Section+E+Overview

=Section E - Learning in a Participatory Digital World=

// One learns by doing a thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try. - Sophocles //

Social Web tools, or technologies, are making it possible, even easy, to collaborate, share, participate, communicate, form and re-form relationships along the path of learning. The broad array of web 2.0 tools discussed in this section provide vibrant strands through which educators can weave their own unique digital tapestries.

The many advantages of tools such as wikis, blogs, and microblogs are illustrated and discussed in great detail using a combination of theoretical elaboration and a rich and diverse selection of case studies that span the educational spectrum.

Blogs, perhaps the most accessible of online technologies, are analyzed from historical as well as analytical perspectives. Authors outline the common features of blogging and blog hosting, and suggest ways to personalize blogs and to encourage and motivate student blogging in ways that optimize their online learning experiences. These chapters also explore the link between blogging and online social networking.

// Lambropoulus and Danis, collaborative eLearning :// investigate the role of collaboration and dialogue in an eLearning environment and provide an analytical framework upon which to observe, analyze, and reflect.

// Koh and Lim, collaboration technology 2.0 :// discuss the influence of new collaboration technologies (CTs) such as wikis, online word processing, microblogs, social networking sites, and virtual worlds. From the experience of a higher education case study, they advise on successful practices for educators to leverage CT 2.0. Groulx, academic blogging journey : recommends introducing blogging within a supportive context so that newcomers are provided aid and resources by more experienced peers. He shares his own experience and advises on establishing a formal blogging network.

// Ovenell-Carter, developing higher order thinking :// is convinced that young people are quite capable of engaging in strong thinking given opportunity, practice and encouragement. Ironically, what we call 21st Century skills are really very old skills: intelligent, critical discourse is nothing new--we can go at least as far back as Socrates to see it being taught. Somewhere in the so-called industrial model of education it was lost, but are reinventing it by incorporating blogs in our teaching practice.

// Lavin, Beaufait, and Tomei, weblogs for online education :// recommend blogs as the first tool educators should look at when deciding what Internet options to explore in their courses. Blogs offer teachers and students a flexible and comfortable online space in which novices can take their first steps, opening themselves to the public at a speed and to a degree that suit them, while veterans can stretch their wings and soar.

// McCabe, wikis as collaborative writing tools :// details the use of wikis in a College entry-level science education course designed for elementary education majors. Student participants in the course worked in teams to develop lesson plans based on learning objectives provided by elementary educators from area schools. These lesson plans were then implemented in selected elementary schools. Wikis facilitated idea development, communication among college and grade school participants, and public sharing of the results of this service-learning course.