Using Web 2.0 Tools to Enhance Learning in Higher ...

1 Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists 2012 Vol II, IMECS 2012, March 14 - 16, 2012, Hong Kong Using Web Tools to Enhance Learning in Higher Education: A Case Study in Technological Education Chi-Un Lei, Tomas Krilavi cius, Nan Zhang, Kaiyu Wan and Ka Lok Man Abstract Pedagogy with Web technologies is shown to facilitate the teaching- Learning process through content sharing and idea collaboration. In this paper, we explore the possibility of Using social networking Tools , to support teaching practice in technological courses. In our study, we utilized i) Facebook Page as a platform to share content, experiences and news of a general engineering course, and ii) blog as a collaborative writing tool to express thoughts and opinions in a common core (general education) course.

2 After our one-semester (three- months) study, we found that Facebook Page is an easy-to- use and familiar tool for students to share and exchange ideas among classmates, peers and public. Index Terms Information technology in education, general education, Facebook, social media network, blog, technological education, Higher education Fig. 1. Sample view of the course FB Page for ENGG1015. I. I NTRODUCTION. W Ith recent advances in information technologies, an emerging mode of abstraction known as the Web has begun to change the paradigm of Higher educa- Tools . Section II describes the study of Using a social networking tool (Facebook (FB) Page [16]) for teacher- student communication in a general engineering course.

3 Tion [1] [3]. Web can be defined as the social use of Meanwhile, Section III describes the study of Using blog the Web which allows people to collaborate, to get actively (Blogger [17]) for collaborative writing in a technological involved in creating content, to generate knowledge and to common core (general education) course. share information on line [4]. Web development is shown to improve teaching and Learning , and encourage stu- II. S OCIAL N ETWORKING T OOLS FOR COMMUNICATIONS. dent's participation and collaboration. Different techniques, IN A GENERAL ENGINEERING COURSE. such as blog [5], [6], wiki [6] and other social networking Tools [7] [10], have been adopted in teaching practices.

4 In Introduction to Electrical and Electronic Engineering our tertiary institution, we have also designed new curricu- (ENGG1015) is a general engineering course first offered lum [11] [13] and adopted information technologies [14], in 2010 by the Department of Electrical and Electronic [15] to facilitate the process of teaching and Learning . In Engineering [18]. Besides introducing to students the world particular, in the Department of Electrical and Electronic of electrical and electronic engineering through twelve-weeks Engineering, we have adopted various Web technologies, lectures, it also includes a design-based project to develop for knowledge advacement and dissemination.

5 Student's indispensable skills as an engineer. In this paper, we give an evidence-supported discussion Based on the survey result from the pilot study, we decided about the effectiveness of technological teaching Using Web to improve teacher-student communications within the class. Therefore, we adopted a social networking tool FB Page as a Manuscript received January 11, 2012. complementary tool to announce course news, share course Lei is with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Email: materials and stimulate students' (informal) discussions.

6 A. T. Krilavi cius is with Vytautas Magnus University and Baltic Institute of sample view of the constructed FB Page is shown in Fig. 1. Advanced Technology, Lithuania. Email: N. Zhang and K. Wan are with the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China. Email: A. Facebook Page and its application in education Man is with Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China, Myongji FB Page is a public FB profile that enables people to University, South Korea and Baltic Institute of Advanced Technology, share their belief or interest. FB Pages are integrated with FB.

7 Lithuania. Email: The research work presented in this paper is partially sponsored by system, but also can be viewed by both FB's users and public. SOLARI (HK) CO ( ) and KATRI ( and Page owners, group members and public can distribute ). It is also partially supported by HKU Strategic Research their news/opinions and share materials publicly through the Theme on Sciences of Learning , Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (Project Number BK2011351) and the project VIZIT-1- News Wall , (mobile) FB system, microblogging Tools ( . TYR-003 ( ), Research Council of Lithuania. Twitter) and free-access RSS feed.

8 Meanwhile, organizers ISBN: 978-988-19251-9-0 IMECS 2012. ISSN: 2078-0958 (Print); ISSN: 2078-0966 (Online). Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists 2012 Vol II, IMECS 2012, March 14 - 16, 2012, Hong Kong TABLE I. can also analyze the traffic flow of the Page through in- FACEBOOK PAGE USAGE STATISTICS . built Tools . Furthermore, FB Pages allows customization by adding new Tabs Using static FBML applications. This Item Total number feature can bring additional functionality to the Page such as Post views 44,208. e-mail collections, specialized contents, or landing pages for Post feedback 4,495.

9 Activities. Likes 6,428. Comments 269. Due to the dedicated features of FB Pages, there are some Photos 110. advantages of Using FB Page in teaching: Videos 31. It acts as a friendly, interactive and less formal channel of communication with instructors/teaching assistants and classmates, since students use FB in everyday life. In the questionnaire, we have posed Likert-type statements It provides a prompt and convenient channel for com- related to teacher-student communications. Table II shows munication, giving feedback and raising questions. It the score distribution and the mean score that we have is also convenient and free to share videos, photos obtained on each of the statements.

10 As can be seen, students and teaching materials Using FB Page. It is considered agree that that FB Page facilitates teacher-student/student- useful for seeking prompt help, news announcement and student communication, in particular, they feel comfortable resource sharing. and open to use FB Page for communications. Such environ- It automatically generates a free-access RSS feed, which ment facilities collaborations. can be seamlessly imported into Internet news aggrega- 3) Student comments: Besides quantitative data, we also tors for news distribution to students. collected open-ended feedback. Overall, responses were pos- It can be customized for diverse teaching purposes.