April 2008 — News
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Crossroads in Education: Issues for Web 2.0, Social Software, and Digital Tools
We can't assume that all learners have those skills, so as human beings move toward more communications via non-text media, curriculum developers will need to better incorporate how to produce and interpret multimedia. This issue also raises questions for debate: "What are educational basics in an age when interaction with information and knowledge is as likely to come through auditory and image-based media as through written text?" (Daanen & Facer, 2007, p. 8). In terms of text, Anderson (2007) questioned if blogging is a form of journalism and therefore subject to the same laws, such as libel.Attention, Learning Spaces, Identity
Social software and tools alter how students pay attention to their physical surroundings and people and how they communicate globally and locally. Consider that they multitask and operate in constant connectivity mode. While someone is talking (e.g., the teacher at the front of the class or even one of their peers), students might use their communication tools and wireless connectivity to search the Web, send text messages, or voice communications to others. By sharing their creations and words online, they open the gates to peer review and feedback from a global audience. How do their local actions and global communications affect others?
The definition of learning spaces has altered. What's global and local, or physical and virtual, has blurred if you also consider Web sites, Web portals, online communities (including e-learning platforms), and virtual worlds. Both the consumption and production of media and interactions in physical and virtual space in turn affect development of one's identity (Owen et al., 2006). The implication of these three factors for curriculum is our need to better address social and emotional intelligence, the nature of various cultures, and learning at least one other language. For example, it's easy to encounter many languages in a visit to a virtual world.
Knowledge Structures
An introduction of Web 2.0 alters what students need to know about the information retrieval process, adding another dimension to seeking information on the Web in general. Social software and Web 2.0 applications have enabled new structures for organizing knowledge. For example, the rise of folksonomies, whereby users define their own structure for tagging and locating information, needs to be taken seriously. "[F]olksonomies are starting to be used in scientific research environments." Researchers and academics are using free services as
CiteULike to share, store, and organize the academic papers they are reading (Anderson, 2007, p. 35). Folksonomies are in contrast to more traditional forms of organizing knowledge in which experts define the structure and methodologies for searching for content within a knowledge domain. This development challenges libraries, which have traditionally provided information retrieval (IR) services and materials for teaching IR to learners. Curriculum developers will need to give greater consideration to information retrieval strategies that address both traditional taxonomies and folksonomies.
