John Timmer, Science Editor, Ars Technica

Professor: Web 2.0 an Awkward Fit for the Academic World

June 20, 2008 at 12:05 am PT

YouTube may make a lousy place to hold a class, but that doesn’t mean that the YouTube experience isn’t shaping the expectations of students, especially those engaged in online learning. Those expectations are not being met by universities, where most online student-support systems have a rigid, hierarchal structure modeled on the university itself. According to an essay by a professor at the Open University in the U.K., this mismatch between expectations and reality create a challenge for the university system, one that it may be poorly equipped to meet.

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Tagged with: Ars Technica, John Timmer, Open University, Web 2.0, YouTube

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