My alma mater, the University of Arizona, with support from IBM, is creating a course which will teach students how to create and run a business using social technologies.
The curriculum is “designed to equip students with skills in the creation and management of online communities” using blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 tools.
The best part, however, is that the members of the class will work with students at a local high school on their final projects.
The class will culminate in a final project where each student from the class will work with their own separate group of students from Howenstine High School* in Tucson, Arizona, to organize into many micro-communities. This offers hands-on experience in leadership, communications and community- building skills. Each high school student will also learn how to use social software towards the goals of their community.
Ok. Now that colleges are starting to recognize that this read/write web stuff has real value in business, is it permissible for the rest of us in K12 to start using these tools with our students as well?
*By the way, someone from the university also needs to send out a designer to help the high school do something about that web site. :-)