Tom Franklin Consulting Ltd

No 5

17-19 Elsworthy Road

London

NW3 3DS

07989 948 221

Tom@franklin-consulting.co.uk

Registered in England and Wales No. 6948162

Last updated: 06 October 2014

Franklin Consulting

Reports

A review of current and developing international practice in the use of social networking (Web 2.0) in higher education

This report was commissioned by the Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience to review the current and developing use of Web 2.0 technologies in higher education from an international perspective. The report is based on five specially commissioned reports from Australia, the Netherlands, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. These were chosen to provide some of the leading countries in the use of Web 2.0 technologies in education together with one country where English is not the first language and one where infrastructure provision remains a critical issue.

The report covers the following four areas:

• The areas in which Web 2.0 is being used, including academic and administrative support.  Web 2.0 is being used in nearly all areas of higher education, including academic, administrative and support areas.  These tend to be in "hot spots" where "early adopters" are trying out new things rather than widespread.  Take up across the different countries appears to be in some measure dependant on the technical infrastructure being available to enable students to access to Web 2.0 functions.  Questions of equity therefore impact on take up in use.  
• The drivers to use of Web 2.0 in these areas.  The UK and Netherlands lead the way in enabling use, through supporting national infrastructure developments, and some USA States have policies and strategies in place which encourage use of technologies in support of student learning.  Institutions were not found to have specific drivers and, as organisations, are slow in their response to Web 2.0 technologies.
• The issues encountered and the responses made.  HEIs and their students find themselves in uncharted territories with respect to their use of Web 2.0 technologies.  The historically more certain boundaries where information and communications were controlled by universities is being lost, and institutions are struggling to make sense of how to operate in this changed and permeable space.  Students have yet to discover the full consequences of their public representations.  Issues are discussed around Social and professional lives, privacy and safety, identity, issues for institutions, a lack of new pedagogic models, time constraints, culture shift for academics and issues for students.
• The perceived advantages and disadvantages of Web 2.0 use. There are seen to be three key advantages of Web 2.0.  It offers a set of affordances that are not found in other, students are already using these technologies and are therefore engaged with them and many of them are free to use and come without the restrictions found in many institutional systems.  
• Prospective developments in Web 2.0 use.  New curriculum opportunities, new assessment opportunities, to provide support before students arrive at their university, a blurring of the boundaries of institutions as they become more, the development of new virtual learning environments (including personal learning environments) which are based on Web 2.0 technologies, a reduction in the ability of institutions to control the technology that students use in their learning, a reduction in the ability of institutions to control access to information that students use in their study and Web 2.0 applications increasingly replacing desktop applications.

This can be downloaded in  Word or PDF format.

Reports relating to process improvement

• University of Bolton Induction Process
• High Level Domain Map Project - Final report
• Roles Landscape Study

Web 2.0 reports

• A review of current and developing international practice in the use of social networking (Web 2.0) in higher education
• Web 2.0 for Content for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

E-learning, pedagogy and Learning environments

• How to buy a Virtual Learning Environment
• Why Personal Learning Environments?
• e-learning, b*****-learning and f*****-learning or what is wrong with e-learning
• Towards an effective framework for the evaluation of e-learning
• Ubiquitous and mobile Computing
• Technology choices for an MLE

Portal reports

• Portal Architectures
• Designing Spaces for personalising learning: Spaces for personalising learning or personalising spaces for learning?
• Portals in Higher Education: concepts & models

Wireless and Ubiquitous computing reports

• Multi-site Connectivity Reports
• Mobile Learning 2012
• Ubiquitous and mobile Computing
• Wireless computing
• Connecting access centres

Programme and project evaluation

• Evaluation of the JISC MLE Programme
• A review of the technologies application programme – perspectives on teaching and learning
• Use of National Services in Designing and Delivering E-Learning
• Business models for Reload

Standards and service oriented approaches

• E-learning framework
• Business models for Reload
• Technology Enhanced Learning: Conformance - European Requirements & Testing