From time to time the Web World seems to experience dramatic changes that most people seem to be excited about. But who’s getting all the credits, and how influential is the Web on Higher Education? The article explains that in the early days the Web has some basic involvement on Higher Education. That includes “workshops on basic HTML, presentations on course web pages etc. But during those days it wasn’t easy for instructors or students to get hold of these techniques, besides these individuals had so many limitations. Then, as the world progresses more things were available to them such template –driven, plug and play and they would have access to many things on the Web. Now even students would have the convenience of registering for classes online and checking their grades by just one click. However, was that all there was to it? These students were not expected to stretch their mind into thinking how these functionalities work. These things were just given to them and I bet they were ecstatic to know they could just use the Web freely.
The web changed again to Google, Blogger, Wikipedia, and so forth, explains the article. What’s fascinating about the change of the Web is that Higher Education fails to educate students that they can take control of it instead of following it every step like a “sophisticated telegraph”. When we talk about Higher Education, people are expecting something spectacular, something out of the box. Folks are expecting to come across individuals with their own minds and thoughts; individuals with self motivation to learn new things. To help students developing their own ideas and acquiring technical skills that would help them in life, Gardner Campbell explained in his presentation on “No Digital Facelifts” that students needed to cultivate three recursive practices, namely narrating, curating and sharing. I found that these are perfect tools students should try to use on a daily basis. In addition, Higher Education should help students expressing openness to the world, to themselves and each other. Higher Education should also figure out how to help students be architect for their own digital lives. It’s time for each student to build their own world!