The last five years have seen an explosion in the power and potential of the Internet for communicating and learning. What was once a "read only" technology, the Web has now become a place where it is almost as easy to create and publish content as it is to consume it. And this shift of power away from traditional media producers is creating profound disruptions in almost all areas of life. Not surprisingly, these pressures are being felt in education too as millions of our students are becoming participants in the creation of information and knowledge not just receivers of it. This module will help you contextualize later discussions as to how we as educators are being affected by these changes in our professional practice and in our classrooms. We'll look at how learning in this era of the Read/Write Web is being redefined in the light of global networks and the connections they facilitate, identify the technologies that are forging these changes, and begin analyzing the social aspects and potentials of these tools.

Module One Activity Checklist

Open the Learning Activity Checklist (pdf).

The Checklist can be saved to your local drive by clicking Save on the toolbar. As you complete Module Assignments, check them off on this electronic copy. Alternatively, you can print a copy to complete.

Module One Objectives

At the completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Reflect on the use of emerging Web technologies in education.
• Discuss how emerging Web technologies affect all areas of life, including politics, business, journalism, and media.
• Examine the social/cultural changes that these technologies are driving.
• Analyze how networked learning communities are supported by emerging Web technologies.
• Describe how the nature of knowledge, learning, and teaching are changed by emerging Web technologies.