From the field Developing 21st century skills: Web 2.0 in higher education - A Case Study Authors Ilona Buchem Senior Researcher, Faculty of Social Sciences and Economics, Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin buchem@beuth-hochschule. de Henrike Hamelmann Research Assistant, Department of Print and Media Technologies, University of Applied Sciences Munich henrike.hamelmann@hm.eu
Tags Web 2.0 in higher education, digital literacy, case study, collaboration
This is an account of a collaborative project regarding two pilot university courses and the follow-up study, concerning the integration of Web 2.0 as content and teaching method, which was carried out with 47 students from October 2010 to February 2011, between two Universities of Applied Sciences in Berlin and Munich.
1. Introduction The European Digital Agenda emphasises the importance of digital and media skills for learning, creating, participating and employability (COM, 2010). Understanding and using Web 2.0 become critical 21st century skills. Being able to use the read-write Web in an informed and apt manner is essential to participate in society and meet the growing demand for e-skilled workforce (COM, 2010). Higher education plays a crucial role in developing e-skills of both those entering the labour market and those from the existing workforce (Fonstad & Lanvin, 2009). It is argued that Web 2.0 could enable universities to “reinvent” themselves through more collaborative approaches to learning, innovations in teaching practices, and improved quality of student learning (Conole & Alevizou, 2010). However, university-led efforts targeting students’ Web 2.0 skills are still scarce. In this article we provide a compact summary of two courses with innovative curricula integrating (1) Web 2.0 as the course subject, and (2) Web 2.0 as tools to support teaching/learning. We particularly focus on pedagogical approaches, applied methodologies and evaluation outcomes, indicating achieved impacts and possible ways to transform practice in higher education.
2. Participating Courses The project between the Universities of Applied Sciences in Berlin (BEU) and Munich (HSM) was carried out with 47 students between October 2010 and February 2011. Both pilot courses focused on introducing Web 2.0 technologies to foster awareness and e-skills relevant for study, work and lifelong learning, at the same time exploring ways to modernise learning and teaching practice. The main educational objectives of the courses were to: 1. Introduce Web 2.0, the underlying concepts and how they influence different society areas. 2. Promote students ability to use different Web 2.0 tools, such as wikis, blogs, microblogs. 3. Foster an understanding of how a tool can be used in different contexts, e.g. personal, work.
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From the field
Figure 1: Interaction of learning spaces
Each course comprised a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part aimed at examining and discussing the positive and negative effect of Web 2.0 in such areas as journalism, politics, enterprise, interpersonal communication. The practical part focused on the actual use of selected Web 2.0 tools. The goal was to enable students to gain hands-on experience and to understand affordances of tools in different contexts. The figure above shows the learning spaces of the course. Figure 1 visualises “the territory of social web tools” used in the courses, combining personal learning and community spaces (Wheeler, 2009). The interaction of different learning spaces took place at personal, group and university level. Each course had an individual set-up, with tools, such as wikis, blogs and microblogs supporting different learning activities. Both courses shared bookmarking and social networking sites as a collaborative community space. The seminar community allowed to connect students from both universities and to coordinate assign-
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ments. The course assignment was a step-by-step group-work on selected case studies. Parallel student groups in Berlin and Munich worked on consecutive steps (e.g. brainstorming ideas, preparing a draft) leading to final written assignments and oral presentations. Student groups shared ideas, provided feedback and hints on which tools can be applied for a particular assignment topic (e.g. enterprise knowledge management with web 2.0). In this way students shared and applied what they learnt before in realistic, problem-based scenarios. Lecturers facilitated collaboration, helping each team to develop own ideas and get new insights by providing feedback at each step leading to the final assignment. Another important learning space comprised guest lecturers as external experts/practitioners, giving valuable insights into their work fields both via web-conferencing and blogging. Thus a range of different tools was brought into play to support different types of learning in merging contexts.
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From the field 3. Results
high take-up. Around 80% reported that virtual guest lectures, discussion with experts in seminar blog, sharing and getting feedback in seminar community were useful for gaining new perspectives. Students especially valued lecturers’ feedback on consecutive assignment steps. Most students found that using wikis improved current practice, enabling more collaborative forms of group-work, the possibility to keep and access everything at one place, and to structure and document joint work. Fewer students (35%) found that communication in seminar microblog improved practice. Only 22% found bookmarking useful for group work. Few students reported dissatisfaction with having to set up Web 2.0 accounts and suggested using test accounts. Some students wanted to learn more about data privacy, mobile Web and future trends. 86% would recommend the courses to their peers. Three students found ideas for their bachelor/master thesis. Two students suggested that the course should be compulsory for every student. In general the survey and follow-up conversations showed us that students are motivated to use Web 2.0 given a clear concept of how this could be accomplished. Table 1 summarises selected results of student survey at BEU.
To assess the impact of the course including applied Web 2.0 technologies, an online survey was distributed to participating students. Questionnaire responses were received from 78% BEU and 40% HSM students. Below we present average results for BEU and HSM. The majority of students (96%) reported that the courses helped them gain insight into Web 2.0 and that they became aware of how Web 2.0 affects communication, cooperation and learning beyond using Facebook. On the whole students found the courses helped them understand which Web 2.0 tools to use, why and how. They found it valuable to learn about possible applications of Web 2.0, especially in view of later professional work. Most students (89.5%) stated they gained sufficient hands-on experience with Web 2.0 tools. In general students found the mixture of theory and practice very useful. They stated they felt more confident about using different tools and about data privacy. They discovered that collaboration can be much easier with Web 2.0. Altogether 64% would use different Web 2.0 tools beyond the seminar, indicating a relatively
Selected survey question
Positive answers in %
Average for BEU calculated by combining values 1 and 2 on the scale from 1 (high) to 5 (low)
The seminar provided a good insight into Web 2.0
92%
The seminar made me aware of the effect of Web 2.0 in different society areas
92%
I learnt and used a sufficient amount of Web 2.0 tools in the seminar
80%
I will use web-conferencing/voice over IP applications beyond this seminar
92%
I will use social nerworking sites beyond this seminar
88%
I will use blogs beyond this seminar
60%
I will use wikis after the seminar
56%
I will use microblogging tools beyond this seminar
52%
I will use bookmarking services beyond this seminar
36%
Web 2.0 tools enabled crossing university boundaries and bringing in practice
80%
Collaboration and feedback in seminar community improved practice
62%
Group work and feedback in seminar wiki improved educational practice
78.5%
Virtual guest lectures improved educational practice
61%
Virtual guest lectures provided valuable insights from experts
79%
Seminar blog provided valuable insight from experts
67%
Table 1: Selected survey results (BEU)
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From the field Lessons Learnt: Instructor’s perspective Setting up a new course with and about Web 2.0 is challenging and requires careful planning and selection of tools to meet specific educational goals. It is important to flexibly adjust the concept to the dynamics and students’ needs. At the beginning there are many open questions, such as which goals and tools match, how many tools are too many, what is self-explaining and what needs explanation, what is new and known to students. These questions can be best answered by experimentation, exploration and discourse with students. It is difficult to get students to work on home assignments based on voluntary engagement with Web 2.0 tools, like blogging and microblogging. However, making it compulsory may be contra-productive. It is helpful to recognise that not all students are enthusiastic about all tools and that exploration can only be guided. We learnt that students didn’t like setting up too many accounts and they were very cautious about personal data security. Setting up group accounts or uniform user IDs may be helpful and efficient. We learnt that cooperations between student groups from different universities can be very well supported by Web 2.0 but that it is very important to plan and attune activities to facilitate student orientation. Inviting guest lecturers to give short presentations of 15 minutes or less over web-conferencing/voice over IP systems is a viable and efficient alternative for providing first-hand insight into different fields of expertise and a range of contexts. Our experience shows that Web 2.0 tools can improve teaching prectice, e.g. seminar community helped us recognize course assignments and coordinate collaboration, microblog enabled keeping students up to date, wiki helped keeping track of student progress and engagement in group-work. We learnt that reaching a good matching between pedagogical methods and Web 2.0 tools is not always easy, but that it can make university courses more lively, enjoyable and permeable to other contexts, at the same time supporting the development of key skills, like collaboration, critical thinking, reflection and a range of e-skills from practical tool handling, through digital identity development to personal data security strategies. Table 2: Lessons learnt
Beside the student perspective, we also formulated our own reflections to highlight key impacts and lessons learnt from the lecturers’ perspective. The major challenge when setting up the courses was to find the balance between practical and discursive-reflective activities, enabling all students to personally experience and explore the tools and at the same time discuss and reflect on current societal approaches and practices. Table 2 summarises the key lessons learnt.
complex life and work environments. Informed by our experience we especially recommend partnering and collaboration between institutions and students, as well as experimentation with Web 2.0 technologies and allied pedagogies to guide transformation and improved practice in higher education.
Conclusions
Thank you to all guest lecturers and students for contributing and making this a successful experience.
Applying Web 2.0 in education entails some fundamental shifts in teaching and learning. We agree with Conole & Alevizou (2010) that Web 2.0 practice encourages both crossing traditional disciplinary boundaries of knowledge, i.e. knowledge can be personalized and re-appropriated, and collaborative inquiry and knowledge production, i.e. learning becomes less solitary and there are greater opportunities for access, debate and transparency. In our view Web 2.0 technology brings a profound potential for changing practice in HE. The findings from our study indicate that integrating Web 2.0 as content and tool in university courses is important for the development of 21st century skills, including learning, collaboration, information and technology skills which are needed to succeed in increasingly
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Acknowledgements
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From the field References Conole, G., & Alevizou, P. (2010). A literature review of the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, UK: The Open University, retrieved February 17, 2011 from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/EvidenceNet/Conole_Alevizou_2010.pdf. European Commission (2010). A Digital Agenda for Europe. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, Brussels: European Commission, retrieved February 17, 2011 from http://eur-lex.europa.eu. Fonstad, N. O., & Lanvin, B. (2009). European E-Competence Curricula Development Guidelines, Insead, retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://www.eskills-pro.eu/files/ cepis/20090930113519_e-SkillsEcompCurriculum.pdf. Franklin, T., & Van Harmelen, M. (2007). Web 2.0 for Content for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, JISC, retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://franklin-consulting.co.uk/LinkedDocuments/Web2-Content-learning-and-teaching.pdf. Wheeler, S. (2009). Learning Space Mashups: Combining Web 2.0 Tools to Create Collaborative and Reflective Learning Spaces, Future Internet, 1, pp. 3-13, retrieved February 18, 2011 from http:// www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/1/1/3/pdf
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