A Paradigm Shift in Distance Education: Web 2.0 and Social Software

The term of “new technological paradigm” is become an indispensable concept for all educational organizations. Consequently there is a growing necessity to describe what the term technological paradigm is. With the gaining speed of technological changes, a new dimension of educational and training paradigm is being formed. The sources of this paradigm are, flexibility and providing rich learning environments for all students. Therefore student’s roles had changed from passive to highly interactive in the historical development of distance education. In this paper, evolution of Web technologies from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 as a sub-dimension of distance education is being decribed theoretically. Besides, reflections of this evolution for all educational organizations are taken in hand with the perpective of the term of social software.

[1]  Lyndsay Grant,et al.  Social Software and Learning , 2005 .

[2]  Heather Kanuka,et al.  Technology, e-Learning and Distance Education (2nd edition) , 2006 .

[3]  Marcia L. Williams,et al.  Distance Learning: The Essential Guide , 1998 .

[4]  Stephen Downes.  E-learning 2.0 , 2005, ELERN.

[5]  D. Keegan.  On Defining Distance Education , 1980, Distance Education: International Perspectives.

[6]  M. Castells.  Informationalism, Networks, And The Network Society: A Theoretical Blueprint , 2004 .

[7]  M. Castells,et al.  The Network Society: From Knowledge to Policy , 2006 .

[8]  A W Tony Bates,et al.  Technology, e-learning, and distance education , 1995 .

[9]  John Larson,et al.  Beyond e-learning : approaches and technologies to enhance organizational knowledge, learning, and performance , 2006 .

[10]  Michael A. Goldberg,et al.  The evolution of e-learning , 2005 .

[11]  Tomáš Pitner,et al.  E-learning 2.0: Methodology, Technology, and Solutions , 2006 .

[12]  Ana-Maria Marhan,et al.  Connectivism: Concepts and Principles for emerging Learning Networks , 2006 .

[13]  Kwok Chi Ng,et al.  Implementing wiki software for supplementing online learning , 2007 .

[14]  Ulrich Bernath,et al.  Challenges for Study Centers in an Electronic Age: A case study of the Center for Distance Education at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg in Germany , 2003 .

[15]  Otto Peters,et al.  Distance Education in Transition , 2002 .

[16]  Terry Anderson,et al.  Distance learning – Social software’s killer ap? , 2005 .

[17]  Shailey Minocha,et al.  Collaborative learning in a wiki environment: Case study of a requirements engineering course , 2007 .

[18]  Badrul H. Khan,et al.  Flexible Learning in an Information Society , 2006 .