Open Sources and the Internet
11 The Future of E-Ducation: the Impact of Technology and Analytics on the Education Industry
According to Joi Ito, Director of the MIT Media Lab, these platforms are founded by “a belief system, a philosophy about the effectiveness of decentralised, bottomup innovation” (Loyd, 2012). This viewpoint is particularly evident with regards to MOOCs and Web 2.0, both of which can be accessed by anyone, anywhere and at any time. These Open Sources are changing the way students experience learning: they are offering more accessibility and new opportunities in how we deliver and structure education. Indeed, new educational ideas and methods focused on innovation are already being implemented, as seen by the IrauaritzLezama Foundation’s EBI project in Madrid. Open Sources are already disrupting the infrastructure of current education systems, globally. This section will explore the concepts of MOOCs and Web 2.0, why they are disruptive education technologies and, finally, what effects they will have on our educational environments. Educators and industry-professionals alike are promoting the idea that education is in the early stages of a revolution, yet many involved in education remain unconvinced. In discussing the complexities surrounding Open Sources and the Internet, this section will demonstrate why MOOCs and Web 2.0 are technologies to watch in education.
Web 2.0
The Internet has drastically changed how people interact, communicate and present information. New platforms such as Wikis, blogs, podcasts, bookmarks and social media sites including Facebook and Twitter have adapted the original website platform in such a way as to coin the term Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is, therefore, not a new technology: it was coined in 1999 by Darcy DiNucci and merely describes the new ways web pages are being made and used. It is now not uncommon to see Web 2.0 being used by students and teachers alike as tools to support learning. However, this technology is also being used to extend student’s learning environments beyond the classroom (New Media Consortium, 2013). The world is moving online, but until recently this has not been reflected in classrooms or in curriculums across the world. The world’s students, particularly those in primary and secondary education, are ‘digital natives’ (Prensky, 2001) who understand how to navigate and use the online world. Geoff Maslen of the Sydney Morning Herald explains how the education system owes its students “to use technology as well as they do to help them succeed in their own education” (Grossman and Loyd, 2012). More willing educators believe this will be achieved through the use of Web 2.0 platforms.