An unfortunate series of events? What do you think?

 

Media in 2014: http://epic.lightover.com/

This week, my life was dedicated to the remarkable concept of web 2.0 and its value for the creation of a learning environment for the net generation in a corporate setting. I've written the article below as part of my research proposal. Some links are provided to the literature I've used.

 

“Global social networks – made visible, designable, and searchable via services such as ‘Friendster’ (http://www.friendster.com) and ‘MySpace’ (http://www.myspace.com)-  are increasingly becoming the must have/ must do activity for businesspeople, college students, and fan communities alike (Steinkuehler, 2005)”. Such social networks have been the root of what is often referred to as “Web 2.0” (Boyd, 2005). Currently there’s a lot of debate on the meaning or definition of the term “Web 2.0” (e.g. Boyd, 2005). Some even argue that it is just another buzzword or marketing trick (e.g. O’Reily, 2005; Siemens, 2006). In general we can say that the use of the World Wide Web has shifted from being a medium, in which information was transmitted and consumed (Downes, 2005), towards that of a platform in which services are offered to the user (O’Reily, 2005).  These services incorporate for example blogging, networking, tagging, communicating and creating.

 

Behind this concept of Web 2.0 lies a change in our notion of knowledge in relation to the use of the web. Whereas in the Web 1.0 era knowledge was seen as, and treated like a commodity, in the Web 2.0 era knowledge is treated more as intelligence or relations. In the notion of knowledge as commodity there is a preoccupation that knowledge assets can be separated from the individuals in which they reside (Harrison & Kessels, 2004). The notions of knowledge as intelligence and relations “are more underpinned by the assumption that knowledge is ‘out there’, and can be captured by good information collection, processing and communication (Harrison & Kessels, 2004)”. The emergence of Web 2.0 is by several authors seen as a social revolution, rather than a technical one (Downes, 2005; Boyd, 2005).  In the Web 1.0 era we have seen knowledge been treated as commodity trough the use of repositories in which bits and pieces of data was stored and where people got access to. In the web 2.0 era we see more and more that people shape meaning around these bits and pieces of data. People are using weblogs to express their thoughts on particular subjects, thereby also creating a network trough the use of “rss” which connects all these weblogs. The kind of learning that resides in these networks, formed through the use of web 2.0 services, comes the closest to the kind of learning we see in communities of practice (Downes, 2005). The question here is how we can make the most profound use of these web 2.0 services in our corporate learning environment.

Throughout history, different generations have come and gone, each new generation having his own characteristics. Currently, we see the rise of a new generation, which is called “the Net-generation”. This is the first generation to grow up surrounded by digital media (Tapscot, 1998). This generation is learning, playing, working, communicating, and networking differently than other generations which we experience now in our organizations (eg. Steinkuehler, 2005; Tapscot, 1998).  “As the N-Gen enters the work force, it will also place profound demands on its employers to create new environments for lifelong learning (Tapscot, 1998)”.

 

As the application of knowledge is of such importance in our knowledge economy we need to understand who the people of the Net generation are. How they learn differently compared to other generations. How we provide a challenging learning environment and can we make the most profound use of ICT?

 

In preparation of my masters thesis I’m currently writing a research proposal for the above stated questions in the context of HRD. Also, from now on I will regularly publish my thought on this matter on this weblog, trying to create a collaborative research environment. You’re invited to leave your reactions on this weblog or e-mail me at jrn@stoas.nl