Future Learning with web2.0 tool

This is the assignment of EDX online course “Instructional Design: Digital Media, New Tools and Technology”.

Recently, learners use various learning tools depending on learning activities. For example, Camiel et al (2014) used twitter as a knowledge sharing platform between students in 283 pharmacy students in their third professional year. Students were instructed to make their professional account on Twitter and share meaningful resources on Twitter during the semester. As a result, students posted totally 5,990 tweets and more than 58% strongly agreed/agreed that they enjoyed tweeting information from the sources they followed for others to see. Not only Twitter, but also Facebook, Instagram, and the other web 2.0 tools are used for learning activities.

The most important needs using Web2.0 tools in educational organization is that how we evaluate learner’s activities integrally by collecting educational deliverables. Traditionally, learners are evaluated with objective tests such as multiple quizzes with paper and learning management system (LMS) in Behaviorism perspective. On the other hand, teachers now tend to use constructivism approach and authentic assessment became the key phrase in the current education. Some teachers evaluate learning activities using ePortfolio to evaluate learner’s activity focusing on the change of learners.

For example, John, an undergraduate student joining the project based learning works in multiple activities such as...

• Learning basic knowledge and skills on LMS
• Discussing topics with the other learners and experts on Facebook groups
• Making a presentation on blog to introduce their outcome
• Taking photos related to their learning activities and publishing on Instagram

If his teacher wants to evaluate learning deliverables above on ePortfolio, he/she needs to check all platforms (Facebook, LMS, Blog, and Instagram) manually, or John needs to re-construct all resources on ePortfolio with texts and pictures. This is burdensome process for both.

Therefore, we need to have an educational platform to integrally evaluate learners on ePortfolio system. Specifically, we need to connect multiple web2.0 tools and ePortfolio to evaluate all educational deliverables on ePortfolio.

Reference

Camiel L, D., Goldman-Levin, J, D., Kostka-Rokosz, M, D., & McCloskey, W, W. (2014) Twitter as a medium for pharmacy students' personal learning network development. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning. 6(4):463–470.