The Web has become pervasive in our society and throughout education. Primary schools are connected to the Internet, and the use of the Web to provide resources and interactive activities for learning and teaching is now commonplace. Whilst the Web is increasingly seen as a place for communication and collaboration, there is a perception that the promise of the Internet and Web 2.0 to transform learning has not been kept, and that its use in schools is often marginalised or superficial. There is a need to reflect on how these, and other technological innovations, apply in the primary phase. Alongside these technological drivers there have been a number of government initiatives. These have ensured that all schools can provide each pupil with a personal, online space and can use the Web to strengthen links between home and school.  

Working from a social constructivist perspective, you will explore the process of developing and e-learning resource to support a sequence of lessons, incorporating multimodal resources and activities, both created by you and sourced from elsewhere. You learn how the ‘Social Web’ can be used to support and enhance an online learning community. Whilst you will have a degree of familiarity with the Web from a user’s perspective, the module provides a technical and pedagogic grounding into its effective use to support and enhance pupils’ learning. Piloting and feedback through a collaboration with a local school provides you with experience of iterative development.

We explore the theme of participation in order to examine the relationship between interaction, collaboration and learning in online environments. You will experience and reflect on your participation in an online workshop via videoconference. You attend BETT, where you will evaluate the latest innovation in technology, network, share ideas and participate in this annual gathering of the UK’s education technology community. There will be input from visiting lecturers who will share their thoughts as to the future of the Web. 

You can access the module handbook here.