thanks for posting this article. very interesting to get your summary views on the survey.

I Absolutely agree with the thrust of your article. I believe active and social learning are the key components to enhance student engagement whether that be online or face to face.

WEB 2.0 tools will make any teachers job of designing active and social learning activities much EASIER. The thoughtful application of WEB 2.0 tools are so powerful in enhancing learning that educational institutions owe it to their staff and students to adopt policies that facilitate their use whilst be mindful of other responsibilities such as security of data, delivery of service and privacy for example.

I am particularly interested in online adult distance learners and in addition to the WEB 2.0 tools, I believe very strongly in the use of the online synchronous classroom as a powerful tool to bring students together online to foster active and social learning and thus enhance engagement and the sense of community.

I have recently killed two birds with one stone, by running a 5 week online synchronous class for 8 teachers at my university (DMU) on the use of web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning. Feedback has been very positive and I shall be writing up my research on this shortly. I am also in the middle of delivering a 3 week online synchronous class to approx 20 students (3 groups) which appears to be working well. will get feedback soon.

Although the idea of working synchronously goes against the grain of the anytime, anywhere benefits of distance learning, I think in the domain of enjoyment and satisfaction that the online synchronous class offers massive icing on the cake to students learning.

Also thanks for the recent del.icio.us links for web2learning and your del.icio.us links in general

Steve