Thursday, July 3, 2008

Web 2.0 and Institutional Challenges

Juan Freire writes a thought-provoking article on the challenges educational institutions are having adopting Web 2.0 tools in eLearning Papers. He lists the bottlenecks for adoption as:

  1. "Rejection by the users, personnel and students. Many of the users of the tools available in the Internet 1.0 are reluctant and fearful of learn new abilities needed to use new software and change their attitudes about education and knowledge. Also, in most cases, change is a matter of personal interest and work without any specific incentive system adapted to these objectives.
  2. Lack of an incentive system or perverse effects.
  3. Available pre-web 2.0 technology. Universities have made large investments during 1980 and 90s to develop in-house or buy software platforms. This infrastructure could become a barrier . . . .
  4. Universities show in some cases a culture of aversion to innovation and entrepreneurship. Bureaucracy, governance, procedures for decision-making and inertia in large institutions are in many cases the worst environment for inside innovation and entrepreneurship. However, the adoption of technology and working methods associated with web 2.0 requires a high dose of experimentation and creativity. "
His solution would involve:
  1. "Learning from previous and on-going experiences. Successful uses of web 2.0 are yet an experimental field where trial-and-error is the basic approach. A considerable base of experience is being developed (and shared) by lead users and organizations that could be mined by other interested parties to gain efficiency in their processes of adoption.
  2. Open access and use of contents. Web 2.0 is especially useful and creative when knowledge is digitized, modular and allowed to be used and distributed in a flexible way.
  3. Design the organization as an open platform for knowledge creation and sharing, both among members of the internal community and with the participation of external users."

You can read the full article at http://www.elearningeuropa.info/files/media/media15530.pdf.

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