Familiarity of Web 2.0 tools and their application in learning

The present Internet and Web technologies have been endowed with number of features which represent Web 2.0 qualities. For example, video sharing website ‘YouTube’ allow users to share visual content with others, classify it through self defined ‘tags’ and post comments. Document sharing sites like ‘Academia.edu’, ‘Scribd’, ‘GoogleDocs’, etc. allow users to share textual content with others. Social bookmarking sites like ‘Delicious’, and ‘CiteULike’ allow users to share personal bookmarks with others. Social networking sites like ‘Facebook’ and ‘Google+’ have increased popularity over the past few years and functioning as a space for online conversation and sharing of content. The foundation work for the familiarization of the knowledge contributing/sharing tools is attained before students enter into college education. The familiarity of students with these tools could be manipulated further to develop them into individuals who can successfully integrate technology into their work place. In this background, this work is an investigation into the practices and attitudes of the learning communities of the universities in Odisha towards Web 2.0.