What Web 2.0 Can Teach Us About Learning- By Edward Moleny

Hyperlink: http://search.ebscohost.com.ipacez.nd.edu.au/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=23647698&site=ehost-live 

Abstract

The article discusses the effects of computer and Internet technology on higher education. While technology has extremely promising benefits for education in the United States, it has mainly been used to facilitate the delivery of content rather than change the ways people are educated. The author believes the problem is that most course-management systems were developed at a time when the Internet was seen primarily as a mechanism for information delivery. To improve this, teachers should look toward the evolution of “Web 2.0,” which focuses on new means of creating and presenting data. 

Reflections

It is remarkable to find that all educators, old and new, are noticing the potential to change the way people teach and learn. However in giving a critical look at technology, the article looked at real benefits of this new advancement in technologies.  Except for a few small pockets of innovation, many of the technological tools we use in the classroom — from course-management systems to PowerPoint — help primarily not with teaching students to think, but with the most pedestrian aspect of teaching: the delivery of content. As the article notes, we do need to understand that the problem is not the idea of a course-management system itself — a basic set of tools for content delivery, evaluation, and communication — nor the various uses of such systems, many of which serve their purposes quite well. Rather, the problem is that most course-management systems were developed at a time when the Internet was seen primarily as a mechanism for information delivery. We need to turn to the web 2.0 where people can now put ‘themselves’ into the internet. People can have a say and students can now be granted to opportunity to ‘collaborative’ learn.