This document summarizes Neil Selwyn's views on the implementation of Web 2.0 technologies in schools. Some key points: 1. Selwyn argues that discussions of technology in education should involve open public debates on the purpose of education, not just technology industry perspectives. 2. While Web 2.0 seems well-suited to constructivist learning, barriers like infrastructure, policies, and teaching approaches have limited its use in schools. 3. Some see Web 2.0 as a way to "replace" schools, while others view it as an opportunity to "reinvent" schools with more flexible, learner-centered models. 4. Selwyn advocates a critical perspective on Web 2.0

1. Neil Selwyn (2010)
Presented by
Amal Alharbi

2.  “an increased socialisation of internet tools,
applications and services” (p. 24).
 “a ‘mass’ internet connectivity based around the
collective actions of online user communities rather
than individual users ” (p. 24).
 “shared digital content that is authored, critiqued and
re-configured by a mass of users - what has been
described as ‘many-to-many’ connectivity as opposed
to ‘one-to-many’ transmission ” (p. 24).
What is web 2.0?

3. Web 2.0 as “the future of education”
 “having clear parallels with contemporary
understandings of learning and education, and it is
perhaps unsurprising that it has been the learning
and pedagogy-related aspects of web 2.0 that have
prompted greatest enthusiasm of late amongst
educators and educationalists” (p. 25).
 “have a strong affinity with socio-cultural accounts
of ‘authentic’ learning where knowledge is co-
constructed actively by learners with the support of
communal social settings – taking the form of
constantly reassessed ‘collective agreement’ ” (p. 25).

4. Web 2.0 as “the future of education”
 “personalised and socially situated forms
of learning (intended or otherwise) that can be found
within web 2.0 practices, with learners said to gain
from participatory experiences in the co-
construction of online knowledge ” (p. 25).
 “learning best takes place within technology-
supported networks of learners involved in the
creation as well as consumption of content ” (p. 25).

5. The actual use of web 2.0 in schools
 “many education technologists remain profoundly
frustrated by the apparent lack of effective web 2.0
use in schools ” (p. 26).
 “web 2.0 technologies do not appear to be used to
their full potential even in relatively well-resourced,
‘high-technology’ classrooms: the ‘digital
disconnect’ ” (p. 26).

6. Some of the raising issues…
 “teachers were generally cautious in adopting collaborative and
communal web 2.0 practices that many felt could challenge traditional
school structures ” (p. 26).
 “practical barriers relating to technological access, infrastructure
and bandwidth continued to impede web 2.0 use even in the more
well-resourced schools ” (p. 26).
 “web 2.0 tools largely depended on the rigidity or flexibility of the
school curriculum ” (p. 26-27).
 “internet safety and school policy constraints such as school
internet restrictions and firewalls, were reported to often impose
barriers for the adoption of web 2.0 practices ” (p. 27).
 “‘learners spend, on average, more time working on school work on a
computer outside school than at school itself’ ” (p. 27).

7. The ‘problem’
 “some aspects of web 2.0 use ‘fit’ better than others
with the realities of contemporary schools and
schooling ” (p. 28).
 “educationalists have therefore started to search for
reasons that may underpin the apparent ‘failure’ of
web 2.0 technologies in schools ‘narrow nature’ ” (p.
28).

8. Some of the problems are:
 “schools’ continued reliance on broadcast pedagogies
” (p. 24).
 “school buildings are being architecturally
unsuitable for widespread networked and wireless
technology use ” (p. 28-29).
 “Teachers are being too old, incompetent or
disinterested to integrate web 2.0 applications into
their teaching ” (p. 29).

9. Some of the problems are:
 “Students lack the skills or application to make the most of
educational (rather than leisure) applications of web 2.0
applications and tools ” (p. 29).
 “School leaders and administrators are felt to lack the
required direction or foresight to adopt collective and
communal approaches into their school organisation and
management ” (p. 29).
 “School curricula are remaining too rigid and entrenched
in top-down paradigms of information transfer ” (p. 29).

11. 1- Replacing the school
 “structural impediments and challenges to technology (i.e. the
school) must be removed in order to facilitate the realisation
of the digital transformation of education ” (p. 29).
 “children are better off learning amongst themselves through
web 2.0 and other internet technologies – gaining an education
through the ‘hard fun’ of creating and playing in online
environments ” (p. 29).
 “web 2.0 technologies are seen to provide a ready basis for
young people’s circumvention of the traditional structures
of their schools and generally “finding something online that
schools are not providing them” ” (p. 30).

12. 2- Reinventing the school
 “web 2.0 tools as a means to re-configure and re-
invent the school - retaining the overall notion of the school as
an institution, but along more fluid and flexible lines of ‘school
2.0’ ” (p. 30).
 “school and classroom is deliberately learner-centred –
focused on “learner participation and creativity and online
identity formation” ” (p. 30).
 “develop web 2.0 inspired curricula that can be negotiated
rather than prescribed, that are driven by learner needs and
based on providing learners with skills in managing and
accessing knowledge and being in control of their own learning
pathways and choices: ‘curriculum 2.0’ ” (p. 30).

13.  “systems of schooling that have not fundamentally
changed since the beginning of the twentieth
century can be brought up to date with twenty-first
century life” (p. 33).
 “schools repeat a long-standing tendency in education
for exaggerated and extreme reactions
to technology that are centred around matters of
learning and teaching rather than the wider social,
political, economic and cultural contexts of education ”
(p. 33).
Towards a more reasoned response to web 2.0
and the school of the future

14.  “social progress is driven by technological
innovation, which in turn follows an ‘inevitable’
course” (p. 33).
 “web 2.0 technologies as offering a ready ‘technical
fix’ to the problem of the failing – or at least
underperforming – school ” (p. 33).
 “a rallying call for new age of activities which are made
‘by the people, for the people’ rather than centred
around official, institutional interests ” (p. 34).

15.  there is no neat, unproblematic ‘web 2.0’ solution to the
deficiencies of twenty-first century education. Instead web
2.0 is a site of intense ideological competition and struggle along
many lines and involving many different interests.
 web 2.0 represents the ‘killer-app’ for bringing more desirable
forms of socio-constructivist learning to the masses.
 web 2.0 “is not and cannot be the all–mighty teacher,
healer, and redeemer for everything that went astray in
society”. Instead, if web 2.0 is already being used as a ready site
for rehearsing many of the wider debates, controversies and
tensions about the future of schools and schooling in the
twenty-first century
towards a more critical understanding of
web 2.0, schools and schooling

16. Discussion questions: (Group 1)
“we cannot leave discussions of the future role of technology in
education only to the technology industry …. Instead, we need to
develop the mechanisms for an open and public debate on the
nature and purpose of education in the digital age” (Daanen and
Facer 2007, p. 28) as cited in (Selwyn, 2010, p. 38).
• What are the current debates occur in your school/
organisation towards the implementation of web 2.0
technology?
 By looking at “Towards a more reasoned response to
web 2.0 and the school of the future”, how much you
agree/disagree? Justify.

17. “ much of the current debate concerning Web 2.0 and schools is
now beginning to focus on how best to re-structure the school to fit
with the demands and needs of the technology use” (p. 29).
 How can the barriers to the effective use of Web 2.o in
your school/organisation be overcome?
 By looking at “towards a more critical
understanding of web 2.0, schools and schooling”,
how much you agree/disagree? Justify.
Discussion questions: (Group 2)

18. • This paper provides an overview of the educational
implications of web 2.0 technologies for schools –
arguing that current portrayals of web 2.0 use
replicate a long-standing tendency in education for
exaggerated and ideologically driven reactions to
technology.
• Selwyn argues for the need to retain a realistic, if not
critical, perspective on schools and web 2.0 – seeking
to find ways of using web 2.0 technologies to work
with the schools of today, rather than against them.
Conclusion