A framework development for the adoption of information and communication technology web technologies in higher education systems

Abstract: Background: The adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) tools into educational systems has been at the forefront of the educational sector for decades. The integration of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 technologies is progressively being encouraged worldwide across several universities to support teaching and learning processes and to offer students the possibility of learning experiences and engagements to suit their digital needs. Objectives: This article probes a framework development for the adoption of ICT web technologies in higher education systems (HES) and further suggests a framework for adoption with the aim of enhancing the mode of education delivery and improving business processes. An understanding of the benefits associated with Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 tools adoption is gained to support collaboration between students and educators and to build social presence through interactive learning. South African universities continue to experience circumstances in which many learners who enrol are novice users of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 tools and require optimal support to bridge the gaps and the knowledge and skills exposure required. The problem with educators’ inability to incorporate Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 tools in their teaching and learning practices exists..

WEB 2.0 AS AN INSTRUCTIONAL TOOL IN TEACHING LARGE CLASSES AT FUNAAB, NIGERIA

Digital technology has become an indispensable communication tool for students and educators in the past two decades. Currently, academic institutions view digital technologies as essential instructional content delivery media for both pedagogical and research purposes. This study assesses the extent of improvement of students’ learning through the use of Web 2.0 as an instructional tool in large classes using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). It juxtaposes this with the overall performance of students after the use of traditional lecture delivery method on some selected courses at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Nigeria. These experiments were carried out at the end of the 2014/2015 academic session. Within this period, out of the selected courses, two courses (GNS 103 and GNS 204) were taught without the use of ICT technology while the others (HSM 207 and AAD 507) were taught using Web 2.0. The study revealed that there was a significant difference in the evaluation of the academic performance of the students taught with Web 2.0 technology, compared with those taught without it: 95.4% of the students taught with Web 2.0 technology in class were able to make evaluative comments and contributions to

Competences for collaboration and knowledge sharing in digital society - a case study with an erasmus intensive programme

With the advent of social and collaborative environments, students became more active and participative - they not only have access to contents but also create and share them, becoming proactive. Communication has evolved, and with this evolution came the new media and the possibility of live conferencing, video sharing, social networking, collaborative tools, allowing the student to create, work collaboratively and communicate in a more direct way with their peers and their teachers. Instead of merely searching for information, applications such as bookmarking, feeds, tweeter and pinboards, digital portfolios, etc., along with the possibility of creating your own personal webpage, today’s Web gives students also the chance to create a PLE - A Personal Learning Environment. A PLE “recognizes that learning is continuing and seeks to provide tools to support that learning” (Attwell, 2007). The Individuals are responsible for the management of their own learning environment and for the selection of tools and contexts where learning will take place. Students need to acquire certain skills and competences, specific of a digital and connected society, in order to “effectively benefit from e-government, e-learning and e-health services, and participate actively in the knowledge society as co-creators, and not simply consumers, as highlighted by the European e-skills strategy” (McCormack, 2010). To only possess hard skills (that comes with experience and formal education) may not be enough to get someone a job. Besides e-skills and e-literacy competences, soft and social skills are also required. These can be practiced and enhanced in virtual environments. Digital literacy, and therefore e-skills, are transversal competences needed to every citizen. In this paper we will present the results of a case study carried out with attendees of an Erasmus Intensive Programme, which has promoted the development of digital literacies among participants. The Programme took place during 2013 summer and involved students and teachers (of teacher education and social service fields) from 3 different countries. The classes covered different tools and 12 tutors were involved. The main objectives were to provide students with information and communication technologies (ICT) skills for a digital society, namely: • Identification of students’ competencies in ICT; • Present students with different available collaboration tools by exploring the web 2.0; • Selection of specific tools to create students' personal learning environment (PLE); • Acquire necessary knowledge to master the selected tools; • Work collaboratively with the web 2.0 tools; • Establish methods for instruction and course design based on Web 2.0 (teacher education) with the goal to integrate technology enhanced learning and individual knowledge management in educational processes. At the end attendees were able to: • Master the different tools & services; • Be capable to use and select the most adequate web 2.0 tools & services; • Create and manage their PLE; • Share and to work collaboratively; • Be digitally skilled.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Are all net generation students the same? The frequency of technology use at university

This paper looks at the results of a longitudinal study on how frequently the Net Generation students (i.e. those born in the 1980s) use technologies in their first year of university. Eight technology groupings were explored including web 2.0, social networking and computer software. The research investigated whether older Net Generation students (21-25 years) used technologies differently to the younger Net Generation students (≤20 years). Additional factors such as gender, university type (distance-learning or place-based) and nationality (UK or International) were accounted for during the study. The research found that nationality and university type were influential factors in determining the frequency of use across all technologies at the beginning of the academic year and continued to be influencing factors along with gender at the end of the academic year. Age only seemed to be an important factor for the use of Web 2.0 and social networking sites but these uses of technology were also dependent on students’ university type, gender and nationality. Thus these demographic and social factors have to be considered when analysing technology use or designing educational tools. The findings of this study have implications for research into age-related differences in students’ use of digital technologies and universities’ digital technologies training provision

Making Art Lessons Come Alive with Web 2.0

Web 2.0 technologies have made an impact on teaching and learning. It has the potential to attract and excite learners and transform the way lessons are conducted in the classroom. For the students who are digital natives found in schools today, Web 2.0 technologies seem appropriate. Blogs and YouTube videos, for example, can be incorporated where relevant so as to engage their attention in the classroom. The paper describes how an art teacher in a private secondary school decided to use these technologies in her art classroom, an initiative which later also caught the attention of the school management including the Chief Executive Officer of the school, following which some new directions were set for the coming academic year. (Authors' abstract

Rethinking e-learning strategy 2.0 in the digital age: case study of the future school project in the Kingdom of Bahrain

PhD ThesisThis research aims to rethink e-learning strategy in the digital age by taking The Future School Project in The Kingdom of Bahrain as a case study and by investigating and evaluating e-learning strategies. In the Digital Age, the new technologies of web 2.0 (such as Facebook, blog, YouTube, etc.) have changed the learning landscape, where learners are becoming active participants and creators of knowledge. Many claims and suggestion have made about learning potential of Web 2.0 tools and technologies, however, these claims and suggestions have not been based on research evidence. New research is critical because many learning institutions and schools are making significant investments in e-learning; however, changes in the learning process have been incremental rather than transformational, mainly due to the lack of strategic direction. The research approach adopted in this dissertation includes (1) Observations and Document Analysis, (2) Interviews Stakeholders and (3) Questionnaires (Staffs, Teachers and Students). The findings show how teachers and students are using ICTs in learning. Moreover, they explain another factor which has an impact on the successful integration of technology in e-learning: this factor is the gaps between e-learning policy, the actual practice of teachers, and students’ practice; these three worlds are very far apart. Also the findings show that Web 2.0 could bridge the gap between digital natives and the educational system leading to successful integration of technology in learning. Furthermore, it explains the role of Web 2.0 in learning and provides an e-learning strategic framework for evaluating e-learning. The research recommends (1) Using social network sites Facebook and video sharing site YouTube in learning, (2) Triangulation of e-learning policy, teacher practice and students practice, (4) Rethinking using current ICTs, and (5) Encouraging and monitoring teachers using ICTs.Ministry of Education in the Kingdom of Bahrai

Creation of an Interdisciplinary Program in Management, Technology and Sustainability Through Community Outreach and Empowerment

The project aims to accomplish the following: • Establishing an interdisciplinary course structure between Lubin & Seidenberg • Using an established service learning travel course to develop a foundation for international exchange and education via a series of collaborative international projects; the Green Maps for Ilha Grande and Paraty and the creation of a new, Web-based digital pen pal application to foster exchange between Brazilian and American school children. • Leveraging Web 2.0 technologies to develop a learning process for K – 12 students in the US and Brazil, served by Pace students and faculty, that provides a platform for ongoing interaction and collaboration between Brazilian and US students and facult

An evaluation of social learning networks: a qualitative perspective

Affordances offered through ubiquitous nature of Web 2.0 technologies and social media have progressively become universal constituents of our lives. Presently our students have seen the escalation in use of multimedia in their studies. With technological advances in telecommunication technologies, students have become accustomed to instant, global communications modes. Educational institutions have progressively adapted more innovative pedagogical approaches in their provision. Web 2.0 has fundamentally altered communication methods between people around the world. Access to information, dissemination, sharing and creation of new digitised content are powerful tools that ease social media adaptation in everyone’s life. Over the last decade multimedia authoring tools have become more useful for content generation. The price and expertise to use these authoring tools has decreased, therefore offering opportunity for educators to broaden their experimental horizons with these technologies. With the advent of Web 2.0, access to information, dissemination, sharing and creation of new digitised content are powerful tools that ease social media adaptation in student’s life. Universities have reported reforms in the use of Education 2.0, while Web 2.0 is finding its momentums in further education and schools. Since the advent of Web 2.0 many educational institutions have reported remarkable positive influences in students learning behaviours. Research studies have illustrated association between students improved communication and collaboration linked to improved motivation hence more on going academic performance. Social learning networks represent a more diverse mechanism than a content delivery platform. The potential to release both students and instructors creative talents, ease of content creation and collaboratively sharing teaching and learning resources has enabled educational institutions to explore the strategic benefits of social learning networks. Recent studies indicate that these digital elements when aligned with the best practices of multimedia design become powerful learning agents. This study is aimed at highlighting the importance of social learning networks in education from a qualitative perspective. A series of recent studies at higher and further education has provided guidelines for the improved use of social media in e-learning. This paper’s findings will introduce qualitative verdicts for a framework adaptation of social learning networks in e-learning

Training and Collaborative Tools for Teaching in the Social Web

The networked learning and the potential of social software brought new and exciting challenges for education systems and their professionals. One of the main challenges is related to the need to design a “new” didactic to teach in the social web, that should be based not only on scientific, technological, curricular and pedagogical knowledge, but also in scientific and pedagogical knowledge of technology that allows plan, design and use digital resources effectively in the teaching process. In this sense, this paper focuses on the issue of teacher training in the social web, analyzing some Web 2.0 colaborative tools. We concluded this text emphasizing that teaching and learning in this open digital school, using Web 2.0 tools, is an exciting challenge, but at the same time very demanding. Attractive, because the diversity of digital technologies, allow teachers and students to create and share contentand demanding, because it implies the permanent enhancement of teachers skills in the area of technolog

Microblogging on Twitter: Social networking in intermediate Italian classes

Second language acquisition (SLA) research has explored the significance of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in educational models for second language (L2) pedagogy. Recently, the proliferation of Web 2.0 technologies has become the focus of many teachers and researchers who study the impact of Web 2.0 innovations on L2 teaching and learning. The majority of students enrolled in language courses in postsecondary institutions, too, are “digital natives”—a generation of “‘native speakers’ of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet”(Prensky, 2001, p. 1)—who desire obtaining information in new ways. Web 2.0 provides the core for an internet experience that is focused on the user: its principles and practices foster active participation that, in turn, harnesses a collective intelligence (O’Reilly, 2005). This interactive and dynamic nature of the web creates new opportunities for language teaching and learning because of four key features: it is participatory, authentic, immediate, and it engages the community. These characteristics parallel those of the L2 acquisition process and make Web 2.0 a promising language-learning tool (for numerous examples of how technology can be best employed in the L2 curriculum to enhance and enrich the learner’s contact with the L2, see Blake, 2008)