Pedagogy 2.0: Critical challenges and responses to Web 2.0 and social software in tertiary teaching

Worldwide, tertiary educators and institutions are discovering that new models of teaching and learning are required to meet the needs of today’s students, and their demands for autonomy, connectivity, and socio-experiential learning. The educational applications of the new wave of Web 2.0-based social software tools compel us to consider how the affordances and potential for generativity and connectivity offered by these tools, as well as the broader societal changes that the Web 2.0 movement forms part of, impact on pedagogy and teaching, and open up the debate on how we conceptualize the dynamics of student learning. This chapter explores the ways in which scholarship and pedagogy are being challenged and redefined in the Web 2.0 era, and the accompanying need for students to develop new skills and competencies to prepare them for work and lifelong learning in a dynamic, networked society and knowledge economy. In response to these challenges the authors propose a pedagogical framework, “Pedagogy 2.0,” which addresses the themes of participation in networked communities of learning, personalization of the learning experience, and learner productivity in the form of active knowledge creation and innovation, and discuss how emerging social practices, ethos, and modes of communication influence the roles of teachers and learners.