Reflection Week 8

Web 2.0: Good for Education?

Information Technology has somehow became something common and widely used. As a result, the use of materials containing information in the form of hard copies such as books and newspaper are reduced. People nowadays could do all sort of things such as listen to music, watch movies, chatting, and even share our personal life online anytime and anywhere comfortably.

Web 2.0 is defined as AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML). The name may changes with time, but for now we use the shorthand “Web 2.0”.

The positive trends for higher education with the use of Web 2.0 include having more interaction between the ones with knowledge and learners to occur online rather than in a typical classroom. Besides that, learning time does not have to be fixed as we can continue learning during a course of study or even when the course is over. Using Web 2.0 enables us to have more active learning opportunities. The traditional type of learning strategies on fundamental perception of learning has shifted from a content delivery to a guided learning process. In addition, there will be more recognition and scaffolding on a student’s knowledge. It has become an independent learning process. Thus, students owned their own collection of evidence online.

However, the negative trends of Web 2.0 will be, online materials always consist of a deluge of unfiltered information. The transience of knowledge as opinion-producers gains currency more quickly day by day. Furthermore, it will create a large gap between upper-echelon institutions that are able to adapt to Web 2.0 trends and the rest of higher education. Things become worst when K-12 schools may be even less able to adapt to it. This is because they have less exposure to technology access. At the same time, K-12 schools cannot open gates for broad-scale interaction on the Web. Moreover, the education enterprise is merely reactive to industry developments. They must instead lead and find opportunities for positive change.

“Leading” and “positive change” do not mean merely adopting technology initiatives but to improve and excel in it. On the other hand, it means students should not just sit and listen but gather evidence of their learning under the guidance of an expert.

           
Xin Txin