Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World

“... the online lifestyle of young people going into higher education was inescapable”

“... a new sense of communities of interest” “Deployment is in no way systematic and the

drive is principally bottom up, coming from the professional interest and enthusiasm of individual members of staff”

“Advice and guidance is available to institutions, but there is no blueprint for implementation of Web 2.0 technologies, and each is currently deciding its own path”

Report Recommendations

“HEIs support staff to become proficient users of an appropriate range of technologies and skilled practitioners of e-pedagogy, incorporating both into initial staff training and CPD programmes”

“JISC works with the HE funding bodies and Universities UK to explore issues and practice in the development of new business models that exploit Web 2.0 technologies”

Social Networking

Social Networking is about communication If communication is considered to be a

weakness both within BUCS and the University, then maybe social networking tools can help

The report concentrates on use of Web 2.0 in teaching and learning, so we should liaise with LTEO

It may be appropriate to use different tools in a work environment

E-Mail

Advantages Accessible FTP via

attachments Everybody uses it Universally accepted

standard

Disadvantages Not good for

discussions because sender controls readership

Too slow for conversations

Instant Messaging/Microblogging

Good for conversations Less intrusive than a

telephone call IM primarily for private

2-way conversations Microblogging for short

public statements

Limited to short messages

Sites like Yammer may be more appropriate within BUCS

Laconica (Identi.ca)

Friends Sites

Facebook, MySpace, BeBo

Probably not very useful in a business environment

May be useful in Learning and Teaching

Sites such as LinkedIn are targetted at business use

Others

• Media sharing – Flickr, YouTube• Virtual Worlds – Second Life• Social bookmarking - del.icio.us• Syndication – RSS• Trading – E-bay• Wikis - Confluence

Aggregation Sites

• Checking regularly on several social networking sites is time consuming

• Aggregation sites help by consolidating status updates and other changes into one stream

• Sites include Friendfeed, Socal Thing, and Friendbinder

Google Apps

Software-as-a-Service

• E-mail• Calendar• Gtalk – instant messaging• Docs – word processor, spreadsheet,

slides, ...• Video – YouTube for an organisation• Google Sites – file sharing

Google Wave

• Released late 2009• Described as a Real Time Communication

Platform• “combines aspects of email, instant

messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management to build one elegant, in-browser communication client”

• Open source

Google Wave

• Drag-and-drop file sharing• Applications and Extensions• Waves, wavelets, and blips !• Gadgets and Robots• Embedded Waves