Education and Web 2.o technologies

Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World.

I came across this great report the other day called Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World. It is a study of Web 2.0 technology and how it is being used in UK schools.

It is so great to see that it is actually being talked about. I am an avid supporter of Web 2.0 technology and the opportunity it gives schools for open and honest communication with their students, as well as it’s ability to encourage participation, collaboration and community. However, the picture in schools is very different, with most not even considering the possibilities to connect with their students at a different level, or even acknowledge that we are now dealing with digital learners. My vision is that every school has a person dedicated to youth participation and engagement using social media.

So here are my highlights from Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World.

Today’s learners exist in a digital age. This implies access to, and use of, a range of Social Web tools and software that provide gateways to a multiplicity of interactive resources for information, entertainment and, not least, communication. We looked at access to digital technologies and their use from the point of view of level and pattern, purpose, approach and consequences. Our key findings were that:

• The digital divide, the division between the digital ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, has not been entirely overcome and persists in several dimensions: in access to, and engagement with, technology; the capability of the technology; and in individual competence.
• Use of Web 2.0 technologies is nevertheless high and pervasive across all age groups from 11 to 15 upwards.
• Using Web 2.0 technologies leads to development of a new sense of communities of interest and networks, and also of a clear notion of boundaries in web space – for example personal space (messages), group space (social networking sites such as Facebook) and publishing space (blogs and social media sites such as YouTube4).
• There is an area within the boundaries of the so-called group space that could be developed to support learning and teaching.
• The processes of engaging with Web 2.0 technologies develop a skill set that matches both to views on 21st-century learning skills and to those on 21st-century employability skills – communication, collaboration, creativity, leadership and technology proficiency.
• Information literacies, including searching, retrieving, critically evaluating information from a range of appropriate sources and also attributing it – represent a significant and growing deficit area
Web 2.0 use in higher education now.
We looked at the nature and extent of current deployment of Web 2.0 technologies in higher education and sought, in the process, to gauge the UK’s position relative to that of other countries. Here we found that institutions of higher education in the UK are presently as advanced as any internationally in their developing adoption of Web.
2.0, and that the UK is generally well served at present in the infrastructure – specifically broadband width – that is necessary to support Web 2.0 technologies. Other key findings were:
• Web 2.0 technologies are being deployed across a broad spectrum of university activities and in similar ways in the UK and overseas.
• Deployment is in no way systematic and the drive is principally bottom up, coming from the professional interest and enthusiasm of individual members of staff.
• In learning and teaching, usage is patchy but a considerable working base exists, as it does in other areas of university business, including administration, student support and advertising and marketing.
• On the basis of the strength and reach of its broadband infrastructure at least, the UK is presently well placed to be at the forefront of future development.
• Advice and guidance is available to institutions, but there is no blueprint for implementation of Web 2.0 technologies, and each is currently deciding its own path.
What are your thoughts?

Read the full report Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World here