Web 2.0 Technologies

Web 2.0 technologies are playing an important role in building social capital through increasing flows of information, and building on knowledge and human capacity of learning. The purpose of this chapter is to show the role that social software, a component of Web 2.0 technologies, can play in higher education and adult learning. This chapter focuses on the role of Web 2.0 technologies in promoting learning. New learning paradigms and pedagogical applications are also discussed.

Employing Innovative Learning Strategies Using an E-Learning Platform

Web-based learning environments have become an integral part of learning. The way that they are employed in the learning process, or in other words the learning strategy followed in that respect, is an important issue that has to be carefully thought of, deciding upon topics such as suitable pedagogical approaches and appropriate assessment techniques for a given context. The chapter deals with this exact issue by visiting the relevant literature on the subject, describing selected learning strategies that have been employed in the use of an innovative eLearning platform in schools in Europe and finally outlining and comparing two real case studies from two European countries.

Designing Contextualized Interaction for Learning

In the following chapter, an overview is given over the experiences and design decisions made in the European project RAFT for enabling live distributed collaboration between learners in the field and in the classroom. Beside a context analysis for defining requirements for service needed as an underlying infrastructure user interface design decisions were essential in the project. As a flexible and powerful approach a widget based design for the user interface enable the project to build clients for a variety of hardware and devices in the learning environment ranging from mobile phones, PDAs, tablet PCs, desktop computers, to electronic whiteboard solutions. Enabling consistent and synchronized access to information streams in such a distributed learning environment can be seen one essential insight of the described research.

Using Virtual Learning Environments to Present Different Learning Blends

This work is concerned with the evolution of blended learning supports for university students in moving from early Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) platforms and supports that were designed and facilitated by academics to those platforms designed commercially (particularly Blackboard) and developed using a mixture of commercial, collaborative and e-learning supports. The chapter is an examination of a range of issues including production of learning resources and student learning approaches. It concludes by highlighting the importance of innovation and variety in the learning blend with increased reliance on digital collections and for learning approaches student experiences were evaluated as positive when undergoing problem-based approaches and were seen as stimulated to engage with e-learning materials based on the structure and operation of action learning sets.

Some Key Success Factors in Web-Based Corporate Training in Brazil

Brazilian companies are increasingly turning to web-based corporate training by virtue of the fact that they need to train their employees within tight budget constraints in a country of continental dimensions. However, most of these companies do not know what the critical success factors in these endeavors are. Therefore, this chapter seeks to investigate some key success factors associated with such digital enterprises. In order to achieve this, the multiple case study method is used, whereby two cases, both conducted within the same Brazilian company, leading to opposite outcomes – a success and a failure – are analyzed in depth. Accordingly, the two aforementioned cases are investigated by using quantitative data analysis based on bi- and multi-variate linear regressions, as well as t-tests. The conclusions were that “Goal Orientation”, “Source of Motivation”, and “Metacognitive Support” were the three critical dimensions in these two web-based corporate training programs under analysis.

Facebook as Public Pedagogy

This chapter explores the emergence of online digital media, specifically Facebook, as a space of resistance and submission to consumerist ideologies. Online digital media function as a form of public pedagogy, serving as a platform for implicit lessons in cultural norms and roles that reinforce hegemonic social structures operating in the physical world. In this chapter, we raise issues and questions regarding the determinacy of online digital media: is Facebook a pedagogical tool for reinforcing corporate interests or does it have the potential to be a space of resistance and democratic discourse? The study of the public pedagogy of online digital media calls for a reconceptualization of learning as a collaborative, social process in which adult learners assume predetermined social roles as well as have the potential to create new knowledge forms within virtual communities.

Integrating Blogs in Teacher Education

This chapter demonstrates some of the educational merits of blogs; including how blogs can be integrated in teacher education and proposing a methodology for evaluating blogs to meet the goals of reflection and technology literacy in teacher education. An undergraduate-level course was integrated with blog technology to help readers better understand the inquiry-oriented nature of the blog medium. This exemplar course modeled Web 2.0 technology to teacher educators and pre-service teachers who intend to integrate the technology into their future teaching. Surveys and interviews were used to investigate participant attitude toward blogs. The researcher proposes Zeichner and Liston’s (1987) Reflective Index as a potential framework for evaluating the quality of reflection in blogs. It is expected that this instructional model of blogs will help educators, in particular teacher educators and instructional designers, to design courses to more effectively meet the goals of higher-order thinking required in 21st century teacher education.

Community of Inquiry in Adult Online Learning

The adult education literature emphasizes community building in order to increase effectiveness and success of online teaching and learning. In this chapter the Community of Inquiry Framework that was developed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000) has been introduced as a promising theory for adult learning in online environments. The chapter discusses the potential of the CoI framework to create effective adult online learning communities by utilizing the research findings from an online course. Overall, the research findings showed that students had positive attitudes toward the community developed in the course and that their perception of constituting elements of the community of inquiry was significantly related to perceived learning and satisfaction.

Web 2.0 Technology for Problem-Based and Collaborative Learning

Collaborative problem-based learning (PBL) has a well established history within medical and health care education. Undergraduate nursing students at the Glyndwr University undertake PBL to explore ethical issues of health care; traditionally these students meet in person to discuss scenarios, provided by tutors, and present the product of their deliberations to the rest of the class. The geographical dispersion of the students has meant that most discussions have been limited to those times when the students are physically on campus by virtue of their timetabled classes. By using Web 2.0 technologies, students are able to collaborate at distance, at a time that suits them. This chapter describes how students have used these emerging technologies to share ideas and resources to prepare for class presentations; described also are the underpinning theories that inform this work together with an analysis of student use and feedback.

Information Literacy in the Digital Age

The current debate within the realm of information sciences focuses on a new threat to society – the threat of an information and technologically illiterate population. This chapter focuses on a critical discussion of information literacy and the fallout of academic achievement amongst adult learners. The chapter takes into consideration the current research on information literacy, a historical perspective on information literacy, current best practices in supporting information literacy in the digital age, and as well as an active action plan on combating this new threat. Central to this discussion, the author evaluates the current literature on information literacy and best practices highlighting research from years 1998-2005.