Competence and usage of Web 2.0 technologies by higher education faculty

Literature on Web 2.0 experiences of higher education faculty in developing countries such as Pakistan is very limited. An insight on awareness and practices of higher education faculty with these tools can be helpful to map strategies and plan of action for adopting latest technologies to support teaching–learning processes in higher education of such countries. This survey study was aimed to examine the competence and practices of higher education faculty in Pakistan with Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, Wikis, Google Docs, Skype, Flickr, YouTube, and social networks. The study was also focused to look for what type of role faculty play while using these tools; and to find whether any significant differences in terms of age, gender, or academic discipline exist in competence and usage of these tools by the faculty. The data were collected from a sample of 246 university teachers in the spring 2014 semester. The findings of the study indicated that faculty participants reported to use Web 2.0 social tools more frequently than instrumental tools. Similarly, their competence with social tools was higher than their competence with instrumental tools. Additional results indicated that their competence with Web2.0 tools significantly differed with respect to their age, gender, and academic disciplines.