Web 2.0: interaction and collaboration online

The state of online technology has changed radically and the web is now characterized by greater collaboration and interaction among its users. Not so far ago, information was posted on websites for users to only read and download it but no interaction was perceived. According to the online English Cambridge Dictionary (2017)  Web 2.0 is defined as “the name for all the internet features and websites that allow users to create, change and share internet content.”  

Web 2.0 is characterized by collaboration and interaction among its users.

Margaret Rouse (2015) argues that the arrival of Web 2.0 brings to an end the static nature of the traditional World Wide Web. According to her, the major difference lies on the increasing interaction among internet users based on communities that share information and collaborate among themselves.

Web 2.0 is composed of some elements which enable this interaction. One of them is: Wikis that allow users to make contributions and edit the content of the site such as the well-known Wikipedia. Another ones are Saas (the acronym for Software as a Service), web apps and cloud computing which came to replace locally-installed programs and services.

Perhaps the most fashionable is Social Networking such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, etc. This expands the number of one’s business and social contacts through the connections each individual makes. Also, Mash-ups that are web pages or applications that integrate complementary elements from one or more sources. Social Curation sites such as Reddit, Pinterest, Instagram, which enable the the collaborative sharing of content organized around one or more topics.

Finally, mobile computing contributed to the proliferation of connections wherever its users are. This was helped by the increasing use of smartphones, tablets and mobile devices together with accessible Wi-Fi networks.

Web 2.0 is composed of some elements which enable this interaction and evolution.

To bring this post to a conclusion, we would like to comment on the parallelism we found between traditional teaching and World Wide Web. The Web is in constant evolution and so should be teaching methods. Teachers have to take into account that students are not passive users of the information they receive. Much on the contrary, students need to be seen as active builders of the new knowledge. At this point, technology plays a crucial role helping teachers to bring innovation to classroom and readapting to the unavoidable changes of these modern times.

References

Cambridge University Press. (2017). "Cambridge online dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary online." Retrieved from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles/web-2-0 Last access: September 27th

Rouse, M. (2015) "Web 2.0." Retrieved from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Web-20-or-Web-2  Last access: September 27th