Web 2.0 and higher education: pedagogical implications

Abstract

Education is arguably one of the most important issues that any Society must discuss and need to consider its reinforcement. Colleges and Universities have the key role in promoting high quality and reliable education and the knowledge development, but are far from being the only (or even the main) source of information and knowledge nowadays, due to the expansion of new forms of communication (most notably the Internet).

In places like Europe and the United States, there is a new generation of students entering Higher Education institutions which has grown within an environment where information technology has opened unprecedented opportunities of social interaction and peer-construction of knowledge. Also, the emergence of social software has enabled people to connect and collaborate throughout computer-mediated communication and to easily form online communities.