University Students' Web 2.0 Technologies Usage, Skill Levels and Educational Usage

This study aims to find out university students' use of Web 2.0 technologies in terms of frequencies, skill levels and educational use and to understand whether or not these variables differ for gender, foreign language levels, computer ownership and the Internet connection duration. Accessible population of this study is the entire Dokuz Eylul University students. In the sample, the researchers collected data from 2776 university students of the university. In the context of the study, blog, wiki, podcast, video sharing sites, instant messaging services and social networking sites were determined as Web 2.0 technologies. The data were collected through a survey including questions related to both students' general characteristics and their Web 2.0 technologies usage frequencies, skill levels and educational use situation. In the data analysis, both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Finally, this study revealed that university students preferred to use instant messaging services and social networking sites than blog, wiki, podcast and video sharing sites and their skill levels is also higher for instant messaging services and social networking sites. In addition, it is indicated that Web 2.0 technologies usage frequencies, skill levels and educational use differs for gender, foreign language level, computer ownership and internet connection duration.