| The ubiquity of Internet access has led to increased globalization, making contemporary society more interconnected than ever. Innovative students and educators are channeling that interconnectivity into learning. People throughout the world use this available connection to information as a personal educational tool, but the web can also connect people to individuals and groups, creating globally dispersed communities with diversified knowledge. This thesis reveals a model of learning, based in the experiential philosophies of John Dewey, and enabled by the social media platforms of Web 2.0, which harnesses online community, creating collectives established around shared educational endeavor. This model is especially suited to the arts and humanities, encouraging understanding through inquiry and nurturing creativity. Through a series of case studies in web-based education, it demonstrates how learning transpires in online communities, and how these communities are collectively instigating intellectual discourse and building content, fighting the present "crisis" in American arts education. |
