Revolutionizing Education to the Next “Point-Oh”

What is digital information and why is it revolutionizing how humans live?  This question will not only define the modern age, but will fundamentally shape human existence forever.  The “Digital Age” or the “Digital Revolution” is occurring, right here, right now.  Through the span of history there have only existed two other Revolutions (with the a capital “R”)—the Neolithic (Agriculture) and the Industrial.  Revolutions entail an advancement that fundamentally change every aspect of human existence.  The Digital Revolution is forcing us to rethink everything.  The following video illustrates the Digital Revolution’s impact on information.

The terms Web 1.0 or Web 2.0 have become commonplace across the nomenclature of modern day lexicon.  However, what exactly does “point-oh” mean and how can educators apply it to their practice?

In layman’s terms, the 1.0 refers to a system (in this case the Internet) where the users have access only.  If you think back to the early days of the Web, 98% of Internet users viewed information only.  If a user wanted to add content, it required the knowledge of code to embed onto webpages.  Websites were designed for people to consume information only. There was no “user-generated” content. This all changed with the advent of XML coding.

XML allowed for any user, regardless of coding knowledge, to contribute content to the Internet.  This allowed for the viewing 98% to become active contributors to the Web.  Anyone with a connected computer could upload content to the Internet.  Think Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis, comment sections on webpages, and YouTube.  Since anyone could contribute to the web, instead of simply access it, Web 2.0 was born!  And the world was forever changed.

OK, I know many of you are thinking, “Enough with the history lesson” (sorry I was World History teacher in a previous life), “What does this have to do with teaching?”  Although that is a great question, the answer is simple—everything! 

Remember, a Revolution (capital “R”) entails a fundamental shift to every aspect of human existence.  Much of education today is still rooted in the material-age of information (think libraries and filing cabinets).  Students come to class to gain access to information.  We will call this Education 1.0.  However, just like every other facet of life, the Digital Revolution is changing the purpose of old institutions.  Students now have access to infinite amounts of information.  So just like the Web 1.0 evolved to Web 2.0, so too must Education. 

Education 2.0 is defined by the use of the technology and social elements of Web 2.0 in the existing Education 1.0 classroom.   Think Substitution versus Redefinition of the SAMR Model SAMR Model Blogpost.  Even though we are upgrading our product (instruction), we are not revolutionizing it.  Education 3.0 takes the next step to Revolution (capital “R”) of instruction, and subsequently to learning.  But what does this look like?  Check out the graph at the beginning of this post to see a side-by-side comparison of Education 1.0/2.0/3.0 or read the White Paper it was taken from here.  Another place to look for Education 3.0 is Sugata Mitra's Self Organized Learning Environments, spoken about previously on this blog SOLEs.