Adoption of Web 2.0 tools in distance education

1. Adoption of Web 2.0 tools in distance education Yasemin KOÇAK USLUEL Sacide Güzin MAZMAN Hacettepe University, Faculty of Education Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology TURKIYE

2. Introduction Providing interaction has always been an important issue in distance education. For quality of learning, satisfaction of students and effective learning outcomes, necessity of different interaction forms as student-student, student-teacher, student-content, has been revealed by different technologies.

3. Purpose of Study • To explain possible educational utilization of Web 2.0 tools, namely blogs, wikis, podcasts and social networks, from the point of importance of interaction for distance education. • To investigate adoption process of Web 2.0 tools in distance education by defining theories and models which have different construct that effect this process.

4. Interaction in Distance Education Technology plays a key role for; • promoting interaction • delivering education • communication between individuals

5. Interaction in Distance Education Interaction in distance education is not limited to solely • audio and video • or only teacher-student interactions Interaction must also represents • students’ connectivityfeeling with the distance teacher, aides, peers.

6. Web 1.0 Technologies • Discussion boards • Multimedia • Softwares • WWW pages • E-mail • File Transfer Protocol FTP One way communication, Published content Users as passive consumers Internet as a different channel

7. Emerging technologies andchangingpedagogies bring out the necessity for • more effective two way communication, • promoting interaction and collaboration, • sharing and flexible participation.

8. Web 2.0 • Two way communication • User generated content • Openness • Easy sharing • Writing comment and feedback • Rich design • RSS feeding • Collective Intelligence

9. Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Britannica Online Wikipedia Personal Web sites Weblogs Domain Host Search engine optimization Publishing Participation Content Management System Wikis Directories Tagging Taxonomy Folksonomy Centralized Distributed Stickiness Syndication

10. Web 2.0 Tools in Distance Education • To fulfill the shortages of Web 1.0, • To provide more effective interaction and collaboration, Investigation has been started in education, for the ways of using; • Blogs • Wikis • Podcasts • Social networks

11. Blogs • Online diaries • No technical skill, to create, publish and organize • Dated content, entries, comments, discussion in chronological order • Easy to use and flexible • RSS feature

12. Blogs in educational context • Enhance writing skills, • Faciliate self reflection, • Encourage critical thinking, • Provide collaborative and active learning, • Provide feedback, • E-portfolios that keep records of personal development.

13. Wiki • Free open source software • Freely expandable collection of interlinked Web pages • Hypertext system for storing and modifying information • Database where each page is easily edited by any user. • Users can visit wiki, read and add content to wiki or update and organize content.

14. Wikis in educational context • Support collaborative learning and writing • Support project based and inquiry based learning • Promote creativity • Encourage critical searching • Provide easy online updating content Wikis can be used as; • Classroom websites, course administration, timetabling • Online dictionary • Bibliographically organized class or group projects • Virtual classes for online collaboration • Frequently asked questions (FAQ) for classroom

15. Podcast • Podcast= iPod(portable digital audio player form apple) + broadcasting. • Basically digital audio programs that can be subscribed to and downloaded by users via RSS and listened to on either a variety of digital audio services or desktop computer.

16. Podcast in educational context • With mobile devices, as another variant of mobile learning. • Eliminating cost and time limitations of mobile learning • Reviewing lectures before exams • Listen in on classes missed lessons • Students can create their own podcasts for peers • Feel connected to learning community.

17. Social Networks Social networks are software that support; • Collaboration • Knowledge sharing • Interaction and communication of users from different places who come together with a common interest, need or goal.

18. Social Networks in Educational Context Social networks can also be viewed as pedagogical tools as they support; • Information discovery and sharing, • Networks of people and connections • Informal learning • Creative, expressive forms of behavior and identity seeking, • Developing a range of digital illiteracies

19. Adoption of Web 2.0 Tools in Distance Education Grounded in socio physiological context and focused on internal decision processes at individual level. Focused on features of innovation and diffusion of new among users in a system. • Attitude • Intention • Subjective norm • Behavior • Normative belief • Usefulness perception • Ease of use perception • Relative advantage • Complexity • Trialability • Observability • Compability • Visibility There are different models and theories about diffusion, acceptance and adoption of an innovation.

20. Adoption of Web 2.0 Tools in Distance Education Adoption of Web 2.0 tools in distance education context contains many different dimensions, must betaken into consideration such as; • Social dimension (student, teacher and others) • Perception and efficacy of users • Media, technology access, cost, • Resources and services etc.,.

21. Theories and Models • Diffusion of Innovation Theory (Rogers, 2003) • Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein&Ajzen,1975) • Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) • Technology Acceptance Model I and II (Davis, 1989; Venkatesh and Davis, 2000) • Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (Venkatesh et al., 2003)

22. Adoption of Web 2.0 Tools in Distance Education • When studying in Web 2.0 technologies and distance education context, it is necessary to consider both of the individual decision processes and features of innovation. • Instead of only one diffusion, adoption or acceptance theory and model it can be suggested to investigate Web 2.0 adoption within a holistic view.

23. Conclusion Because of; • Continuos globalization of information • Learning independent from time and place • Need for cost effective and quality learning • Need for life long learning “Distance Education” come into question in all levels of education.

24. Conclusion • Interaction between students, teacher, content etc. has been a major factor since beginning of distance education. • Developments in technology that provides interaction, has brought out necessity of continuous support for process.

25. Conclusion • As Web 2.0 technologies support interaction process, many advantages of them have also been a response for questions about adoption of these technologies in distance education.

26. Conclusion • Individuals’ acceptance and usage of technology in system is important for obtaining effective outcomes with these technologies. • There has been many studies in the framework of different models and theories in this field.

27. Conclusion • It can be suggested that utilization from various and different theories and research methods will strengthen the studies in this field. • While investigating adoption of these tools in distance education, researches for a holistic view by utilizing various theories and models like Venkatesh et al. (2003) may be needed.

28. Conclusion • Further researches could establish a new model by selecting appropriate constructs from previous models and theories and could examine the adoption of Web 2.0 tools in distance education, by considering both technological characteristics of technology and social factors in distance education as students, teacher etc. • Additionally, except from previous constructs, external new constructs can be included into this model.

29. Thank you kocak@hacettepe.edu.tr sguzin@hacettepe.edu.tr