Mashing, Burning, Mixing and the Destructive Creativity of Web 2.0: Applications for Medical Education.pdf

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The emergence of social (or so-called ‘Web 2.0’) software provides new and exciting opportunities for teachers to create dynamic, collaborative and sociable learning environments for their students. This incarnation of the world wide web holds transformational potential for teachers and students alike (RICHARDSON, 2006). Mashups, mixes and aggregations of digital artefacts form the basis for a dynamic and creative emerging environment within which students can learn through collaborative working and community based enquiry. Feed burning software enables users to receive alerts of web page updates direct to their desktop computers or mobile devices. The popularity of these applications is rising rapidly, as students see the opportunities to free up time and space so that learning can be fitted into busy lifestyles.

However, a dilemma has arisen. Although, by its very nature, social software attracts activities which have democracy and freedom from institutional influence at their heart (RICHARDSON, 2006), such freedom may have the effect of opening the door to abuse or misuse of technologies. Seemingly destructive elements may emerge where the right to participate is exploited. Institutional rules may be infringed, causing a detrimental effect upon the traditional organisation through subversion of previously accepted practices. In this paper we explore the creative and destructive

Autonomous learning
Students using Wikis and ‘blogs generally work autonomously and independently, beyond the reach of any recognised authority, so it is debatable to what extent educational institutions can, and should attempt to ‘manage’ such learning technology. It follows that some universities may see a need to control the use of such software in formalised learning contexts, but lack the surveillance power necessary to facilitate it. Younger students in particular often engage in the use of social software to share bookmarks, images and videos, and other media outside of the auspices or control of their parent institution. Popular sites include Bebo, FaceBook, YouTube and MySpace, all of which are used by millions of subscribers each day. Regulation of such activities, even if desirable, would be impractical for most organisations.


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