Exploring pre-service teachers’ beliefs about using Web 2.0 technologies in K-12 classroom Ayesha Sadaf * , Timothy J. Newby, Peggy A. Ertmer Purdue University, 3120 Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education,100 N. University St., West Lafayette, IN 47907-2098, United States article info Article history: Received 15 October 2011 Received in revised form 21 March 2012 Accepted 3 April 2012 Keywords: Pre-service teacher education Beliefs and intentions Web 2.0 Technology integration Teacher technology use abstract This qualitative study explored pre-service teachers’ behavioral, normative, and control beliefs regarding their intentions to use Web 2.0 technologies in their future classrooms. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used as the theoretical framework (Ajzen, 1991) to understand these beliefs and pre-service teachers’ intentions for why they want to use Web 2.0 technologies. According to Ajzen’s TPB, the behavioral beliefs are based on attitude toward outcomes or consequences of using Web 2.0, the normative beliefs depend on social support and social pressure to use Web 2.0, and the control beliefs lay the foundation of perceived behavioral control over using Web 2.0 in a classroom. Data were collected from open-ended survey questions (n ¼ 190), semi-structured interviews (n ¼ 12) and end of semester reflections (n ¼ 12). Findings suggest that pre-service teachers’ intentions to use Web 2.0 technologies are related to their beliefs about the value of these technologies for improving student learning and engagement, its ease of use (behavioral beliefs), its ability to meet the needs/expectations of digital age students (normative beliefs), the participants’ high self-efficacy in use, and its potential for affording students anytime/anywhere access to learning and interaction (control beliefs). From these results, we recommend that teacher educators should target these beliefs within teacher development programs to prepare pre-service teachers for successful use of Web 2.0 technologies in their future K-12 classrooms. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction The role of Web 2.0 technologies in education is becoming increasingly prominent, both because of their potential to effectively enhance teaching and learning and because of the need for individuals to develop 21st century skills to succeed in today’s information society (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2010; Shihab, 2008). One major motivation to use Web 2.0 in education is that many of these tools are already familiar to K-12 students as they are already being used outside the classroom for a wide variety of social networking and communication purposes (Project Tomorrow, 2010). Thus, teachers’ classroom uses of Web 2.0 tools can build upon students’ existing levels of comfort as well as their growingexpertise. In addition, Web 2.0 tools are generally inexpensive or free to use, easy to learn, and require few other curricular changes for teachers to implement within the classroom (Butler, 2012). Although there are numerous definitions of Web 2.0, for the purposes of this paper, we adopt Butler’s (2012) definition: “a wide array of web-based applications which allow users to collaboratively build content and communicate with others across the world.” (p. 139) Some of the most commonly used Web 2.0 technologies include blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, and social networking sites. Within education, such technologies have proven beneficial in providing means for the seamless transfer of information, active class member engagement and interaction, and as platforms for both individualized and collaborative learning and co-creation of knowledge (Bower, 2012; Greenhow, Robelia, & Hughes, 2009; Hartshorne & Ajjan, 2009; Shihab, 2008). Moreover, these emerging technologies can help students become engaged learners and active contributors to the learning process (Shihab, 2008). Despite the fact that Web 2.0 technologies support social and active learning, researchers suggest that teachers must act as discourse mediators (Ullrich et al., 2008). According to Nelson, Christopher, and Mims (2009), 21st century teachers must have sufficient digital technology skills and pedagogical knowledge in order to take advantage of these toolsdthat is, to be able to create socially active learning environments that encourage cooperative interaction and collaborative learning. For this reason, the International Society for Technology in * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 765 496 3020; fax: þ1 765 496 1622. E-mail address: asadaf@purdue.edu (A. Sadaf). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Computers & Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu 0360-1315/$ – see front matter Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2012.04.001 Computers & Education 59 (2012) 937–945