Web 2.0 in higher education: Difference in usage and perception between Kazakh and Kyrgyz students

The use of Web 2.0 technologies such as social media and user-generated content and their educational prospective attract the attention of many researchers. The results of the vast majority of these studies suggest that the use of social networks in the educational process can be helpful in increasing the quality of education and making it accessible to more students. In order to clarify the students’ opinions, a survey was conducted among students from various majors at leading universities in two Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The main objective of the study was to determine factors affecting students’ attitudes toward the usage of Web 2.0 technologies for educational purposes, as well as to examine the difference in the perceptions of Kyrgyz and Kazakh students. As the survey results show, social networks and online resources with user-generated content are gaining more and more importance for students. However, this popularity is not always related to education; the goals of using social networks are mostly for communication and entertainment. The use of social networks in education today is possible as an auxiliary means of conducting lessons. Students rather take the initiative and use social networks as a means of exchanging information on the tasks they perform, as a platform for discussing the topics studied, and the projects being implemented, but not as a dedicated system for education. Despite the similarity in the use of information technologies (and social networks) for educational purposes, in Kazakhstan, students begin to use the Internet specifically for education earlier than Kyrgyz students. Also, students from Kazakhstan more often use platforms in the national language.