Hale Ilgaz

A Qualitative Case Study of Tablet Use in a High School in Turkey

Within the scope of FATIH project, tablet PCs have been distributed to teachers and students starting with pilot schools. The purpose of this study is to understand students’, teachers’, and administrators’ first-hand experiences on using tablet PCs at their schools from a qualitative paradigm. A total of 101 students, 13 teachers, and 4 administrators participated in this study. Data were gathered through interview forms. Three different interview forms, which contained 12 open-ended questions for students, 10 questions for teachers, and 8 questions for administrators are prepared. Participants were asked to fill the interview forms. Data analyzed by descriptive and content analysis. It was found that students preferred tablet use for entertainment, communication, and educational purposes. Teachers had doubts about the educational benefits of tablet PCs. Administrators faced mainly the technical problems. One reason of this result may be attributed to introducing two novelties (interactive boards and tablet PCs) at the same time. Second, when teachers and students made comments about their experiences, they mainly compared tablet PCs with interactive whiteboards. These experiences might lead us to conclude that if you put two novelties together into the system at the same time, it is possible that one will fall under the shadow of another and will be preferred more than the other. Thus, it can be suggested that in order to have successful ICT integration, novelties can be introduced into the system one by one but aligned with each other, and with the curriculum.

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.

Participation in Online Discussion Environments: Is It Really Effective?.

This study aimed to develop a rubric to assess participation of students in online discussion environments. For this purpose, the study included 168 students who participated in a course offered online during the spring semester of the 2015–2016 academic year. Developed based on the literature, the rubric consists of two parts (Form and Content, and Number and Density) and seven criteria in total. “Form and Content” consists of congruity of the message in terms of subject, clarity of the message, original value of the message, interactional value of the message, and directing the subject; whereas, “Number and Density” consists of the number of messages and their density. Four different discussion subjects were presented to the students in an online discussion environment. The researchers analyzed the students’ messages individually. Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed in order to obtain evidence for construct validity. After conducting the factor analysis, results showed that the first dimension, which is “form and content” sub-factor, is unidimensional. The “number and density” sub-factor was included in the graded scoring key based on the literature and expert opinion. The findings show that the graded scoring key is reliable and valid.