VLC: ‘Web 2.0 approach to university learning, Manitoba style’

"The Virtual Learning Community website allows students to define what they want to talk about, what's important to them and gives them a platform to discuss those concerns," said Peter Tittenberger, acting director of the University of Manitoba's learning technology center, as he launched a new site that lets staff and students create academic and personal profile pages they can use to share information or make new contacts.

The approach is meant to foster learning through social collaboration and openness, Tittenberger told Canada's CBC, adding: "The VLC allows students and staff an opportunity to connect, discuss, share and create content online as an entire university community – not at a course level."

Another member of the learning technology center's staff, George Siemens, took a similar approach to his new book, Knowing Knowledge, launching it as a wiki, CBC also reports.

"People need to be very up to speed," Siemens said. "The process of getting published in a print journal can take one to two years. A wiki is obviously much quicker, and it also embodies the formal peer review process in the right context."

link:http://www.socialcomputingmagazine.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=341