Educators aren’t the only ones nervous about Web 2.0.
“Few technological shifts in recent memory have challenged corporate America [schools?] the way Web 2.0 is doing right now,” wrote Diann Daniel. “What if any role does Web 2.0 have in the enterprise [education?]?”
Answering that question can start uncomfortable conversations with CIOs [educators?] who aren’t happy with its openness and don’t know how to fit it into their infrastructure, or even comfortable with the way the world is supposed to operate.
The scary part of Web 2.0 is that it infringes on the historical IT [educational?] control and power. That creates problems in a modern knowledge-based environment.
With just the few changes noted in brackets, those statements from the corporate world also describe the situation in most of American education.
And then there’s this.
“Web 2.0 technologies are coming in from the consumer space, and it’s an interesting reversal,” said John Hagel, longtime Web 2.0 consultant. He believes that “the norms, standards and mindset of the Web 2.0 crowd are quite different from the typically older current C-suite.” (Referring to C-level executives, CEO, CIO, COO, CTO, etc.)
How many of our kids have “norms, standards, and mindset” that are quite different from those held by “older” older members of the educational “C-suite”?
One of the interesting “mashup” sessions I saw was one featuring both corporate and education leaders.
Fari Ebrahimi, from Verizon, talked about learning from his interns and his child’s high school age friends–one of his main comments was about the speed at which the new technologies are moving.
He told a story about meeting a graduating senior at a party, and he was sharing something with the student that he promised to email. The student said, ’email is too slow. Just post it on my facebook. That way everyone can see it.’
All the elements there, the speed of interactivity, the sharing, and the transparency–signal what is changing for both businesses and schools.
While it’s true that new technologies are coming in and changing the way people interact, there is also a money component to all this Web 2.0 stuff. New VC money is heading towards these technologies. This means that people who want to be the next ebay or the next Amazon are desperate for the attention they need to attract capital.
Part of the Web 2.0 “buzz” is simply a show for potential investors – educators should remember that. It’s a peacock parade for people with big wallets.
thx a lot for information about web 2.0