Abstract:

Web technologies are used everywhere from daily life to space research. Nowadays, there is a great amount of educational and training systems, which provide different functionality according to specific administrative, pedagogical and technological applications. Authoring tools, content repositories, evaluation and assessment tools, curriculum design and collaborative tools are some pieces of this educational “puzzle”. The growth of web-based applications has made the web an important educational medium (Siau, Nah, & Teng, 2002). Notably, with the creation of emerging web technologies such as blogs, wikis, instant messengers (IM), social bookmarks, podcasts and vodcasts, the web is transforming into a fully interactive space and the control of content has been decentralized to allow every one to collaborate, create, publish, subscribe, and share information (Asmus, Bonner, Esterhay, Lechner, & Rentfrow, 2005). The adoption level of emerging web technologies is on the rise in academic settings (Long, 2006; Pulichino, 2006) and therefore it would be of real value to describe the significant impingement of web technologies in education. This is a study is carried out to find in what way or manner web technologies are affecting students achievement and understanding of the concepts in Physics. The data for this study was collected from a sample of adolescent students. The sample selected was of 17 to 18 years of age group. This study was carried out among the engineering students of Kerala, India as they were more exposed to web technologies as a part of their curriculum. For data collection, action research in the form of an experiment was conducted. A pre-test post test design was used. Besides, a pre-tested questionnaire was also used to collect the feedback of students regarding the use of web technologies and the impact of these in their learning process. The analysis of the result was done using suitable statistical techniques. The analysis of the result of this study showed that the web based technologies are preferred by majority of students as a part of teaching learning process in and out the classroom due to the flexibility and self-pacing nature, and the nonchalance in understanding the concepts.

Keywords:

Web application, Apps, Physics.