The Interfolio Blog

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) out of England has released its findings on how Web 2.0 technologies and social media tools are impacting higher education systems in the UK.  The findings hold broad implications for any higher ed institute, and questions how to best move forward with new technology given issues like the digital divide between students and University faculty, and implementation necessities.

As part of its conclusion, JISC intiatiates a Call to Action for institutes of higher education:

"Higher education has a key role in helping students refine, extend and articulate the diverse range of skills they have developed through their experience of Web 2.0 technologies. It not only can, but should, fulfill this role, and it should do so through a partnership with students to develop approaches to learning and teaching.....The means to these ends should be the best tools for the job, whatever they may be.  The role of institutions of higher education is to enable informed choice in the matter of those tools, and to support them and their effective deployment."

You can download a .pdf of the report here.  An overview on the JISC website also has a lot of the key information found in the report.

In addition, the staff at University of Leicester Library had some good thoughts on the findings, and Brian Kelly also has some good discussion points on his UK Web Focus Blog.