Web 2.0

Knowledge and Use by a Select Group of Teacher-Librarians in Jamaica

Abstract

The innovation of Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, podcast, and social networks has provided librarians with added instructional tools. The researcher set out to find out the knowledge and use of these tools by a select group of teacher librarians. The research objectives that guided the study were to: find out how knowledgeable a select group of Jamaican teacher librarians are about five Web 2.0 tools; establish the level of use of Web 2.0 tools by these librarians; and to find out the barriers and issues, if any, that have affected implementation of Web 2.0 as an educational tool. The findings show that all of these teacher librarians know about the Web 2.0 tool but not in-depth. Their lack of in-depth knowledge as well as lack of computers and Internet connections, and school policy that bans social networks in their schools among other things have prevented all of them from using these tools.