Engaging the YouTube Google-Eyed Generation: Strategies for Using Web 2.0 in Teaching and Learning
“Web 2.0” refers to a perceived second-generation of web-based interactions, applications and communities. It is considered to be inclusive of a shift from a World Wide Web that is “read only” to a Web that is being described as the “Read Write Web”. Instead of content that was, for the most part, static, we are now seeing the ability to remix content in different ways, in order to suit contextual needs. The Web is evolving to become more like an area for social and idea networking. Students negotiate meanings and connections within Web 2.0 social spaces or idea networks, exchange bits of content, create new content, and collaborate in new ways.
New Web 2.0 technologies and websites, such as a blog, wiki or YouTube, make new demands on learning, and they provide new supports to learning, even as they also dismantle some of the learning supports upon which education has depended in the past. User-centered Web 2.0 phenomena such as blogging, social video sharing (exemplified by YouTube) and collective editing (wiki or Wikipedia as an example) are disrupting traditional ideas about how students interact online and how content is generated, shared, and distributed.
In order to deliver distance education in a manner that is familiar and comfortable to today’s workforce, planners must be knowledge and willing to incorporate social networking technologies. Traditional learning theories can be augmented with the new tools to reach new audiences. By leveraging Web 2.0 applications, distance education instructors can encourage collaboration and knowledge-building exercises. This article clearly illustrates the social impact of current web technologies and provides encouragement to use those technologies when building online learning environments. The authors successfully explain how Web 2.0 applications can be used to provide the communication and collaboration framework for students.
Since 1956, Bloom’s Taxonomy has provided a framework to gauge and develop learning and acquired knowledge. For more than fifty years, this taxonomy has been used to build teaching and learning activities. In the past ten years, the internet has virtually exploded in terms of knowledge exchange and building applications. From blogs, to wikis, and discussion boards, people worldwide are expanding their range of thought, knowledge, and opinion on every subject imaginable. Today’s students and workforce have developed experience with, and access to, social networking technologies never before seen. In order to better understand the learning needs and expectations of students, education planners must be aware of these new opportunities for engaging students. By carefully researching and implementing these new technologies, distance educators can build programs that allow students to better understand and apply newly-acquired knowledge.
Duffy, P. “Engaging the YouTube Google-Eyed Generation: Strategies for Using Web 2.0 in Teaching and Learning.” The Electronic Journal of e-Learning Volume 6 Issue 2, pp 119 - 130, Retrieved Sep 20, 2008 from www.ejel.org