Web 2.0 education: An evaluation of a large-scale European pilot

The Internet represents a new industrial revolution, arguably with a more significant socio-economic impact than the previous two industrial revolutions. The impact of the Internet has resulted in significant changes within education with eLearning now an accepted and commonplace form of education. However, the online tools that are used in eLearning tend to be first generation Web tools rather than second generation, Web 2.0, tools. Some reasons for this are the lack of empirical evidence supporting their use in education, the perceived complexity of the tools and lack of training. This paper presents the results of a large-scale European pilot into the use of Web 2.0 tools across all educational sectors through an innovative and simple-to-use platform that allows teachers to customize which Web 2.0 tools they wish to use in their courses.