Allow me to start by saying, that there is no universal learner. However, this doesn’t stop us from attempting to discover universal truths in learning. With power dynamics both seen and unseen, is it important to identify the limitations of our traditional institutions, through integration of the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement. As posed within the “Minds on Fire” paper, many colleges and universities are following MIT’s OpenCourseWare initiative. Such approaches have the ability to shake up a system which has come under heavy fire of late.

With rising costs in tuition, there needs to be added incentive in order to justify the investment, or an alternative must present itself. I like to think that OER through Web 2.0 technologies, signifies a much needed shift toward transparency and accessibility, ultimately having the potential to improve competency-based curriculum from the ground up. Though I’m sure many traditional institutions of higher ed question these trends, the popularity of MOOCs for instance (regardless of their effectiveness), can no longer be ignored. The medium must, and will be explored. In doing so, I believe we will see a systematic shedding of general education courses, in favor of those that employ more of an à la carte approach to learning.

Ideally, these would fit together based on user interest, and catered to the specific situations in which they reside. Conflicts unique to the learner, will bring about the desire to overcome them, thus affording one the freedom to take control of their learning destiny. Much like what is observed within informal learning environments, it is important to identify these processes, so that we may properly implement structures to further their credibility. This can be summed up best with the “Long Tail” approach to learning, which also happens to be a term used in search engine marketing. Simply put, the more qualifiers (parameters) present in a search query, the more relevant your results will be. Search for “sneakers” in Google, and the chances that it will yield a pair of “Adidas Campus ST brown suede sneakers size 12”, is extremely unlikely (though, these have been discontinued for some time).

This increased relevance is the foundation for Dewey’s concept of “productive inquiry”, and over time, can lead to the creation of meaning. Going back to Google, as a user begins the search process, they will be motivated to develop and refine their parameters over time, until they are served with exactly what they are looking for – even if they didn’t know it yet.

Much like the search engine, the role of the facilitator in the learning process is to allow for individual constitution, as it pertains to the larger community. For it is impossible to separate oneself from the situated environment, these nodes that reside outside of the subject, will invariable influence the path that they take to attain new knowledge. Through offering alternative solutions, effective questioning, and constructive discourse, facilitators should be able to provide a segue for experience to emerge and identity to materialize.

Though time and cost constraints hinder such implementation in traditional learning environments, Web 2.0 technologies do offer promise through flexibility and scalability. Despite such a noble endeavor, it is essential that we understand these informal learning processes, so that we can create the infrastructures necessary to respect the experience and perspectives of tomorrow’s users in Education 2.0.