New trends.

 Previous sections discussed the characteristics and applications offered by Web 2.0 and the fact that it is not only a technology in and of itself, but rather a conceptual model that makes it possible to design spaces that are 100% interactive. Among other things, it also enables a greater level of interactivity for the user, content syndication, the development of social networks, rebroadcasting of content, etc. Besides these applications and the tools that enable them, which have been covered in previous sections, new trends that are gaining ground in this field – the virtual environments and their applications in education – will now be analysed.

When talking about virtual environments, we are referring to the environment in which many users that are represented by avatars interact and move about in a three-dimensional space. Since 1996, when these environments started being set up, many of them have become even better and are visited by millions of users each day, almost all of them linked to spaces created for games and entertainment. The one that stands out the most in its application to education and due to the possibilities it offers as an educational resource is SecondLife (SL) and this is the one on which this analysis will focus.[ read on ]