Future of Education Needs to Essay

The challenge for the future of education is to use the full range of Web 2.0 technologies (O'Reilly, 2006) and create effective and customizable learning platforms that support individualized learning needs. For an overview of the Web 2.0 ecosystem, please see Appendix A. Social networks and Web 2.0 technologies will be the underlying scaffolding that provides students with the opportunity to get individualized instruction. These technologies will also free up teachers to focus on the most in-need students and keep the most talented of their courses challenged. In this way, each student will have the chance to make the most of their educational opportunities. Hopefully, the majority will emerge with a strong sense of accomplishment from the learning experience.

Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose

The final aspect of the future goals of education needs to center on creating autonomy of tasks, mastery of specific subjects and skills, and a strong purpose to continue learning (Stern, 2010). Ultimately, all of these technologies and tools will be effective if they accomplish this goal.

Conclusion

The future objectives of learning need to embrace technologies that allow for individualized and augmented learning experiences. Never before, have technologies been so relevant to the needs of students for a personalized, highly focused learning experience.The use of scaffolding (Lutz, Guthrie, Davis, 2006) as a teaching strategy has been in existence decades, yet with social networking technologies, the effectiveness of these strategies can be vastly improved. Ultimately, the ability to create autonomy, mastery and purpose in a student will ensure they become life-long learners and compete effectively in an increasingly turbulent world (Stern, 2010).

Appendix A

Web 2.0 Ecosystem or Meme Map

Source: (O'Reilly, 2006) based on http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

References

Bernoff, J., & Li, C.. (2008). Harnessing the Power of the Oh-So-Social Web. MIT Sloan Management Review, 49(3), 36-42.

Susan L. Lutz, John T. Guthrie, & Marcia H. Davis. (2006). Scaffolding for Engagement in Elementary School Reading Instruction. The Journal of Educational Research, 100(1), 3-20,64.

Tim O'Reilly. (2006, July). Web 2.0: Stuck on a Name or Hooked on Value? Dr. Dobb's Journal, 31(7), 10.

Pantelis M. Papadopoulos, Stavros N. Demetriadis, Ioannis G. Stamelos, & Ioannis A. Tsoukalas. (2010). The effect of prompting to students with different learning styles. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, 4(3), 198-213.

Rahman, S., Mahmud, Z., Yassin, S., Amir, R., & Ilias, K.. (2010). The Development Of Expert Learners In The Classroom. Contemporary Issues in Education Research, 3(6), 1-7.

Stefan Stern. (2010, February.....