Why is Web 2.0 Important to Higher Education?

Cafe table
Trent Batson, professor of English, director of academic computing, entrepreneur and bon vivant, has an article in Campus Technology exploring the role of Web2.0 in education, particularly higher education. He observes:

For decades, a minority among educators has advocated alternate forms of teaching and learning. The umbrella term for these alternate forms is “open education,” (cf Opening Up Education, Kumar and Iiyoshi, MIT Press, 2008). The litany of alternate forms is long: co-op learning, experiential learning, service learning, internships, semester abroad, field study, authentic learning, problem-based learning, adult education, extension courses, and on and on. Each of these alternate forms was designed with the assumption that traditional classroom learning was the norm.

With the dawning of Web 2.0, these alternate forms of teaching and learning are now becoming the “native” forms for this age. Open education, open knowledge, and open resources are different faces of the Web 2.0 revolution in higher education.


from Trent Batson, “Why is Web 2.0 Important to Higher Education?”, Campus Technology, April 15, 2009. http://campustechnology.com/articles/2009/04/15/why-web-2.0-is-important-to-higher-education.aspx. Image from Batson’s Web2.0PortfolioInitiative, http://www.trentbatson.com/

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