The Faculty of Information Sciences and Engineering at the University of Canberra hosted a talk by Catherine McLoughlin today: Web 2.0 integration in Higher Education: it’s all about participation and personalisation.
Catherine is the coordinator of SiMERR ACT (Centre for Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia) and is in the Faculty of Education, Australian Catholic University, Canberra. She is editor of the Australian Journal of Educational Technology and a member of the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Educational Technology. In addition, she is on the editorial boards of a number of leading international journals in the field of educational technologies and mentors early career academics in research and publication. Her research interests are interdisciplinary and related to pedagogical improvement and innovation, translating theory into practice –through appropriate learning design and learning environments; evidence based practice in education, the application of emerging and mobile technologies in higher education and the development of underpinning research frameworks and theory for current ICT supported teaching and learning. Catherine’s most recent publication is a co-authored book on Web 2.0 practices in higher education titled Web 2.0-based e-learning: applying social informatics for tertiary teaching, published by IGI Global in August 2010 (Contents listed here).
Her talk focussed on:
the changing landscape of Web 2.0 practices and their impact on teaching and learning. As technologies have evolved, the shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 signals more user-centered, participatory Web practices. By describing a typology of Web 2.0 tool types, a number of different pedagogical approaches are outlined. The opportunities and challenges for using these social networking tools in an educational context are discussed along with their implications for learners, focusing on three themes:
- Digital literacy skills
- The importance of task design
- Pedagogies to engage learners
I was particularly interested her discussion of pedagogical transformation of teaching and learning.
Photo Credits
Catherine McLoughlin
