Will Google Wave revolutionize online education?

Will Google Wave revolutionize online education?

Online education may receive a facelift in the next few months if Google's Wave Web 2.0 application lives up to the hype that some educators have been giving it.

Google Wave is a free web program that combines text, audio and video chat with other interactive features that may help revolutionize the way online courses are delivered, ESchoolNews.com reports.

The program, which is still in development and is only available through special invites, combines social networking and multimedia applications to create an environment where students and instructors can see each other in real time, edit documents concurrently and have private conversations.

The technology also has a feature called playback that allows faculty to see the development of an online conversation between students.

"With playback, you can view the wave in time-lapse, blip by blip – even those that are deleted," said Raymond Schroeder, director of the University of Illinois's Center for Online Learning, quoted by the news source. "You can see who contributed what at what time to the wave."

Nearly one in four American students take at least some college courses online, up from one in 10 in 2002, Reuters reports.

By Mark Danson