One key distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is the role of the user. Web 1.0 users are essentially consumers, active searchers, but the transactions are strictly downstream - toward the end user. Web 2.0 users are participatory - adding both content and value to the systems they use. Think Wikipedia, Napster, eBay.
Another quote from O'Reilly: "One of the key lessons of the Web 2.0 era is this: Users add value. ... Therefore, Web 2.0 companies ... build systems that get better the more people use them.1
What kind of college gets better the more students use it? At the heart of College 2.0 is the concept called "constructivist learning." In the constructivist model, students don't just absorb knowledge, they create it. At one level, College 2.0 provide rich "read/write" environments where students read, think about, write about and comment on relevant topics. A blog is an excellent example of what Will Richardson terms the Read/Write Web.
On another level, though, College 2.0 is structured in such a way that students using the college adds value in itself. Think of the Amazon.com model - search for any book title and you'll get a list of other items purchased by customers who bought the book. Imagine students searching for a course, and getting a list of other courses taken by students who took that course. Or, for the full College 2.0 experience, searching for a competency and getting a list of courses that develop that competency, in various contexts and at varying depths.
Someday - sooner rather than later - a college will build an online course catalog using Google's AdSense technology creating minimally invasive, search-driven content matching. I'm betting that college will be a community college.
--Brad
posted by Brad Reed @ 4:43 PM
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