What does the changing environment of higher education in Web 2.0 world mean to you?
Some of the contemporary debates surrounding the integration of web 2.0 technologies into Higher Education include a consideration of the prior experience of higher education learners, their expectations and international practice in the use of Web 2.0 in higher education learning. This brief reflection, with its focus on the later two, will discuss some of the challenges arising form integrating Web 2.0 technologies into higher education learning from a perspective of an adult educator. The first challenge lies in aligning curriculum with the Web 2.0 technologies, and the second in prioritising web awareness to secure the graduate attribute for the global market.
Aligning curriculum with its components is challenge for any educator and it requires not only the subject’s expertise but it also may require a technological knowledge. This can be a huge challenge for academics who as well as students need to learn how to use the new technology. According to Sir David Melville, a chair of Lifelong Learning UK, when talking about students’ expectations states that tutors need to keep up where the students are in this and what they are doing. Sir Melville also stresses the benefit of ability of student knowledge of the technology in the development.
While I agree with his first point that adult educators need to keep up with the contemporary technologies used in higher education, providing the needed staff development support on institutional level not always is easily achieved. From my own experience, the organized support mainly includes seminars instead the workshops that would be in demand due to their ability of instant practice of the gained knowledge. Therefore, without provided staff development educators won’t be able to see ‘where the students are in this’ and hence they cannot design aligned curriculum.
Every tertiary institution strive to give their students the graduate attribute that are relevant to the ever changing global market. While Web 2.0 technologies are responsible for a new shift in global market, not all HE institutions which make a use of the new technologies keep up with educating students about the pitfalls of Web 2.0. According to Adrian Godfrey form Internal Business Solutions, one of the benefits of incorporating Web 2.0 technologies into higher education is the ability to attract whole population of student,
David Melville, points out the need to prioritise web awareness due to the lowered levels of critical thinking skills caused by the using Web 2.0. This is more so alarming knowing that graduate attributes are gradually introduced from a beginning of study. If the curriculum is not aligned with the emerged technology, university graduates will emerge to the global marked without having the corresponding skills and the whole point of equipping students with skills that help them to find employment is diminished. Therefore without educating students to collaborate not just in physical domain in the wide-global area of Web 2.0, not only their critical thinking skills will continue being lowered but also their chances of employment will too.
Podcast/Press Release: ‘HE in a Web 2.0 World’ report. (11 May 2009).
Retrieved June 28 2010. From http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2009/05/podcast80heinaweb20world.aspx
Hughes, A. (March 2009). Higher education in a Web 2.0 world: Report of an independent Committee of Inquiry into the impact on higher education of students’ widespread use of Web 2.0 technologies, JISC.
The isssues of graduate attributes and employability are live one for us. It has become accepted that the ability to effectively use technology is a requirement for successful employment and study. However, the place where students should be learning those skills is poorly defined. We expect students to come to university with a certain standard of IT literacy (for example, enough savvy to be able to navigate Blackboard without direct instruction) and assume that this literacy will carry students through a university enducation. However, with the fast-changing nature of technology, the literacy required at the begining and end of a five year degree may be very different. Does it then become our responsibility to teach these IT literacy skills? I think it does and that we need to align assessment to reflect student learning in this area.
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