E-Learning 2.0

This article on E-Learning 2.0 (read Web2.0), again by Stephen Downes, is another gem. I'm not going to write about my thoughts for once, but just pick out a few sentences which struck a real chord with me.

"Sharing content is not considered unethical; indeed, the hoarding of content is viewed as antisocial. And open content is viewed not merely as nice to have but essential for the creation of the...learning network"

"In a nutshell, what was happening was that the Web was shifting from being a medium, in which information was transmitted and consumed, into being a platform, in which content was created, shared, remixed, repurposed, and passed along."

"For all this technology, what is important to recognize is that the emergence of the Web 2.0 is not a technological revolution, it is a social revolution."

"The e-learning application, therefore, begins to look very much like a blogging tool. It represents one node in a web of content, connected to other nodes and content creation services used by other students. It becomes, not an institutional or corporate application, but a personal learning center, where content is reused and remixed according to the student's own needs and interests. It becomes, indeed, not a single application, but a collection of interoperating applications—an environment rather than a system."

If you've reached this point, I hope your next step is clicking that link and reading the article. If not, you're probably on the wrong "social network". Still, lets part as friends, eh...