Socrates argued that the unexamined life is not worth living. For the past decade, the authors--along with many colleagues, organizations, and commercial firms--have been immersed in the booming, buzzing confusion that is the community landscape of higher education. They have communities that build software (e.g., Jasig, Kuali, Moodle, Sakai),…

This paper reports on the development of a new information communications technology (ICT) learning preference survey, its cross-validation with attitudes towards mobile learning, and new perspectives on information seeking, information sharing, and mobile access derived from the relationships uncovered. The Information and Communications…

This article frames and theorises the nature of adolescents' informal experiences in Web 2.0 environments to articulate their fit or misfit with current conceptions of school education and educational practices. Adolescents are increasingly active Web 2.0 users. However, the traditional research and education communities have been slow to respond…

The use of Web 2.0 communication practices in assessment may offer a new approach to assessment "as" learning, a goal for assessment that is more highly valued than assessment "of" and even "for" learning in the literature. This paper describes a case study of a wiki-writing assignment that aimed to achieve this goal. The stakes were high, in that…

When improving a web presence, today's libraries have a choice: using a free Web 2.0 application, opting for open source, buying a product, or building a web application. This article discusses how to make an informed decision for one's library. The authors stress that deciding whether to use a free Web 2.0 application, to choose open source, to…

The explosion of Web 2.0 into libraries has left many smaller academic libraries (and other libraries with limited computing resources or support) to work in the cloud using free Web applications. The use of commercial Web hosting is an innovative approach to the problem of inadequate local resources. While the idea of insourcing IT will seem…

Web 2.0 applications are changing how educators interact both with each other and with their students. Educators can use these new Web tools daily to create, share, socialize, and collaborate with students, colleagues, and newly developed network contacts. School librarians are finding that Web 2.0 tools are bringing them more ways to embrace and…

Digital technologies have changed the way students read and communicate. Subsequently, teachers must use technology to engage their students in learning. This article illustrates the value of using Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, and digital media-sharing) in the social studies classroom. Additionally, a social studies teacher shares insights into…

Skype, Edmodo, iApps, and Shutterfly may sound like fantasy characters or mythical creatures from some futuristic novel. But the students at Paine Primary School in Trussville, Alabama, will gladly explain that these odd-sounding names belong to the Web 2.0 applications in which they are fast becoming fluent. For these kids--and those at other…

Wikipedia is an online free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit and an efficient way to marshal the talents of many bright, capable people to produce knowledge. But the real significance of Wikipedia and similar Web 2.0 technologies is the way in which they organize people and activities, not simply the way in which they create and…

Upgraded with new features and components, the learning management system (LMS) has transformed into a platform that allows teachers to answer the challenges of 21st century education. Educators are taking full advantage of the new features that LMS vendors are regularly adding to their platforms. Although the formative years of LMSs trace back…

Increasingly, IT organizations will move from providing IT services locally to becoming an integrator of IT services--some provided locally and others provided outside the institution. As a result, institutions must immediately begin to plan for shared services and must understand the essential role that identity management and trust services play…

In this edition of Innovate-Ideagora, Denise Easton and Alan McCord announce the consolidation of Innovate-Live, "Innovate's" venue for author webcasts, with Ideagora; webcasts will now be accessed from Ideagora, and archives will be made available through Ideagora. This change will simplify presentation and merge our multimedia presentations,…

We show how coauthor, Delainia Haug, and her students use Web 2.0 technologies in educational and empowering ways. We offer an account of Delainia's purposes for her curriculum, along with units of study and students' responses to this curriculum. We argue that the curriculum, which focused on media analysis and production, engaged students--many…

Ten years into the new century, people are still trying to find the web 2.0 tools that best facilitate collaboration--one of the fundamentals of 21st century learning. As the number of tools continues to grow, and fuzzy terms like "cloud computing," "hashtags," and "synchronous live platforms" are introduced into the lexicon daily, even the most…