I know that I’d be preaching to the converted if I tried to persuade you that most emerging web 2.0 technologies could be used to engage students in the learning process and spark their creativity. But I still think that this neat resource that I have come across might be useful, if not to you, then to some of your professor colleagues that might not know the full potential of web 2.0
The 2007 Horizon Report, a product of collaboration between the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative gives an overview of various technologies that can be used by students and teachers. What’s good about this report, which has been published for the fourth time in 2007 is that it gives a description of each new (or relatively new) technology, then a specific section on its “Relevance for teaching, learning and creative expression” and a section with links to examples of the ways this technologies is being used in education. The report covers user-created content, social networking, mobile phones, virtual worlds, new scholarship and educational gaming.
The 2007 Horizon report can be accessed at www.nmc.org/horizon I think this is a very well-organized resource that I wouldn’t mind sharing even with a conservative professor.
Coming to grips with Web 2.0 in education is bit like trying to figure out how to eat an elephant. Where do you start?
Does the 2007 Horizon Report make suggestions as to how to approach this issue?
Reply to James Drogan
I say we start with blogs. And wikis.
Reply to Mikhail
Why?
Of all the capability presumably provided by Web 2.0, why these two?
Reply to James Drogan
Another view of Web 2.0 is provided by Jakob Nielsen in “Web 2.0 ‘distracts good design’” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6653119.stm).
We don’t talk much, it seems to me, about good design in communications. The exception to this is the instruction provided in writing.
Relevant data, information, and knowledge that is made inaccessible by poor design is no (or little) better than irrelevant data, information, and knowledge.
Reply to James Drogan
Why blogs and wikis? Because they are the easiest sells. Wikis: easily facilitate collaborative writing. Blogs: publish any sort of serialized material to the web, individually or in groups.
Reply to Mikhail
Well, Mikhail, just to keep things going on this topic, please refer to Communication Tools: Make Them Simple and Ubiquitous or They Won’t Be Used by David Pollard (http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2007/05/29.html#a1879).
I’ve cited Pollard a number of times. I like his critical thinking and communications skills. You’ll note he has a bit of a different perspective on wikis and blogs.
Reply to James Drogan