Blogs:

Have you heard of e-learning? No? Yes? Well you should be living on the moon if you have not heard of e-learning buddy! By now everyone will have heard it and known it, practiced it. Seriously you need to pull your socks up!

Yeah, you will get such reactions when you tell someone you are not aware of the Web 2.0 technology. It practically runs the world today. The term web 2.0 was coined in the year 2004 so that it could be used as a platform which provides web tools to help people make their work load easier and to improve it.

So far the results have been positive. The easy tools given by web 2.0 tools have made life so much easier that practically anyone, I man anyone can either publish something on the internet or start their own firm and so on. This of course has influenced the way we look at education too.
Firstly, it helped the universities to build their individual websites. This is a wonderful tool to let the students get acquainted with the college ad what are the requirements to get into the college and so on.

Now having a website is a much. The best part is with the internet, the website can be accessed from anywhere. So for example if a student from India wants to know more about the foreign university or college, they no longer have to order an online brochure. The websites allow other facilities like videos of in and around the college campus can shot interaction with students can be filmed etc.

Now people have gone one step higher. With the advent of personal computers and laptops, everyone can access the internet. There are numerous social networking sites that have mushroomed all over. The popular ones like Orkut and Face book have made everyone come closer.

Students log on to the sites and stay connected with friends. They can create communities which relate to common hobbies or ideas. Communities for common subject interests can be made too. Now days many professors are learning and exploring various possibilities with the free web tools on the internet.

Blogging is one of the most popular tools available. It is used by both students and professors alike. Students can publish anything they like on the blogs. It has encouraged them to publish more and more original content. This is because many professors and friends can see these and leave comments. Hence positive comments can help to boost the student’s confidence. 
 
Professors also have started blogging. They can post personal as well as educational materials. This can help to stay connected with their students and improve their student-teacher relation ship. By joining social networking websites, students think their professors are hype.

Universities have started a new trend. They are video-graphing their professors on campus and uploading it on their college websites. This enables new students to download these videos. Then they can get a fair idea of what their professors are like and what will they have to do through out the year. These videos are either autobiographical or a one to one interview.

Also with technology like this, classrooms have become more interesting. The professors can post extra research materials on the net and students who are interested can view them and read up. This helps them to participate in a better manner in class.

Another thing is web 2.0 has helped introvert students to come out of their cocoon and show case their talents. Therefore, web 2.0 tools have definitely helped to change the face of e-learning.