WEB 2.0 (SOCIAL AND COLLABORATIVE NATURE)
Web 2.0 is the enhanced version of a web portal. It is used for creating, collaborating, editing, and sharing of an online content. Connection is the main theme in Web 2.0, it can be between software’s, hardware’s, people and events. Now we leave in time when World Wide Web (“WWW”) is so influential and accessible to all which is why Web 2.0 is so impressive and important. It is often described as a “two way web, blogs, wikis, videos, podcasts, sharing, social networks, and 2d portals”(1). One of the key aspects of Web 2.0 is its social and collaborative nature. “The social web consists of a number of online tools and platforms where users are able to share their perspectives, opinions, thoughts and experiences”(2). It also allows users to generate their own online content which means that we are also able to participate and have direct interaction with the various Web 2.0 technologies. For example, users are able to produce their own content and publish through websites, blogs, and wikis. It is very much similar to what we do in this online course. These Web 2.0 applications offer endless possibilities for both end-users and participants, thus it is no surprise that we’re starting to see Web 2.0 across many businesses and academia.
Web 2.0 is not something new as book tends to portrait it, but is definitively something that is increasingly developing along with technology increase, especially in the field of education. Web 2.0 offers great possibilities in a way that it can lead to a more successful teaching and learning. There are so many different applications of Web 2.0 which teachers can incorporate into their instruction to help students learn. They are also able to better meet the needs of individual learners by providing them with “a collaborative, problem-based, experiential learning”(3). These various Web 2.0 technologies also allow students to be more involved in their learning. They are no longer just passive recipients of information, instead they are able to take ownership of their learning by taking what’s given to them and taking to a whole another level. This process in to give more freedom to students and bring them more into active learning but also allows us to teach other students as well. Professors on the other hand are here to teach but each session, course of semester is new experience for them as well. Through Web 2.0 applications learning process is ongoing and limitless, which leaves always some extra room for improvement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0 (1)
http://hightechpost.blogspot.com/2011/06/web-generations-10-20-and-30.html (2)
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2009/04/15/why-web-2.0-is-important-to-higher-education.aspx (3)
