Abstract
General education classes involve extensive course readings. College instructors have a limited time to cover every detail of the materials students are supposed to learn in class; thus, they expect students to learn through course readings. However, many college students demonstrate a low level of engagement in course reading tasks. Existing research has reported that most college students do not complete their assigned readings or they only engage in shallow levels of reading such as skimming and literal comprehension. Despite this negative phenomenon in college, a lack of research has been conducted to promote reading engagement in college classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to provide college instructors with practical guidance on using Web 2.0 tools to enhance student engagement in this task. According to self-determination theory (SDT), Web 2.0 tools share several engagement-enhancing factors. The paper discusses the potential of Web 2.0 technology to engage students by aligning with SDT. Based on the potential of Web 2.0, the paper suggests practical ways of using different Web 2.0 tools (i.e., GoogleDocs, Blog, Twitter, and Facebook) to promote reading engagement in a college classroom.
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Park, S.W. The Potential of Web 2.0 Tools to Promote Reading Engagement in a General Education Course. TECHTRENDS TECH TRENDS 57, 46–53 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-013-0645-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-013-0645-1