Democratic Web 2.0?

According to Graham (2005), Web 2.0 is democratic. Is it? A 2002 study revealed that over 55% of all web content was in English. Considering this, how democratic is the web for English illiterates? And this is just taking into account those who have broadband. Despite MIT's laudable OLPC project, many in the developing world have never heard of Web 2.0 much less participated in it.

Graham, P. (2005) Web 2.0, http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html

Is online learning necessarily constructivist in approach - the Korean context?

The fact that many Asians learn with the instructionist approach and still are successful makes me wonder. E.g. the Korean teachers of English I interviewed last year. They were aware of the two approaches but practised mainly if not only the instructivist approach. Their reason: cultural values. Korean culture is influenced by Confucian philosophy which emphasises deference to one's elders and figures of authority, unquestioning obedience and conformance to rules.

However, in international league tables, (South) Koreans do well in Maths and the sciences, but poorly in langauages. Korea leads in broadband penetration (place 7 in the world), computer to student ratio is one of highest in OECD, and online learning is already a feature of education there. This need not infer that Korean students engage successfully in online learning with a high degree of instructivist approach. Instead, Koreans were probably strong in these subjects before the advent of online learning. Would a study of the Korean wikipedia give clues to their learning approach (the more articles, the more they lean towards a constructivist approach)?

Learning theories grid

Activity : Learning theories

The grid relates to my experience in producing CD-based EFL material for Asian learners.

	For work	At work	Through work
Behaviour	TEFL course from long ago: pass or fail	Training course at our IT unit on using certain application software	Supported practice in using organisational hardware, such as how to access shared storage drives
Understanding	Looking at educational CDs, websites to analyse the pedagogy behind them	Examining the language that is expected of those who work in our organisation	Learning html and just sufficient Dreamweaver in order to make editing changes quickly in the course
Knowledge construction	Reflecting on how the functionalities of existing educational software can be adapted to our EFL CD-based course	Discussions with colleagues and outsourced developer on course	Making editorial changes in the course by myself, using the templates and modules that were programmed by the developer
Social practice	Speaking to a neighbour who is also an EFL specialist	Discussions of a Creative Commons Licence for the course with a colleague from another unit who leads the organisation in software licensing issues	Being engaged in a team of software developers, programmers, those involved in formulating our organisation's training policies, ...

I see learning as a progression from surface to deeper learning, from learning as behaviour to understanding to knowledge construction. While I agree that social practice is an essential part of learning (learning from like-minded people), I find it in peripheral activities. They shaped my learning and improved my work performance indirectly (I might be missing the point!)