Web 2.0 In Higher Education: Opportunities And Challenges

Gabriela GrosseckWest University of Timisoaragrosseck.blogspot.com

Agenda

• What is Web 2.0?

• Opportunities and limitations

• How does Web 2.0 apply to education?

• Some conclusions

WEB

2.0

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The social useof the Web

allow people to

collaborate

To get actively

involvedin creating

content

To generate knowledge

To share information online

The user controls / creates

his / her personaldata and information

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Let’s talk about WEB 2.0 technologies …

Advantages

• reduction of costs

• flexibility, as far as the possibility of choosing technologies is concerned

• easier and faster access to information,

when and where it is needed

• the integration of a variety of technologies in the teaching-learning activities

Advantages• extensive opportunities of information and

collaboration• possibility to control access to resources by

authenticating users

• sharing accumulated experiences and resources

• independence from the platform

• compatibility with the elements of the educational field and the existing contextual dynamics

• the low level of complexity needed for use (minimum skills in using the Internet)

Advantages• reliability in continuous usage

• redistribution of effort, so that less and less time and energy are spent during search and information management

• the increase in number of modalities of use and the heterogeneity of didactic practices and of types of formation

• the possibility to test the existing didactic practices, without great

changes in the current modus operandi

• the major focus on didactic innovation, and not on the technology per se

• creating digital content

Disadvantages

• an Internet connection is required

• it hides behind it a sum of technologies and

concepts which are still insufficiently defined

• it is based on Ajax• it determines variations of interpretation

between types of browsers

• it offers free things, in open-source structures,

with a rather vague significance

Disadvantages• it leads to a low quality of the actual

content

• it promotes amateurishness by invaluable contents generated by users

• it gives everyone the opportunity to complain, thus creating a community

without rules;

• it has monetary quantification (the Internet as a business - Google);

• it is a kind of second-hand Web• it has limited security• the speed of programs is incomparably

lower than the one of desktop programs• it doesn’t mean anything per se, it is just

electronic junk• the extremely diversified offer of

technologies

• time and knowledge invested in the Web 2.0 technologies

Disadvantages

Some educational applications of Web2.0 tools

BLOGS: Blogger

• real-world writing experiences • pull class blogs together• quickly give feedback• students use peer networks to develop

their own knowledge • update new information• using comments

• student projects• collaborating on ideas• organizing documents and resources• presentation tool• group research project for a specific idea• manage school and classroom documents• collaborative handout for students• classroom discussion and debate area• place to aggregate web resources

Some educational applications of Web2.0 tools

WIKIS: Wikispaces

• professional development• time saving• updated information in my teaching area• information coming from constraining sources• sharing my work with other educators• replace traditional email mailing lists, reducing

email overload• used to keep course specific webpages current

and relevant

Some educational applications of Web2.0 tools

RSS: Google Reader / Bloglines

• create a set of resources• conduct research and share that research with my peers • track author and book updates • groups of students doing a classroom project sharing their

bookmarks, I subscribed to their RSS feed to see the direction of their research

• rate and review bookmarks to help with students decide on usefulness of resources

• setup a group tag in order to share educational resources • share one del.icio.us account between a number of

different subject specific educators in order to share resources with each other etc.

Some educational applications of Web2.0 tools Social bookmarking: del.icio.us

Conclusions?

I hope that all the actors from the educational field (teachers, tutors, trainers, administrators, or those responsible for policies)

will find the Web 2.0 technologies efficient and

promising both for the educational process and for self development

Photos from Flickr, CC licence

• Slide 1 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=83087299&size=o• Slide 2 http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniele_m/496435189/• Slide 3

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=88542281&context=pool-54833441@N00&size=l• Slide 4 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=299474455&size=o• Slide 5 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=376450972&size=o• Slide 6 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=312460637&size=o• Slide 7 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=467935625&size=l• Slide 8

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=256508934&context=set-72157594306024718&size=l• Slide 9 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=188111704&size=oa51• Slide 10 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=209772715&size=o• Slide 11

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=199807972&context=pool-54833441@N00&size=o• Slide 12 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=136055333&size=l• Slide 13 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=454582037&size=l• Slide 14 http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubys_moon/88915001/• Slide 15 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=386333350&size=l• Slide 16 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=274003887&context=pool-

54833441@N00&size=o• Slide 17 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=24407028&size=o• Slide 18 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=103796721&size=l• Slide 19 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=158043265&context=pool-

54833441@N00&size=o• Slide 20 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=29006844&size=l• Slide 21 http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=107215316&context=pool-

54833441@N00&size=l