The landscape of teaching and learning has been radically shifted
in the last 15 years by the advent of web technologies, which
enabled the emergence of Learning Management Systems (LMS).
These systems changed the educational paradigm by extending the
classroom borders, capturing and persisting course content and
giving instructors more flexibility and access to students and other
resources. However, they also constrained and limited the
evolution of teaching and learning by imposing a traditional,
instructional framework. With the advent of Web 2.0
technologies, participation and collaboration have become
predominant experiences on the Web. The teaching and learning
community, as a whole, has been late to capitalize on these
technologies in the classroom. Part of this trend is due to
constraints in the technology (LMS), and part is due to the fact
that participatory media tools require an additional shift in
educational paradigms, from instructional, on-the-pulpit type of
teaching, to a student-centered, adaptive environment where
students can contribute to the course material and learn from one
another. This panel will discuss the next generation of teaching
and learning, involving more lightweight, modular systems to
empower instructors to be flexible, explore new student-centered
paradigms, and plug and play tools as needed. We will also
discuss how the iSchools are and should be increasingly involved
in studying these new forms, formulating best practices and
supporting the needs of teachers as they move toward more
collaborative learning environments