The second article that I
read was entitled “Use of Web 2.0 technologies in K-12 and higher education:
The search for evidence-based practice” by Khe Foon Hew, Wing Sum Cheung. Due
to the fact that I have limited knowledge about Web 2.0 technologies, I found
this article to be very helpful in highlighting the different tools available,
as well as ways that they could be used in an educational setting. According to
the article, the basic idea behind Web 2.0 is that it “allows individuals to
collaborate with one another and contribute to the authorship of content,
customize web sites for their use, and instantaneously publish their thoughts”.
My interpretation of this definition is that Web 2.0 technologies make it
possible for individual learners to collaborate in the education process and as
a result, learn from the contributions and work of other learners. Thanks to
advancements in technology, individuals that use Web 2.0 technologies do not
have to have a great deal of technical knowledge in order to contribute and
that is perhaps what has made the use of Web 2.0 technologies increasingly
popular. This article explores evidence on the use of Web 2.0 technologies in
higher education.
Of the information
examined for this article, I found it interesting that only nine out of twenty-
seven studies looked at the use if Web 2.0 technologies in K-12 education. The
majority of the studies focused on the use of these tools in higher education
like undergraduate studies. I can somewhat understand this, because I would
imagine that there are not as many elements that have to be considered when
using Web 2.0 technologies at the college level. When you consider using many
of these tools with younger students, teachers have to be more mindful and
careful about monitoring content. The authors of the article attempted to look
at this information in order to help determine the impact of the use of Web 2.0
technologies in an educational setting. One problem that they encountered was
the fact that the studies that they examined looked at the impact of the use of
these tools over short periods of time and were not the “longitudinal studies”
that they were hoping to find. In addition, there was also an issue in
determining when “improvement is significant”. None the less, the authors were
able to examine these various studies and highlighted some of the impacts of
the use of various Web 2.0 technologies for educational purposes.
As I read more about Web
2.0 tools, I discovered that they are often classified by their purpose or functionality.
The article talks about two different classification terms, synchronous and
asynchronous, each of which I have to say I was not very familiar with. Synchronous
refers to tools that allow instant feedback or comments. I would imagine this
to be something like instant chat programs or social networks like Facebook or
Twitter. Asynchronous tools allow more time for reflective thinking. Blogs are
a good example of asynchronous tools. Web 2.0 technologies can be used in a
variety of ways, including: “online reflection, social spaces, online
collaboration, social bookmarking, and repository”.
In the discussion of
weblogs or blogs, the authors point out the fact that while blogs are often
used to chronicle the author’s reflective thinking, they can also show the
progression in the author’s thoughts over a period of time. The article goes on
to examine the use of blogs in education by looking at different studies where
blogs were incorporated into student writing assignments. These studies seemed
to indicate that students who integrated the use of blogs into their
assignments tended to significantly improve their writing. There is some
disagreement however as to whether or not the use of the blog itself was the
reason for the improvement or the fact that the use of the blog provided access
to additional resources not available with the standard assignment. Overall,
the studies tended to show that the use of blogs seems to have a positive
impact on students’ writing and critical thinking skills, while having little
or no influence on reading or learning physical skills.
While the use of blogs for personal reflection
can be helpful in the learning process, the idea of using online collaboration
tools is something that I tend to associate more with Web 2.0 technologies. One
of the most well known of these types of tools would perhaps be Wikipedia.
According to the article (and Wikipedia), Wikipedia has “more than 82,000
active contributors working on more than 17 million articles in more than 270
languages”. The idea behind Wikipedia lends itself to group learning on a large
scale and while I am not sure whether or not I totally embrace the idea of
using this as an educational tool, I can certainly see how such the sharing of
knowledge could be beneficial. According to the information studied for this
article, the authors found differences in variables in the experiments
presented and therefore, felt as though no true generalization on the positive
impact of the use of wikis in an educational environment could be accurately
made. In addition to wikis, the article also mentions audio discussion boards
as another means for online collaboration.
When thinking about social
networks in relation to Web 2.0 technologies, I would have to say that Facebook
and Twitter are at the top of the list. While I have had little personal
experience with either, I am somewhat familiar with them and the purpose for
these tools. Even if you do not directly participate in these social networks,
one can not help but be exposed to the idea of them through today’s media
sources. It seems like every time that I watch television, read a magazine or
search for something on the computer, there is always a mention of or a link
for various Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, or other social networks sites
where individuals can find more information about the topics or organizations
highlighted by that media source. Although I do know a bit about Facebook, but
am not a direct participant, this class is serving as my introduction to the
world of Twitter. When it comes to the use of social networks like Twitter, the
article indicated that there was only one study done to determine the effects
of using this tool. Based on this study, the authors found that the use of
Twitter led to increased conversation and interaction amongst students and
faculty. This course is my introduction to the world of Twitter and I am
curious to see if our use of Twitter will produce some of the same results.
The idea of three
dimensional virtual worlds is something that I have very little knowledge of.
When I think of 3D worlds, I tend to think of video games used for
entertainment purposes and not necessarily educational purposes. The article
discusses the fact that there are two types of virtual worlds, “role play game
worlds and social worlds”. The role play game worlds are the types of 3D worlds
that I tend to associate with this kind of technology and video games. Social
virtual worlds however, give users the freedom to design the world, objects
within that world, and their behavior within it. Due to the fact that objects
in this type of world can be manipulated, the author points out that social
virtual worlds “make it possible for students to learn by doing”. For this
reason, I can see how tools like this could be very beneficial in education. While
I have not really seen any of this technology used in an educational setting, I
have heard about things like virtual dissection programs that are often used in
place of actual animal dissection. The studies examined for this article seemed
to indicate that there are indeed benefits to the use of virtual worlds in an
educational environment. One of the affordances of the use of these tools is
that they can allow for the illustration or rendering of concepts that would be
difficult to express through traditional lecture. Also according to the
article, virtual worlds allow students to “manipulate environmental conditions
while keeping other variables constant”, thus making it possible for them to
test scientific hypotheses.
Some of the final examples
of Web 2.0 technologies described in the article are social bookmarking tools
and repositories like audio podcasts and YouTube. The authors of the article
examined studies that incorporated podcasts and traditional lectures. Students
who were given recorded lectures on podcasts and able to review that content
multiple times, scored higher on exams than the students who were just exposed
to the content through a traditional lecture format. I can see where this would
be extremely helpful, as I remember using a digital recorder in many of my
undergraduate classes to record the lecture so that I could refer to it later,
should I need to do so. It makes sense that this kind of tool would enhance a
student’s ability to learn because they could listen to and review the
information at a pace that is comfortable and conducive to their learning
style. Based on their research, the authors concluded that the positive effects
on learning are “not necessarily attributed to the podcasts per se but how the
podcasts are used”.
Social bookmarking
involves users saving their favorite websites and sharing those sites with
other people. I can see how, when conducting research on a topic, social
bookmarking would be a helpful tool. The popularity of YouTube has increased
substantially over the last few years. Thanks to this repository tool, individuals
can make and upload their own video that can then be viewed by millions of
people worldwide. While there are certainly things on YouTube that I would not
care to view, there are also many videos that can be very informative and
educational. YouTube can be a good educational/teaching tool if utilized
correctly.
Overall, the authors of
this article concluded that “the use of Web 2.0 technologies does appear to
have a general positive impact on student achievement” and none of the studies
that they examined indicated that the use of these tools had any detrimental
effects on learning. While the evidence of the true impact of Web 2.0
technologies is greatly dependent upon the variables in each study, I have to
say that I believe that the implementation of new technologies within the
educational environment, if done correctly, can not help but bring about
positive results. Everyone learns differently and I feel that the use of
various technologies can only benefit teachers and students by helping them to
discover how they learn best.
Source:
Hew, K. & Cheung, W. (2012). Use of web 2.0 technologies in
K-12 and higher education: The search for evidence-based practice. Educational
Research Review: 9, 47-64.
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