A JISC TechWatch report entitled “What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education” (TSW0701) is now available on the JISC Web site. The JISC Web site contains the following information about the report:
This TechWatch report was commissioned to investigate the substance behind the hyperbole surrounding ‘Web 2.0’. It reports on the implications this may have for the UK Higher and Further Education sector, with a special focus on collection and preservation activities within libraries.
The report establishes that Web 2.0 is more than a set of ‘cool’ and new technologies and services, important though some of these are. It has, at its heart, a set of at least six powerful ideas that are changing the way some people interact. Secondly, it is also buy cheap generic medications important to acknowledge that these ideas are not necessarily the preserve of ‘Web 2.0’, but are, in fact, direct or indirect reflections of the power of the network: the strange effects and topologies at the micro and macro level that a billion Internet users produce.
The report argues that by separating out the discussion of Web technologies (ongoing Web development overseen by the W3C), from the more recent applications and services (social software), and attempts to understand the manifestations and adoption of these services (the ‘big ideas’), decision makers will find it easier to understand and act on the strategic implications of ‘Web 2.0’. Indeed, analysing the composition and interplay of these strands provides a useful framework for understanding its significance.
I think this is an excellent report (NB congrats to Brian as a tech reviewer) although, as Stephen Downes has noted, a little unbalanced in places, notably eLearning (my interest so I would say that). One (admittedly controversial) facet of eLearning that might have been developed is connectivism (see http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm for historical article and http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/course/view.php?id=9 for recent conference). A lot of what Brian is saying is that we need to challenge old ways of thinking and develop new ones. Connectivism is, if not a learning theory or pedagogy, at least a vehicle for doing that.
Thanks Peter. Here’s a link to Stephen Downes posting on What Is Web 2.0? Ideas, Technologies and Implications for Education. And as I’ve found using Technorati search, a couple of other blog postings about the report have been published.
A pedant writes: great report, but one thing leapt off the page: “In the 1980s the punk rock adage of “I can do that” led to thousands of young people forming
local bands and writing their own fanzines.” (p14)
I remember it as being the 70s. Indeed have often used Mark P of Sniffing Glue’s aphorism, “here’s a chord, here’s another, now start a band”, to illustrate the simplicity of blogging.