Web 2.0 Presents Cultural Tipping Point for Educators

Trent Batson's excellent article about how Cloud computing offers new faculty innovation opportunities, is one of the best written to date, and pinpoints the perils and the promise of IT trends in education today. This is a must-read for any educator who wants to understand the impact of emerging technologies on pedagogical best practices and the corresponding dilemmas faced by IT administrators.

Research has confirmed Batson's claim that, "We are as prisoners who have spent our lives in prison and cannot bear not having four walls around us, or those bars on the windows of our curiosity." Therefore, the mindset – not the machine – is more of a challenge to tech integration today.

Here's the summary breakdown of Batson's report:

• Web 2.0 is a global renaissance of unprecedented flowering knowledge
• Old-think prevents our seeing the opportunities before us as educators
• History proves that faculty took the lead in tech integration historically
• Continuous change (i.e. Web 1.0 to Web 2.0) is both tantalizing and frustrating
• Unlike changes in automobile innovations that took 91 years, Web 1.0 to 2.0 took only five years!
• As a result, IT depts are too busy making admin changes, to help faculty with pedagogical needs

Conclusion: "It is therefore time for faculty and academic leaders to assume permanent, campus-wide, and official leadership to transform higher education to fit the cultural learning trends and opportunities of today."