Verso

Participants collaboratively developed a bilingual resource which provided a body of shared knowledge and helped establish an environment where the participants’ language and culture was valued.

Teachers don’t always find it easy to analyse the assumptions about learning that underpin specific examples of learning technology. A simple scenario can be used in a professional development setting as a trigger for discussion of these assumptions and the links between technology and education theory.

Some e-learning specialists feel that Web 2.0 tools like wikis have no place in vocational education because of the risks of ‘faulty knowledge’. I don’t agree, but I do believe we need to identify the risks when we are planning, along with what we will do when ‘faulty knowledge’ is contributed. The potential benefits of exposing ‘faulty knowledge’ outweigh the risks, but we do need a well thought-out plan for dealing with it.

Virtual worlds such as Second Life currently pose too high a threshold to be used in my professional development activities.

An interview with Hannah Pia Baral about her experience with Appreciative Inquiry as a professional development approach to developing leadership.

The read-write matrix provides a model of analysing the roles of learners in working with documents in a Web 2.0 context. The complexity of Web 2.0 tools, however, has prompted me to explore ways of extending the model to provide more detail, including different forms of contribution and collaboration.

Educators getting started with using wikis and blogs and other Web 2.0 software as tools for learning need to develop a structural understanding of the different potential forms of collaboration and interaction. But some of the models used as references for such educational use come from other contexts, and are unlikely to be sufficient as models for designing effective learning and teaching.

The truly collaborative wiki has the potential to change the power balance between teachers and learners and their respective roles: no longer is the teacher the sole source of authoritative knowledge. On the other hand, ‘wrong’ information can be detrimental and even dangerous, in vocational or academic education.

Two recent incidents highlighted for me the dominance of English in the online world, even in systems and communities used internationally by educators.