(a) What does Crook mean by the ‘virtualisation of exchange practices’? (page 6)
He says in the article that this is one of the two focal points which determines whether an application or website is web 2.0. The first focus is the engagement of a sheer number of internet users and the other one is that the internet allows a virtualisation of exchange practices.
In my opinion he means that the internet or the website in particular has to provide a virtual environment or interface in which users can share, edit, upload, download and add or delete content.
(b) Would you agree that the learning dimensions that Crook sets out as characteristic of Web 2.0 can be grouped as either more social or more cognitive? (page 9).
I do agree with that kind of grouping. Learning processes in general, in my opinion, can be categorised into two groups: the cognitive group (the actual learning content) and the social group (learning how to work or cooperate together). This is basically standard pedagogy.
He sets these two groups into perspective from a web 2.0 point of view. He makes this distinction to make a point: to talk of education 2.0 (learners participate with and act on the web). I don’t have a problem with that.