Collaborative Interaction

Collaborative interaction has become a major strand in the social Web learning network. Today, it is not necessary to be in physical room to work on and collaborate on a project. This has been made possible with the advances made in technology and the availability of several different applications on the web. Some of these tools are free and the enable users to do video and teleconferencing, collaborative writing, information and desktop sharing and instant messaging among others.
Before ICT became the main platform for collaborative work, the process of online collaboration was expensive, it lacked established standards and users had to undergo intensive training to collaborate. The early tools were limited in functions and features and the were browser dependent so based on what browser you were using on your computer, you would have had problem communicating online. As early as 1876 Graham Bell gave us the telephone which became the most popular collaborative tool at one time. In 1956, the Invention of Bell picture phone made video conferencing possible and the quality of collaborative work did improve. By the time the email and the World Wide Web were invented, the stage had been set for very good collaborative exchanges. Today, almost every university and business use online collaboration in very cost effective ways.
Once, we were limited to how many persons we could collaborate with at any one time. Today, collaborative work has improved to the extent that any number of person may collaborate at once. Collaboration is more widely used in Universities today but I predict it will become common in most business places.