably the most extensive international mobility of students.

Global Alliances

With the advent of globalization, building global educational alliances has become an integral part of Education 2.0. There are a variety of reasons for forming partnerships or consortia of universities: "sharing resources, costs and infrastructure to deliver e-learning; competing with international providers; reducing duplication among existing universities". One of the first global university networks is Universitas 21 which includes 21 leading research-intensive universities in thirteen countries (http://www.universitas21.com). Collectively, its members enroll over 650,000 students, employ over 130,000 staff and have over 2 million alumni. Their collective budgets amount to over US$13bn with an annual research grant income of over US$3bn. This has not only offers opportunities for global education, research, projects and services, but also provides a strong quality assurance framework to the network's activities.

Open Educational Resources

Resting on the establishment of new and better platforms - Web 2.0, the semantic web and new search algorithms and processes of digitization, openness has emerged as an alternative mode of social production based on the growing and overlapping complexities of open source, open access, open archiving and open publishing.

For some theorists, such as law professors Yochai Benkler (Yale) and Larry Lessig (Stanford), this “open culture” symbolizes a new mode of social production and a form of cultural formation that represents an alternative to capitalist forms of globalization.

It has been revealed that initiatives in open source, open access, open publishing and open archiving are part of emerging knowledge ecologies that will determine the future of educational resources (University Publishing in a Digital Age, 2008). Influenced by the global education movement, these initiatives also lead to another movement-Open Educational Resource (OER), which demonstrates great potential to overcome demographic, economic, and geographic educational boundaries and to promote life-long learning and personalized learning. OER is defined as “digitized materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning and research”.

One of the most popular initiatives regarding OER is MIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW) (http://ocw.mit.edu). In 2001, MIT published about 1,800 courses on the web which are made available to educators and learners worldwide at no cost. Similar in scope to the step taken by MIT, Harvard’s adoption of the open archiving mandate policy marks the beginning of a new era. This policy requires faculty members to allow the university to make their scholarly articles available free online. Since Open access means “putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature on the internet, making it available free of charge and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions, and removing the barriers to serious research.” Stuart M. Shieber, a professor of computer science at Harvard who proposed the new policy, remarked that this “should be a very powerful message to the academic community that we want and should have more control over how our work is used and disseminated (http://chronicle.com/news/article/3943/harvard-faculty-adopts-open-access-requirement).”

These initiatives marked the emergence of new strategies to establish knowledge cultures that will determine the future of scholarly publishing, the form and content of educational resources, and also the future of innovation and research in the digital global economy.

Global Campus Model

The characteristics of the Emerging Global Campus Model (EGCM) could be considered as an extension themes of the EGM. First, Virtual Campus will be considered not only as a virtual reconstruction of the existing campuses and “bricks and mortar” buildings to complement the physical spaces when designing an effective, student centered, learning environment. But also, it means to “redesign and reconfigure the human experience of existing physical spaces without having to make physical, structural changes in buildings.” Thus, a virtual campus will integrate a variety of software tools, physical tools that can be found in physical campus as well as include socio-cultural and perceptual qualities that even surpass comparable physical settings. Eventually, the institutional virtual campus could evolve into a global virtual campus comprising all university branches and partner institutions. The virtual campus should be opened towards the other stakeholders and the users and provide virtual places where they could meet, cooperate, communicate, share information and knowledge.

Second, different virtual mobility schemes will be defined based on EGCM. Not only can we combined virtual and physical mobility (e.g., take courses at home university while staying abroad), but also it embeds “networked e-learning (in transnational collaboration of teachers and students), aiming at transferability, scalability and sustainability: joint programme and course development, joint learning activities as virtual integrated elements of blended learning courses abroad in a virtual mode”. Similar combined virtual/physical mobility model could be applied for mobility of researchers and for “crosssector” (academia-industry) mobility schemes. These models could be further extended towards a combined Virtual/Physical Recruitment Model since the EGCM universities are “adopting worldwide recruitment strategies for students, faculty, and administrators”. This model of virtual mobility would also be very useful for developing countries in their efforts to reduce the brain-drain and turn it into a brain-gain status and thus helping to reduce the rising “knowledge gap” between them and the developed countries.

Third, the need of an effective knowledge management strategy is becoming one of the main characteristics of an EGCM university as well. Knowledge Management (KM) emerged as a result of the development of ICT and the changes in the organizations’ structure, functions and management practices all over the world. On one hand, in order to become an “enterprise like” organization the universities tend to adopt ICT not only for e-learning, but also for management and administrative purposes. On the other hand, Web 2.0 technologies and tools provide new avenues for cooperation between university and industry in the areas of training, research and innovation, which is a solid ground for joint ICT professional competency development. The Web 2.0 technologies influence the business world and the notion Enterprise 2.0 has been introduced. The Enterprise 2.0 model provides opportunities for company improvements in the area of innovation, collaboration, knowledge sharing, using collective intelligence and searching and discovering. At the same time, the industrial economy knowledge monopolies are breaking down and the innovations is becoming more collaborative, distributed and open. Under this circumstance, one of the major challenges facing the universities in the next decade should be to reinvent themselves as information organizations. As Unsworth states, the “universities are, at their core, organizations that cultivate knowledge, seeking both to create knowledge and to preserve and convey knowledge, but they are remarkably inefficient and therefore ineffective in the way that they leverage their own information resources to advance that core activity”. The model of University 2.0 naturally emerged as a “research and entrepreneurial university which integrates Web 2.0 technologies and applications in all university activities, including ones with all knowledge intensive stakeholders, and implements the features of the Enterprise 2.0”. The Web 2.0 based virtual learning environments provide opportunities for students, professors, companies and other stakeholders to cooperate in a 24/7 fashion. The virtual space that a University 2.0 provided could establish solid bridges to naturally integrate two worlds – the academic and the corporate ones, if the university adopts most of the principles of the Enterprise 2.0 model.

In summary, with the unstopping evolution of technologies, different ways of information exchange are challenging the way how knowledge being cummulated and introduced nowadays. Globalization, at the same time, is speeding up both the innovation in web interface and reformation in educational structure. The integration of these two phenomena will be one of major issues in the next few decades. What we might expect that one day, the needs of life-long learning can be fulfill through the integration of all forms of education.

How these problems relate to activities across different areas of life.

Challenges of Web 2.0 and Formal Education

The role of the teacher and the learner in a Web 2.0 world evolves from the traditional model of teacher as presenter and student as receiver, to more of a blend of collaborative sharing of information, knowledge and experiences. A significant challenge to this model is the formal structure that exists in education overall, which includes the teacher as director of the learning as opposed to the students owning and navigating their own learning experiences.

At the center of this debate is what constitutes knowledge that is worth learning. Until recently, the information shared by teachers to students was defined as the knowledge necessary for learning to occur. It also constituted the knowledge that would be measured using assessment designed to evaluate student learning. With an ever-changing societal landscape that includes new information being created and shared faster than it can be processed and received, the concept of a fixed set of core knowledge, understandings, or facts that all students should know seems impossible given the individual needs of each student and the unique environments each operates in.

Futurist Seely Brown highlights that educators will need to move from being the sole source of information to mentors and cultivators of student learning in a "passion-based learning" environment. This includes the development of learning experiences and opportunities that would allow students to reach beyond the teacher to collaborate with one another as well as outside expert resources.

As the tools of learning are changing, so must the ways that the material is presented change. Teachers must look for ways to teach that "are more aligned with a sense of play." These means must also be focused on collaboration and inquiry. This, of course, will also impact the types of assessments that teachers are using. In light of this, teachers will need to not only change their role in the classroom, but also look at new ways for students to learn and new ways to assess student learning. For some, this change might seem simple, while others may find it difficult to pull away from their traditional means of instruction and assessment.

Challenges of Web 2.0 and Informal Learning

Informal learning takes place in any type of situation where there is no set curriculum. This can be in after school programs, in the workplace, and even in places like the grocery store. Where vast amounts of research is conducted to determine the educational benefits of Web 2.0 technologies in the area of formal education, companies are also looking at ways that Web 2.0 technologies can be used to help foster informal learning in the workplace.

Training Methods of the Past and Present
Training Methods of the Past and Present

The traditional means of training in the workplace have been much like that of a classroom. Employees attend seminars and conferences where a leader of some type tells them information that they are to remember and then replicate in the workplace. While this top-down approach may have had some benefits, the process did little to include the ideas, suggestions and possible questions of the attendees. The image at the right shows the contrast between training methods of the past and present.

This is where Web 2.0 technologies can be beneficial. Mark Bucceri, a Principal Education Specialist for Saba Software, made these suggestions for improving informal learning in the workplace using Web 2.0 technologies. Wikis can be used as a place for employees to brainstorm and connect. Use online rating systems to give employees a chance to select which topics or practices need focus. Use Facebook-type discussion boards to prompt discussion and creation among employees. Have instructors create blogs or podcasts that can be viewed at the workstation instead of attending a class. Create spaces where employees can list questions and get responses, as well as provide feedback.

The challenge with incorporating these types of learning activities lies on the management. This requires that the management/training department of a company a) know about these applications well enough to see their potential and b) are comfortable enough working with the applications to implement them into the training process in ways that will be efficient and effective. Companies would also be charged with finding ways to ensure that employees are using these learning opportunities.

The informal learning opportunities are endless for individuals given the access to and flexibility of Web 2.0 tools. With an ability to communicate, share and create new information and knowledge from anywhere in the world, the indivuidual person is able to develop a greater understanding of the world and the resources available. This has the potential to create a society that is not defined by geographical boundaries, but technological access regions and societal classes. Thus, the ability of someone to advance in society outside of formal learning environments will grow increasingly dependent upon whether that person has access to the resources and information that others do.

Conclusion

When examining all the different elements of Web 2.0--namely the related tools and applications, and the impact on how we as a global society communicate with each other--it becomes clear why adopting a Web 2.0 philosophy in education is imperative, if educators are to continue serving the best interests of their students. Without incorporating these Web 2.0 tools and ideals in both formal and informal learning environments, students will be at a clear disadvantage when compared to their peers. The fact of the matter is, students are already using these tools and have already embraced the underlying philosophy of thinking globally and being more active participants in collaborating and sharing information--all informally and on their own terms. It would be doing these students a grave disservice by attempting to force them to use the outdated educational tools of past generations, when most of the Web 2.0 tools are readily available in both the traditional classroom and in online educational venues.

Hopefully, the resources assembled on this site will be of value to educators seeking ways to make the shift to a Web 2.0 philosophy, and as a result, better engage their students. This is a time of great possibility unlike any other in human history. Not only is rapidly evolving technology and its related practices causing us to reexamine and redefine traditional terms like "education", "teacher", "student", and "classroom", but we have witnessed the beginning of a new era where the free exchange of ideas and information transcends physical and temporal boundaries in ways that were previously only speculated about in science fiction. And we as a global society all stand to reap untold benefits from it--if we do our part to ensure our students are as well-equipped as possible to participate in this unprecedented learning environment.

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