The Social Processes of Web 2.0 Collaboration: Towards a New Model for Virtual Learning

Abstract

This chapter examines how curriculum design needs to be influenced by the development of educationally effective virtual collaborative learning (VCL) environments. VCL environments can afford learners new opportunities to engage in rewarding, productive learning experiences. Put simply, successful VCL environments attract membership, engage those members, and encourage ownership of the networks of learning which they create. They must be useable in the ways that members prefer or can easily adapt to. Exactly how these outcomes can be achieved is the goal of this chapter, which argues the need for new thinking on the purpose and design of collaborative online learning solutions where the focus is not just on what to learn, but also the methods and tools that enhance the student’s learning capacity. Considered as a whole, the preceding factors point to the need to not only rethink the design and purpose of the curriculum models that inform the design and function of VCL environments, but also to devise more adaptive, educationally focussed teaching and learning strategies which reflect the current realities of social Internet use, rather than the traditions encoded into learning management systems.