Google Wave and Education
Imagine a scenario in which a professor, instead of having students discuss questions in separate threads in a classroom forum, s/he simply starts a conversation in one place on the Web where everyone can add videos, photos, gadgets, maps, text and more media to illustrate their points. Now imagine this conversation could also be played back so the students could reflect on how they built knowledge together via a live, natural and seamless discussion throughout the semester.
This is one way Google Wave could be used for Education. So many people talk about “knowledge building” and Constructivism, “reflecting on one’s own learning experiences”, etc. But not many people put this into practice when teaching.
Not that forums and wikis and everything else the Web offers as far as collaboration goes is bad. Google Wave is just another way, a dynamic one, of keeping a central conversation going (which can be synchronous) instead of having elements of the dialog get lost in complicated threads or email systems our universities currently use.
Wave is not as simple as email, it will probably require moderators to keep the “conversation” neat and clean. Just the other day I was trying to imagine a more dynamic blog system in which the hierarchy that is typical of blogs – author’s posts (higher level) > comments (lower level) – could be debunked and, instead, a flowing conversation where every comment gets the same status, like in a live conversation in which every speaker/listener has chances to take turns at the same level. The current blogging platforms have a “traditional” social system in which their very own structure puts the author on a pedestal as the “lecturer” (authority) and the readers as mere expectators that add a few words to the post via comments. This structure with emphasis being drawn to the main post, and less “status” applied to the “comments” under it (notice the word “under” or “below” apply in multiple meanings here), can be broken with the Google Wave conversational structure in which a flowing conversation runs down a “page” without “obvious” social stigmas…
Google claims they are rethinking email by answering the question: “what if email was invented today, what would it look like?”
One wished we’d ask a similar question about Education: “what if Education was instituted today, what would it look like?”
UPDATE: Some people are quick to create how-to books around new technologies. Here is The Complete Guide Google Wave. Thanks go to Brandon Carson for the hint.
