Learning, Teaching, and Scholarship in a Digital Age

TLDR

The evolution of the Web and classroom research since Windschitl has reshaped learning and instruction constructs and opened new research avenues. The article examines how Web 2.0’s features and students’ everyday use shape learning and teaching, and calls for a stronger research focus on these practices and their implications for scholarship. It analyzes Web 2.0 characteristics, contextual conditions of student use, and their impact on learning and teaching. The analysis identifies learner participation and creativity, and online identity formation as key themes that inform new research questions.

Abstract

Since Windschitl first outlined a research agenda for the World Wide Web and classroom research, significant shifts have occurred in the nature of the Web and the conceptualization of classrooms. Such shifts have affected constructs of learning and instruction, and paths for future research. This article discusses the characteristics of Web 2.0 that differentiate it from the Web of the 1990s, describes the contextual conditions in which students use the Web today, and examines how Web 2.0’s unique capabilities and youth’s proclivities in using it influence learning and teaching. Two important themes, learner participation and creativity and online identity formation, emerged from this analysis and support a new wave of research questions. A stronger research focus on students’ everyday use of Web 2.0 technologies and their learning with Web 2.0 both in and outside of classrooms is needed. Finally, insights on how educational scholarship might be transformed with Web 2.0 in light of these themes are discussed.