Web 2.0's impact on students under scrutiny

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• Universities

Kable

Published: 04 Mar 2008 17:36 GMT

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An inquiry has been set up to examine the impact of Web 2.0 technologies, including social networking and mobile devices, on higher education.

A committee chaired by Sir David Melville, former vice chancellor of the University of Kent, plans to report in December on how such technologies affect the behaviour and attitudes of existing students and those about to move into higher education.

"Students are at the forefront in the use of new technologies and it is changing the way in which they interact with each other and the world about them," said Melville. "The arrival of learners with such radically different experience and expectations has far-reaching implications for institutions of higher education."

The inquiry is backed by organisations including Universities UK, the Higher Education Funding Council for England — and its Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish equivalents — and the Joint Information Systems Committee. The committee will include representatives from universities, colleges, schools, student bodies and employers.

Higher education has already seen conflicts around social networking. Last summer, Oxford University was criticised by its student union for exploiting students' Facebook entries to issue fines for those celebrating the end of exams by "trashing" each other with the likes of aerosol string, flour or water pistols.

Last year, the university's Oxford Internet Survey of 1,578 internet users found that 42 percent of students had created a profile on a social-networking site in the past 12 months, compared with 15 percent of employed people and two percent of pensioners.

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