Thanks to Rees’ tweets, I stumbled upon five-part study by Becta on Web 2.0 in UK schools. Becta describes itself as “the government agency leading the national drive to ensure the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning”.

I have not read all their reports yet, but here are some snippets that I found very interesting. In report 2:

Of the 2,600 learners surveyed across 27 schools, 74% have social networking accounts and 78% have uploaded artefacts (mostly photographs or video clips from phones) to the internet. However, nearly all Web 2.0 use is currently outside school, and for social purposes

Overall, although most learners use the internet for learning, there is only limited use of Web 2.0, and only a few embryonic signs of criticality, self-management and meta-cognitive reflection

I added emphasis to the text to highlight the key points: Web 2.0, when used by the sample of learners in the UK, tends to be informal and does not promote higher order thinking skills. Why? I think that it is because most teachers do not integrate it aggressively and effectively in their classrooms and/or do not teach their students how to think with these tools.

However, report 3 noted that:

When used effectively Web 2.0 technologies had a positive impact on motivation and engagement through involving students in more participatory learning. For example:

• Web 2.0 engaged many learners who were tentative contributors in class or who had special needs, and supported learners’ natural curiosity by enabling expression through different media and a sense of audience, providing access to further resources and the ability to gain confidence and skill in speaking and presenting. Some teachers had found that Web 2.0 technologies could encourage simultaneous, learner-directed discussions which extended beyond the lesson
• The ‘anytime-anywhere’ availability of Web 2.0 can also be highly motivating, and can enhance learner autonomy and encourage extended learning through open ended tasks
• Publication was felt to enhance a learner’s sense of ownership, engagement and awareness of audience. Publication online was used by some teachers as a key element in peer assessment and was found to encourage more attention to detail and improved the quality of work.

I have bolded key text. Sounds intuitive enough, right? But here was some hard evidence to back up a fairly common belief.

The same report highlighted that:

Some teachers are enthusiastic proponents of Web 2.0. 59% believed that popular Web 2.0 resources should get more use in the classroom.

And so what were was holding them back? Amongst other things:

Many indicated that there was a tension between the collaborative learning encouraged by Web 2.0 and the nature of the current assessment system.

Et tu, UK?

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Assessment is a key leverage point. If the assessment system does not change, very little else in the educational system will. But that should not stop us from incorporating Web 2.0 in innovative and effective ways because if we wait, it will be too late.