Arif Altun

İlköğretim öğrencilerinin bilgisayar deneyimleri ile uzamsal düşünme ve geometri başarıları arasındaki ilişki

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among elementary school students’computer experience, computer ownership and their achievement in geometry. Assesed were 297 fourth and fifthgrade students from four different school sites. Results showed that students who have computer at home andhave an earlier computer experience scored higher in geometry test than those who do not have computers andwho do not have any earlier computer experience respectively. Results also showed that the difference is gettingwider. It was concluded that measures should be taken to increase computer access in schools located in poorersocio-economic areas to decrease the social disequity.

A comparison of paper-and-pencil and computerized forms of Line Orientation and Enhanced Cued Recall Tests.

The purpose of this study was to assess whether a computerized battery of neuropsychological tests could produce similar results as the conventional forms. Comparisons on 77 volunteer undergraduates were carried out with two neuropsychological tests: Line Orientation Test and Enhanced Cued Recall Test. Firstly, students were assigned randomly across the test medium (paper-and-pencil versus computerized). Secondly, the groups were given the same test in the other medium after a 30-day interval between tests. Results showed that the Enhanced Cued Recall Test–Computer-based did not correlate with the Enhanced Cued Recall Test-Paper-and-pencil results. Line Orientation Test–Computer-based scores, on the other hand, did correlate significantly with the Line Orientation Test–Paper-and-pencil version. In both tests, scores were higher on paper-and-pencil tests compared to computer-based tests. Total score difference between modalities was statistically significant for both Enhanced Cued Recall Tests and for the Line Orientation Test. In both computer-based tests, it took less time for participants to complete the tests.

The effect of multimedia design types on learners' recall performances with varying short term memory spans

In this study, the effect of multimedia learning environment designed with two different attention types (focused — split) was investigated on recall performances of learners with different short term memory spans (high — medium — low). The participants were 60 undergraduate students who were presented with either focused attention or split attention multimedia learning materials. First, participants’ short term memory spans were determined by Visual — Aural Digit Span Test-Revised (VADS-B) test. Second, they were separated to three groups as high, medium and low. In 3 × 2 nested ANOVA design, one of the groups studied the multimedia designed in split attention type whereas the other had focused attention type design. As they finished the study task, they were given a recall task, which produced their recall performances. Data were analyzed by Nested ANOVA, t-Test and ANCOVA tests. The findings indicated that multimedia instructional designs were effective on recall performances. Learners showed higher recall performances in the multimedia learning environment in focused attention design. However, no significant difference was observed in learners’ recall performances when their STM spans were taken into account. Significant differences were observed between time spent in studying multimedia.

A Learner Model for Learning Object Based Personalized Learning Environments

A personalized learning experience is possible with the use of learner models in intelligent tutoring systems, adaptive educational hypermedia systems and semantic web based learning environments. Although there are standards to overcome complexities or lack of fulfilling user needs (such as, IEEE or IMS), these models are either too generic or too complex to handle. In addition, there are various alternative learner or user models in the literature. Yet, these models do not address how to model learning object (LO) based instructional systems. Therefore, in this paper, an ontology based learner model is proposed for e-learning systems which use instructional learning objects.

Development and Evaluation of an Ontology Based Navigation Tool with Learning Objects for Educational Purposes

Learning objects offer a new content design methodology for instructional designers in developing and utilizing e-learning environments. These learning objects are usually tagged and stored in repositories in a taxonomic way and mostly accompanied by key-based searching capability. Since those repositories do not have complicated reasoning and inference capabilities, access to and integration of them into an existing course package create a problem for e-learning instructors and learners. These problems will be able to be fixed by integration of semantic web technologies, and current learning object repositories could better be utilized by developing ontology-based learning object retrieval tools. In this chapter, the development and evaluation of an ontology-based learning object navigation and retrieval tool (OBELON) is presented. As part of an evaluation process, OBELON was compared with a taxonomy-based learning object retrieval system by using two information retrieval parameters: precision and recall. The findings indicated that ontology-based system produced more precise and high recall scores.

How Teachers and Students Depict Interactive Whiteboards and Tablet PCs in a 9th Grade Classroom

This paper describes a pilot project with the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of tablet PCs and interactive/smart whiteboard for 9th grade students and their teachers. The pilot study was designed to explore students’ and teachers’ perceived effectiveness of using tablet PCs and interactive/smart whiteboards. The participants included a total of 136 teachers from various state funded schools and 732 9th grade students, who were provided with tablet PCs and interactive/smart whiteboards and were trained in their use. A survey was distributed to the participants at the end of the semester. This paper describes the pilot project and the survey results. We observed that (a) teachers think that interactive/smart whiteboard would have more impact whereas students consider tablet PCs would have more, and (b) students are more anxious about using tablet PCs and interactive whiteboards during instructional processes than teachers.

Investigating Students' Interaction Profile in an Online Learning Environment with Clustering

The aim of this study is to identify clusters of students who interact with an online learning environment in similar ways. The study included analyzing three-month interaction data from 74 undergraduates in the online learning environment using the Self Organizing Map (SOM) clustering method. The results of analysis revealed the existence of three distinct groups of students, labeled by their interaction (non-active, active, very active) and course success (low learning, medium learning, high learning). These are the preliminary results of the study and the cluster data which was obtained here is intended to be used in further studies for classifying new students or adaptation and personalization purposes.

Development and Evaluation of a Case-Based Digital Learning Tool about Children's Mathematical Thinking for Elementary School Teachers (L-TEST).

It is important for teachers of mathematics to know how pupils react to certain mathematical situations and what these reactions imply, in order to design more effective instructional environments based on their learning needs. This study reports the development processes of a digital learning tool (Learning Tool for Elementary School Teachers (L‐TEST)) that shows childrens mathematical thinking for the ages of 4–11 years across certain problem situations. L‐TEST is designed as a support tool to be used in teacher education. A case‐based instructional model was used in designing the instructional tool. Video recordings were digitised to provide a rich environment where learners observe exemplary cases. These exemplified videos included childrens mathematical development in the subjects of numbers and shapes, combined with discussions in line with the current research findings. Finally, a usability test for the learning tool was carried out.

A Cross Cultural Perspective on Information Communication Technologies Learning Survey

Information behavior has been at the core of researchers’ interest for a long time. According to researches attention in the field of information research has shifted over the years from a dominant interest in the use of channels and sources to an emphasis on the encountering and seeking of information and the interpretation of meaning from that information. However, measuring this disposition to seek and its related skills is a challenge. In this study, the Information Seeking StrategiesScale was adapted to the Turkish language. The results indicated that (a) the scale could be used in Turkish settings by removing two items, (b) ICT tools are employed for information seeking rather than information sharing by Turkish college students who participated in this study, and (c) no gender or grade differences were observed. Further recommendations are discussed.

Temel Sayı Yeterliklerindeki Eksiklikler İlköğretim Öğrencilerinde Düşük Matematik Başarısına Neden Olabilir

There are two hypotheses about why individuals have mathematics learning difficulties (MLD). The core deficit hypothesis claims that disorders in number module which was designated for processing quantities either at approximate or exact levels cause learning difficulties in mathematics. The access deficit hypothesis on the other hand posits that the reason behind MLD is not deficits in processing quantities but deficits in connecting quantities to symbols or vice versa. To test these two hypotheses, we designed dot enumeration, symbolic number comparison, and mental number line tasks. Participants were 487 students from 1st to 4th grades selected from 12 different schools in a mid-Anatolian, large metropolitan city in Turkey. Students were given a curriculum based arithmetic achievement test and they were divided into four groups as MLD risk, low achieving, typical achieving, and high achieving based on the achievement test scores. Results showed that there were large significant differences both among groups and grades. The largest difference was observed in canonic dot counting tasks from first through fourth grade. While Arabic number comparison tasks were important at first and second grade, MNL tasks became more important at the third and fourth grade. We conclude that the results provided evidence for both core deficit hypothesis and access deficit hypothesis. Numerical efficiency changes very little from first to fourth grade. Future research should consider testing for unique contributions of exact and approximate number systems and access to symbols as well as mapping their neural correlates.