I’ve been doing some reading on the concept of “Teaching 2.0”–a loosely defined response to the Web 2.0 concept that is transforming some of our most basic social, political, economic, and personal communication models through increased emphasis on social networking, collaborating, and sharing of information. Web 2.0 technologies–chats, blogs, IM, wikis, social networks (e.g., FaceBook, Del.icio.us, Flickr, etc.), podcasting, YouTube–have transformed the way a generation interacts and relates to the world at large. Advocates of Teaching 2.0 are working with these technologies to provide students with more access to primary source knowledge and to give them the opportunity to work with the context of subject matter rather than just the subject matter itself.<\/p>\n
“University 2.0” is an outgrowth of the Teaching 2.0 concept. Practitioners are dedicated to using Web 2.0 concepts to transform teaching at the college level through enhanced course design, teaching methods, and student expectations. A question recently posted to eLearnSpace<\/a> nicely summed up the need for examining University 2.0:<\/p>\n “…what are universities across the world doing about this information revolution? How are we demonstrating to our future students that we are not only a part of this human network but that we are leaders in the movement? Most universities were built and designed to function effectively in a single geographic location to a specific group of people in a print based environment. Now that we can communicate with people around the world instantly and access books, journals, presentations, videos, and more online, we should think of the world as our classroom. Future students understand this information age and expect universities to be on the front lines. As the world moves toward a global economy and information can be accessed from anywhere in the world, universities need to think more critically about how they want to proceed in developing leaders of this brave new digital age.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n