Exploring the Awareness and Use of Web 2.0 Tools by the First Year Information Science Students, Walailak University, Thailand

Abstract

Abstract—The purpose of this paper was to explore the awareness and use of Web 2.0 tools by the first year Information Science (IS) students at Walailak University (WU), Thailand. The first year IS students at WU, who enrolled an Information Literacy course in the first semester, 2013 academic year, were identified as the population of this study. Two hundred and six undergraduates completed a questionnaire of this study. The results, therefore, showed that the first year IS students of WU were quite familiar with some of Web 2.0 tools, such as YouTube, Blogs, Wikis, Instant messaging and Social Networking sites comparing to other Web 2.0 tools, such as RSS feeds, Flickr, and Podcast. Walailak University should take advantage of Web 2.0 technologies to enhance learning of the Net generation or digital natives. Based on these findings, the study recommended the integrating a unit of Web 2.0 tools in curricula, providing a unit of Web 2.0 tools in Print and incorporating a unit of Web 2.0 tools in Social Network to improve the Information Science student skills for future information professionals.