6.4 Use of Web 2.0 Technologies for TAL Purposes
6.4.2 Frequency of Web 2.0 Technologies Utilization for TAL Purposes
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Ogunlade (2012) and Salaam (2003) also substantiates the argument that students do not have as much access to the internet service as the staff in Nigerian Universities.
Web 2.0 technologies have enormous potential to enhance the TAL experience. However, several issues in the Nigerian universities seem to affect usage of some of these technologies (that is, Skype, Wiki-how, LinkedIn, RSS Feeds, podcasts/webcasts/vodcasts, My Space and Badoo, Social Bookmarking, Teacher Tube, Flickr and Bebo) for TAL purposes. The issues affecting usage of Web 2.0 include (among others) lack of funding, exposure, technical support, institutional policies, inadequate internet facilities and bandwidths problems (Wright, Dhanarajan and Reju 2009; Sulaiman, Embi and Hamat 2011; Emmanuel, Ebiere and Vera 2013; and Mohamad, Salleh, and Salam 2015). The problem affecting Web 2.0 access in public universities seems to be a “non-issue” in private universities where Salaam and Adegbore (2010) found that internet facilities are available without restriction. Fasae and Aladeniyi (2012) are also of the view that a number of universities in Nigeria are taking significant steps to improve information and communication policies and consequently that this will have positive impact on the uptake of Web 2.0 for TAL purposes.
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tools that had been reported in the results presented (see Section 6.3). This finding may suggest that these technologies were not accepted or recognized as teaching tools by the academics.
However, Instant messaging, Wikipedia, WhatsApp, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook were identified as being frequently used for teaching purposes by up to 21% of the academics.
Further findings showed that only 13.4% and 11.3% of academics occasionally used Skype for teaching purposes. It can therefore be inferred from the findings that the few academics who used Web 2.0 technologies frequently used only tools such as Instant messaging, Wikipedia, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Facebook.
The findings of Ajjan and Hartshorne‟s (2008) in the context of Florida State in the United States revealed low faculty intention to adopt Web 2.0 technologies for teaching purposes. The study found that 55%, 62.2%, 74% and 80% of academics had never used wikis, blogs social networking and Social Bookmarking respectively; neither did they plan to use them in the near future. In addition, only 19.6%, 9%, 6% and 4% of academics occasionally used wikis, blogs, social networking and Social Bookmarking respectively to supplement their in-class lectures.
However, Ajjan and Hartshorne‟s findings may not be consistent with recent studies on the use of Web 2.0 because these facts were reported when the use of these tools were just starting to gain ground. Dansarki, Ayub and Kadir (2015) in this regard averred that there is advancement in the use of new and emerging technologies such as the Web 2.0 for TAL in classrooms, in developed countries. Although the overall findings of the current study indicated that academics had not frequently used Web 2.0 technologies for the purpose of teaching, academics are gradually becoming familiar with these tools.
On the other hand, findings on students‟ frequency of use of Web 2.0 technologies for learning purposes revealed that WhatsApp, Facebook and Wikipedia were the tools that were very frequently or frequently used by 38% to 49% respectively of the students for learning purposes.
In addition, it was revealed that a population of students of between 20% and 35% used YouTube, Instant messaging, blogs, Skype and 2go occasionally or rarely for learning purposes. The current finding corresponds with that of Guarino, Leopardi, Sorrenti, De Antoni, Catania and Alagaratnam (2014) whose study compared the preferences of medical students‟
use of internet-based methods with the traditional TAL method using an online questionnaire.
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The study found that Wikipedia was one of the most frequently used website by students to gain information on their learning activities.
Similarly, Demirbilek (2015) employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the use of wikis and Facebook for providing peer feedback on students‟
instructional material and projects in Turkey. The study found that students used wiki and Facebook more frequently as these aided the peer feedback process. WhatsApp also as a social networking tool has in recent times gained much popularity among students and academics and is generally used by members of the community for communication purposes. The current finding revealed WhatsApp as one of the main and frequently used Web 2.0 technologies for learning purposes. This result is consistent with the findings from Yeboah and Ewur (2014) which revealed a high level of WhatsApp usage and other social networking tools among students in tertiary institutions in Ghana. However, the study found that the use of WhatsApp had negative impact on the students‟ academic performances. Similarly, Lam (2015) studied students‟ experiences in collaborative learning using social media tools in a blended learning course, which referred to a course that involved the use of both traditional and web-based methods of learning. Lam (2015) found that students used WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook to engage in learning activities. These tools were further found to have helped the students in sharing, transferring and creating knowledge among their peers in either asynchronous or synchronous communication modes. Thus it can be deduced that WhatsApp, as with some other Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, Instant messaging, 2go, blogs and Skype possesses features that can facilitate learning and can therefore be beneficial to the learning environment.
The finding in the current study further revealed that most students (84.3%) had never or not used the following Web 2.0 technologies within the last three months: Bebo, TeacherTube, E- portfolio, Flickr, Social Bookmarking and Badoo for learning purposes. The finding is not surprising as low awareness and use of these tools for general activities had been reported in the results presented (See Section 6.3). This finding is consistent with Hartshorne and Ajjan‟s (2009) study that found a good number of students did not use Social Bookmarking and blogs (71% and 56% respectively) in the educational context, but rather preferred them for social activities. Echeng and Uroso (2014) also found very low weekly use of Web 2.0 for learning purposes by students in Nigeria. The current study found that students did not use some Web
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2.0 technologies which included Bebo, TeacherTube, E-portfolio, Flickr, Social Bookmarking and Badoo for various reasons including lack of awareness and skills. The findings also revealed that a majority of students (up to 98%) had never used Bebo, TeacherTube, E- portfolio, Flickr, Social bookmarking and Badoo for TAL purposes. This finding may suggest that these tools were not accepted or recognized as learning tools by the students.
The results on the use of YouTube and Instant messaging for learning purposes among the students were very low and occasional (used between three to five times in three months).
However, the use of Skype and Moodle for teaching purposes and Skype and 2go for learning purposes in the universities was found to be sporadic. This result affirms the supposition of Anunobi and Ogbonna (2012) and that of Echeng, Usoro and Majewski (2013) that Nigerians are not acquainted with using Web 2.0 technologies for TAL purposes. Similarly, Lwoga (2012) explained that the adoption and use of Web 2.0 for TAL purposes is still generally very low in African universities; except for countries such as South Africa. Okonedo, Azubuike and Adeyoyin (2013) in a study on the frequency of use of Web 2.0 technologies found that among the Web 2.0 technologies, Instant messaging and Wikis were frequently used while webcasts and podcasts were reported to be used on a monthly basis. The results suggest the need to create awareness and promote the use of other Web 2.0 technologies for TAL purposes in Nigeria universities.
Although the current study revealed a higher frequency of use of Web 2.0 by students for learning purposes than by academics for teaching purposes; there was frequency of use of specific Web 2.0 technologies by academics and students respectively. For instance, it was revealed that about 37% of students had used “2go” for learning purposes while about 92% of academics had never or not used it for three months for teaching purposes. Yet, it was interesting to find that about 31% of academics had used “LinkedIn” for teaching purposes either once or more times while only 24% of students used it during the same period for learning purposes. This result corroborates the finding on low use of Web 2.0 technologies for teaching than for learning purposes in the surveyed universities (see results presented in Section 6.4.1). Similarly, a high and significant use of YouTube and LinkedIn for teaching purposes was noted, though among very few of the academics (up to 18%). However, the 18%
of academics who used YouTube did so very frequently.
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Correspondingly, it was discovered from the qualitative findings of this study (see Section 5.4.2) that the use of Web 2.0 technologies had improved significantly within the last 5-6 years of their use within the university community in the two universities surveyed. Findings also revealed that Web 2.0 technologies such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, blogs and Google+ were the ones popularly used for TAL purposes. The general use of the common Web 2.0 technologies may be attributed to easy access through mobile phones, tablets, laptop and any other portable devices connected to the internet.