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Can Campus IT Outsource to Web 2.0?
4/2/2008
Still, at the same time, most Web 2.0 applications, sites, and spaces are ideal for educational purposes if faculty members use them appropriately and imaginatively, without bias just because they are popular, but with full knowledge of how the sites work. Just as faculty are at stake to stay current with traditional course materials, they are at stake to adopt Web 2.0 technologies not because of a felt obligation to use technology, but because these technologies are the best teaching/learning resources.
On the one hand, central IT units cannot support a short innovation cycle. But on the other hand, faculty and their departments must adopt new apps for their research, labs, and classes.
Central IT units will provide only limited support for most Web 2.0 tools. But faculty members are not on their own with Web 2.0. There is a place to turn. We've learned over the past year that cutting edge technology help on campuses may now belong to librarians. For librarians, Web 2.0 is home turf, where they find an abundance of new learning resources that are just begging to be organized and accessed. It's notable that at recent conferences we've found, among the most tech-savvy conference presenters and participants are our old friends the librarians.
As they say, if you need to know, "ask a librarian."
Trent Batson, Ph.D. has served as an English professor, director of academic computing, and has been an IT leader since the mid-1980s. He is currently a Communication Strategist in the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology at MIT. batsontr@mit.edu
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