Learning on the Web 2.0

A few days ago, we had a heated discussion in my Web 2.0 class. The discussion was about whether we all agreed with shifting part of the learning experience (and therefore the grading) to our responses to some questions posed by Enrique Dans on the blog. It all started off with reaching some agreement on whether it made sense and if it did, then how specifically would we go about it. One collective blog, or many individual blogs? Grading the content or the whole blog experience? Finally, we reached some collective decision that we would go ahead with an individual blog approach. However, we are still to come back and make a final call on what is it that is to be graded.

Web 2.0 is a “set of internet services and practices” that were given the chance to arise a result to “a number of technological developments that have come together to create new ways of using the web” (Charles Crook et al). Basically, these new ways have comprised of the continuous notching up of user involvement on the Internet. To most of us, this is most familiar through spaces such as facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger, Wikipedia, Second Life, flickr, Shelfari, YouTube, amongst many others.

So, what does Web 2.0 bring to complement the traditional academic experience? and another question would be whether it takes away something from such an academic experience?

With increasing access to faster Internet, the highly affordable Web 2.0 tools become more and more attractive to be used in education. They would facilitate greater collaborative work outside the classroom; in addition to that it would extend this collaboration beyond the individuals in the classroom. This means that a learning experience would be enriched by giving any given student access to opinions and experiences from a wider variety of individuals and backgrounds. Moreover, it will also allow classmates to give feedback and interactivity within a format that would most probably not be possible within the limitations of class time, tools and space.

Using Web 2.0 tools also bring the opportunity for students to express their opinions and make their points using a wider variety of expressive formats. The opportunity arises for a student to express themselves in text, images, sounds and video, both in real time and non-real time temporal spaces. Moreover, within the virtual world, it is much simpler to link one’s opinions to those of others or to sources of information, capitalizing on the power of the “hyperlink”.

Tools such as blogs do also allow students to create a “safe” personalized space that supports them in communicating not just their learning, opinions and thoughts but also who they are as individuals. This fact can also be part of the counterargument to some skeptics who would say that virtual interaction diminishes the human touch to interaction between individuals.

Moreover, in the specific case of my class, we are all on a journey of preparing ourselves for bigger steps into the future. Traditionally, we would walk out of graduate school with a plan to market ourselves through a CV, a university transcript and our performance at aptitude tests and personal interviews. However, now Web 2.0 offers us alternatives. The simplest example of that is what is happening right here as you are reading through this posting of mine. A recruiter will potentially Google my name and find this blog and the other blogs I write or alternatively, I will probably include the links to my blogs on my CV and my email signature. So, Web 2.0 tools would have just helped to market myself as a potential employee far beyond what was possible spatially and temporally.

Some might say that using Web 2.0 tools diminish the level of the “human touch” to a class experience. As I mentioned previously, I would disagree since the continuous advancements in the quality and variety of modes through which one can express oneself on the web provide for that concern. However, I would definitely agree that it is in the interest of the experience that a class experience does not totally move to the Web but rather keep the mixture there as long as that the synergies between the different spaces are being sought…

So…yes, I plan to make this blog an essential part of my masters experience, it will be one of my additional tools to express myself and tell the world about ME...