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Web 2.0 Tools
Wikis, Blogs & More, Oh My!
4/1/2008
"Some people are intimidated by the interactive nature of all this," he says- an admission that must be painful for him since, on SCU's behalf, Danielson recently invested in another Web 2.0 medium: Second Life. "In theory, [educators] want to embrace all of these new technologies and collaborate. In practice, it's a little more complicated to get their heads around the fact that periodic regurgitation of facts is just not the way to go."
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Because of such adoption impediments, many experts suggest it could be years before higher education separates the wheat from the chaff and determines which Web 2.0 tools make the biggest difference in academia. As part of this process, Sandy Schaeffer, director of the Advanced Learning Center at the University of Memphis (TN), says another key question technologists must ask themselves is how one actually measures collaboration success. From his perspective, Web 2.0 hasn't necessarily improved collaboration, but has instead morphed it into a different form. Students who once met around a physical table in the student union now might meet in a wiki; those who formerly exchanged handwritten notes now may trade URLs on a social bookmarking site.
"Eventually, we may have a net gain of collaboration once people become comfortable with the mechanics of this stuff," says Schaeffer. "Right now, the changes are noteworthy, but I wouldn't say we've seen a revolution just yet."
Until that revolution occurs, Trent Batson, senior associate with the nonprofit Teaching, Learning, and Technology Group, says the best way for educators to take full advantage of Web 2.0 tools is to use the technology to actually redefine what they mean by content. He points out that prior to 2004, content was what the teacher brought to class. But if educators use Web 2.0 tools correctly, Batson says the definition of content can be expanded to include everything students create during class with guidance from the instructor, and everything they create outside of class by interacting among themselves.
"Change won't happen on its own," says Batson (who is also the editor of Campus Technology's new Web 2.0 eNewsletter; see box). "It's up to us to use these tools to make knowledge not the product of conversation but, instead, the conversation itself."
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