Engaged Learning is learning that happens when students collaborate, communicate and cooperate. Web 2.0 applications let students remix and re-purpose content in ways that are meaningful to them, and their work can be shared with others.
As Cultural Anthropologist, Michael Wesch, notes, we are sharing information and knowledge all of the time – shouldn’t we be teaching students to do the same? Literacies in today’s world include connecting, organizing, sharing, collaborating. It is important to understand how to use the tools and software available to us, but we also need to recognize how the tools are using (and changing) us.
Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us
Web 2.0 is linking people not just information. We are using and sharing information in new ways:
- User-generated content
- User-generated filtering
- User-generated organization
- User-generated distribution
- User-generated ratings
Media are not just tools, not just a means of communication; media is shaping many aspects of our lives and how we connect with one another. As Media changes, our relationships change, and, our culture changes. Students today need to have different literacies than they did in the past; how to find content, sort it, organize it, and criticize it. They need to be taught how to be critical thinkers!