My Impressions on "What Web 2.0 can Teach the Open Education Movement"

When I entered the room for "Web 2.0" they were still finishing the previous session on the Peer-to-Peer University.  Although it sounds like an interesting model for group projects, I don't think p2p universities work well where a strong subject matter expert is required.  They suggested initially starting the course with professors from established universities.  Once beginning students have trained, they become the new teachers for the next class.  While I think this sounds like a nice idea, I still don't understand how it's sustainable based on anything other than the philanthropy of the teachers.  But that's how I feel about most Open Education, so nothing new there.  While I like the idea of problem/project based classes, I still feel a compensated SME is important to learning (even if it's simply a book or training materials and not a traditional teacher).

 

The Web 2.0 session began and to be honest it just felt like I was attending one of my classes.  The girl leading the session threw out some vague ideas and everyone just raised their hands and said what was on their mind. While I sometimes enjoy these kind of seminars, I felt there was a lack of structure and that I wasn't really learning anything.  This session did give me the impression that it's just normal folks presenting and gave me confidence that I could present at a conference someday.  The basic point that I got was that students prefer interactive Web 2.0 course pages over static pages and that teachers should implement them whenever possible.  Go Jazz!