Teaching & Learning Center

Making Student Learning Public

All about Web 2.0

The Web has been rapidly evolving from a place to consume content to a more interactive modality which emphasizes collaboration, user-created content, and interconnectivity. Commonly referred to as Web 2.0, this emerging iteration of the Web is making it ever easier for students to connect with external audiences and make their learning public. In this TLC session, we explored the variety of ways Web 2.0 tools and communities are being used to publish student projects and assignments. We also looked at some of the pedagogical, social, and privacy issues associated with making student learning public.

Web 1.0:

Consuming content
Users read, listen
Lecture modes of teaching

Web 2.0:

Internet as a means of communication, content creation, collaboration
Users write, create media, interact with other users, participate in learning networks
Active, constructivist teaching and learning

A New Type of Student

Millennials are folks born between between 1982 and 2000. By 2010 they will outnumber both baby boomers and Generation Xers. Technology has always been a part of their lives—how they communicate, how they work, how they play.

Millennial characteristics:

Gravitation toward group activities
Belief that it's cool to be smart
Being enthralled with new technologies
Being racially diverse
Multitasking as a way of life

With technology:

Computers aren't technology
High percentage use the Internet for school, work, leisure—the Internet is better than TV
Consider themselves more internet-savvy than their teachers
Trial and error primarily used for learning rather than logical, rule-based approach to solving problems
Staying connected is vital

New possibilities for Teaching and Learning:

Increasing ability to connect with external learners and experts
Increasing ability to present multi-faceted content and perspectives in concept and media
Access to authentic audiences
Tools for creating video/audio are getting easier all the time—creating video will soon be as basic as typing
Intriguing research shows that active learning occurs when a learner integrates both verbal and visual processes into a coherent model